To Land’s End and beyond for the moon bears, cats and dogs (1 and 2 August 2009)
Snaking around the coastal path, the UK team makes it look easy!
Day Two: all still looking good at Land's End, after a day and a half on the road.
Time for lunch! A cliff-top picnic helps sustain the weary trekkers.
Final destination: the team arrives at Pendeen Watch on Sunday evening.
Last weekend, Animals Asia’s UK team, families and friends, plus Border Collie Kandi, completed their Cornish coastal challenge to raise money for the bears, cats and dogs. This was a tough challenge and the intrepid trekkers had to dig deep to find the will power to keep going despite the fatigue, numerous blisters, heat rashes and other assorted ailments.
Here’s their report:
Luckily, the weather gods were kind and Saturday morning brought fine blue skies and the perfect walking temperature. So at 9.30am or thereabouts, Dave and Kandi, Sue, Fiona, Gill, Lara and her friend Sara, Eileen and her brother James, Nicky and husband Jamie plus children Jess and Chris, set out from Marazion. Eileen’s husband Jim, acting as our support team of one, headed to the campsite to set up the tents for the night. Thank you Jim, you have no idea how much we all appreciated this.
Once past the sleepy village of Mousehole, where some of the team stocked up on essential supplies such as ice-cream and strong coffee, the path became much tougher (and steeper) but the scenery more stunning.
After climbing and descending steep cliffs, clambering over rocks, squelching through mud and negotiating a boulder beach, by 3.30pm the team had walked some 14 miles and were ready to head inland to Trevervan, our campsite for the night.
After a team meal in a nearby pub, it was an early night for everyone in preparation for the much tougher second day.
Day 2 and it’s uphill nearly all the way ...
The next day saw more sunshine and warm weather - just as well as we were looking at some 17 miles of walking ahead. Reaching Land’s End at lunchtime, the team took a well deserved rest to contemplate blisters and the many more miles ahead.
We also bumped into Olympic champion rower James Cracknell, starting his own nonstop tandem cycling challenge with Olympic champion track cyclist Rebecca Romero from Land’s End to John O’Groats. Unfortunately, their attempt was abandoned at Edinburgh due to an injury to Rebecca's knee. We’re very glad we didn’t know this at the time, as our resolve might have wobbled!
From Land’s End, it was an arduous uphill climb of several miles to Cape Cornwall, which appeared on the horizon - around every corner - yet seemingly got further away, the nearer we approached! But the bears, dogs and cats were never far from our thoughts and inspired us to keep climbing and moving forward. By this time, Sara and Fiona were suffering from major blisters and every step was sheer pain, but both refused to give up and we all trekked on to our final destination of Pendeen Watch.
We arrived at Pendeen Watch at 8.00pm - some ten hours after setting out - exhausted but elated at having completed an extremely tough challenge. Kandi, for one, was thankful to get back in the car after an exhausting walk of nearly twice the length that we’d trekked!
So far we’ve raised £1,588.00 plus gift aid of £393.18.
It’s not too late to sponsor us and help us reach our overall target of £2,000.
