How not to be eaten alive

Having said that I'll not be using a tent but a tarp (or what I call a "less than a tent"), I've been asked about what happens when I get to Scotland and encounter the infamous Scottish midges, the sort that can see and smell you from miles away and swoop in to feast. Well, I'd thought about that and below is a photo of the bug nest that attaches to the tarp which will hopefully keep me intact.

I'll have it sent on to me as I approach Scotland.

Donations to my charity, MS Research and Relief Fund are coming in well. People are so generous. I'm now over half way to my target. Thank you to everyone who's supported me so far.

LEJOG kit list update

A few changes have been made. First, I'm not taking the tent. Instead, I'll take my tarp with a bivi bag.


I was seduced by the net weight saving of 1.75lb. I've resealed the seams, as I was being dripped on during a recent rainy trip so now it's good as new. I've bought a pair of Pacerpoles, having been persuaded by good reports of them by others. I've had a pair of Leki poles for a while but one has seized up so that it's only any good as a tarp support.
The main tasks now before I go are:
1. Final check of the route. In particular, I want to make sure that I pass a food shop not less than every three days where possible. This will be mainly to buy food for lunches.
2. Identify places for resupply parcels to be posted to. This will be food (breakfasts and evening meals) and map sheets. No more than a week between these, sometimes less.
3. Assemble resupply parcels.
4. Print out maps.
5. Activate the Pocketmail for mobile blogging.
For anyone new to these pages, a Pocketmail is rather old technology and is a portable email device. It can send and receive text only messages. I shall post to this blog with it. It's supposed to work with any 'phone but I've never been able to get it to work with a mobile 'phone. Therefore, I have to find either a payphone or a landline. This isn't a problem. I'll activate it for the minimum period of three months. It's a bit clunky, weighing over eight ounces but the obvious alternative is a mobile 'phone that sends emails but I don't want to incur the cost of this (outright purchase or contract) and I find that getting a signal with a mobile 'phone is very hit or miss. I shall have a 'phone with me but it's only a very basic one.
The Pocketmail doesn't need regular charging either. It uses two AA batteries and a coin cell backup battery. All batteries last for ages. I bought the device on Ebay just before my Coast to Coast walk in September 2008 and used it daily for two weeks. The same batteries are in it now. I shall take spares. The coin cell battery is an unusual one and quite hard to find.

The food is now all ready to be parcelled up. Here is a rather bad photograph of some of it.

LEJOG kit list

Well, that's the kit list just about sorted - the link to it is under the route map. I think 9,035 grams isn't too bad although I'll try to shave it down.

Do I take an umbrella? This can be useful when it's raining but it's too warm to wear a waterproof and when it's the right type of rain, i.e. not windy and the rain coming straight down, especially when going up hills.

The battery shaver is a luxury but it may get left behind. It's very small but it still adds to the weight. I like to think that if I turn up at the occasional B&B I won't look like a tramp (apologies to those readers who generally sport a beard)!

I may take at least one walking pole. I don't normally use them whilst walking so one would be useful if there are any streams to cross or rabid dogs to fend off.

Backpackers Northants weekend

The snow was bad here at home so I didn't get away on Friday evening. However, Saturday morning wasn't too bad. Hit a patch of black ice in Banbury but survived. Arrived at the rendezvous at Grendon bang on time. There were about nine of us although a few others joined up at various times. Plenty of snow around and the walk took us through virgin snow territory. It was a lovely day, really cold but a clear blue sky and the sun shone most of the day, making it seem a little warmer than it was.

We must have walked about fifteen miles. The snow made it quite hard work but it was a good day. We arrived at our destination, Yelden, about 4 o'clock. Our pitch was behind the pub in the village. We cleared patches of snow away to get the tents up - a new experience for me but essentially not much different to camping without snow.

A quick meal cooked on the stove and then into the pub for a while, followed by an early night.

Next morning we ascertained that the temperature overnight was minus 9.3°C which is pretty cold!

The walk back to Grendon followed some of yesterday's route but with a detour to Podington where the garden centre cafe supplied a bacon baguette and coffee.

I really liked the sight of this belt of birch trees.

And then this lady sitting on a bench. She probably won't be there long.

JustGiving.com

I've set up a JustGiving.com page and have just sent out a large number of emails. My chosen charity is MS Research and Relief Fund. The link for those who wish to donate is at the top of this blog or here. It would be nice to see the donations go up. A bit of encouragement (for me) wouldn't go amiss.

LEJOG #9

Well, that's the route schedule finished. It can be viewed by clicking on the link under the map. I'm not 100% happy with the last week or so. Overall, I haven't included much in the way of rest days. My experience is that I tend not to want to have whole days off. I'd rather have short days. I may decide or need more short days but, really, I can only make that decision as I go along. The weather may decide for me sometimes. I shall probably tinker with the schedule and the route a bit more but, basically, job done. Comments welcome.

LEJOG #8

The intended route is now complete to John o'Groats. I now just have to finish breaking it down into daily segments so that I know where I'm likely to be at the end of each day. I hope to do this tonight and will then post a completed schedule. The total distance is just under 1100 miles.

I've set up a JustGiving page which was easy.