and they're off!

the seemingly endless kit is packed. the throat is mostly better. it is, in otherwords, time to man up and get on with it.

please do spur us along with comments, even if they're only telling us what we already know: that we're mad!

t minus 13 hours...

so it turns out that i'm taking a lot of stuff. a hell of a lot:

there's the sleeping and wearing stuff...

the food and cooking stuff...

the keep it handy and first aid stuff...

the daily wash kit stuff...

the 'i don't know how to classify it' stuff...

the washing and non emergency first aid type stuff...

and the stuff i'm gonna wear...

even when it's packed up it looks like loads...

ah well. i can always ditch half of it after the first hill!

jin x

1 night to go...

huzzah!

the glands are beating a hasty retreat. as are the white spots which showed up on my tonsils yesterday...

jinni's immune system (with the help of strepsils -1 : tonsillitis - 0

jin x

2 days to go...

uh oh...

my glands are up. and i feel like i'm swallowing glass.

not ideal for starting a 39 day walk...

jin x

3 days to go...

aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

this time in 5 days i'll hopefully be settling down after my first days walking.

that is all.

jin x

where we'll be and when

i made a new page!

it contains details of where we'll be passing each day, where we're staying or planning on pitching, how much distance we'll be covering in total and per day in both miles and kms for those out there who prefer those (are there those out there that prefer kms?)

the astute among you will motice that this totals 575 miles, not the previously advertised 630. i've based this all on some gps tracks for the coastpath which i downloaded from some nice website or other (the bad blogger in me has forgotton which one - if you happen to know please speak up and i'll give credit where it's due!) and that's the distance they total.

where the other 55 miles have gone is a mistery to me! however i'd be happy if they stay missing frankly.

please go and check it out if you're thinking of joining at any point - the link is in the shiny new tabs bar, at the top of the page, so it'll be easy to find all the time!

i need sleep now, cos that took aaaaages to put together, up next...whatever comes to mind in the penultimate week.

ps. please sponsor us if you can!

jin x
10 days to go...

give us your money!!

yes that's right, give us your money, because with three weeks to go one of my course mates has decided that he too would like to spend a summer slogging his way round the south west coast path!

so as the wet/hot weather of glastonbury made me realise that i'm probably gonna be miserable for much of the walk, at least i now have someone to whinge at! sorry john...

but anyway, i'm straying off point, this post is supposed to be a begging post. so here goes nothing...

it's gonna be a long summer. it's gonna be hot. it's gonna be wet. it's gonna be windy. it's gonna be steep. our feet will get blistery. our legs will ache and our tummies will grumble. but not as much as we will. in short it's gonna be misery incarnate.

but when it starts to feel really tough one thing which will help to get us though will be knowing that we're doing this for something. and not just the grim sattisfaction of walking 630 miles in 39 days.

it'll be knowing that the funds we'll be raising will be helping oxfam to support people in the developing world. helping them to work themselves out of poverty. helping oxfam campaign for a fairer deal for those in need. helping the campaign to fix 'the system' which is crippling developing counties. helping in the fight against the climate change which (as a graduate of earth sciences, who has written dissertations on the subject) i couldn't be more convinced that we are directly responsible for. helping, in short, to deal with what i consider to be the two biggest problems which face our species.

we've set a ridiculously high target, one i don't honestly expect to meet. but it'd be nice to try.

if you can, please donate at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/jinniking even if it's not much, it'll help to keep us going when all we want to do is sit and cry*
 
jin x
17 days to go...

*i speak for myself here, i presume that as a boy john will not be crying