19th June – An update on the training
I’m not going to lie, it’s been an up-and-down few weeks. Work is crazy busy with a few projects needing to get over the line in the coming weeks and at the same time, I’m working with others in my team to build awareness of the importance of accessible digital design. Home life is equally hectic with the usual juggling of the housework, mowing the lawn, walking the dog and so forth and then adding on top another upcoming awareness project with a local cubs pack for which I’m grateful for Berkshire Vision’s assistance*. Add on family visiting from the US and I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone meaning there’s now significantly less than 6 months until my Take On 250 challenge. I love it when the family comes to visit but the highs are mixed with pangs of regret and sorrow such as when my wife, Kath, drives Dad to the train station whilst I wave at the front door. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for her doing it, it’s just that it should be me and not her. So, with this in mind, the best thing to drag me away from that dark place was to get my walking shoes on and start to get some miles under my belt.
For this first training walk, I wanted to go for something familiar and relatively easy going so opted for a gentle stroll along the canal from Theale to Aldermaston. It’s a bit tricky getting down there – I have to navigate a very steep downhill covered in dense pine trees before breaking out into open fields and along a dirt track for a stretch. After a few hundred yards, I rejoin the footpath through open fields and then across the motorway footbridge. Once in Theale, it’s a trudge through the village, past the train station and then crossing the road at the swing bridge to find the tow path. At this point, I was just under half-way and everything was going well. The tow path is a mixture of semi-finished gravel and mud for most of the way with a couple of sections either side of Tyle Mill lock being open field. It was here, just as the field gave way to the road crossing at Ufton Swing Bridge, that I heard the distant call of a cuckoo and had to stop and listen for a few minutes before carrying on. Unbeknownst to me, the path between Ufton and Padworth bridges is being resurfaced so there was no choice but to cut down to the A4 for a short stretch but aside from that, the trip was exactly the escape that I needed, especially when it was celebrated with a pint outside The Butt Inn at Aldermaston Wharf.
Previously when out for long walks, I would be accompanied by a podcast or two – often switching between I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, the history podcast You’re Dead To Me or one of Colin Murray’s extended Midnight Meets interviews (if you haven’t listened, I highly recommend the two-part interview with Gary Numan – the tale of him getting arrested in India on suspicion of being a spy during his attempt to circumnavigate the world was hilarious!) – But as my sight has worsened, I need to make use of all the senses I have so to block out my hearing with noise-cancelling earbuds isn’t the most sensible idea. It’s taken some getting used to but now I appreciate being able to listen out to the sounds of birds singing, the soft breeze through the trees or the sound of raindrops dripping through a woodland canopy. It also helps that I can listen out for other walkers, runners and cyclists so I can attempt to avoid instead of bumping into them!
This is what is making the training walks trickier this time around. Not being able to see new routes clearly when out on my own is a daunting prospect so when, like this weekend’s walk around Heckford Estate in South Oxfordshire, I have to be extra careful and am highly reliant on the OS Maps app and my phone’s zoom function to stay on the right path.
Alas, the training is probably the least of my worries as, unlike the previous Thames Path Challenge which was an organised event with dedicated rest stops and support, this time around it will just be my good friend and guide Dominic and myself. As a result, we need to plan the route and identify the overnight stops. Once these are known, the rest stops and timings should fall into place along with what equipment we will need to take with us along the way and what support crew we’ll need. Of course, the planning doesn’t end there because once we know what support we need, there is then the job of finding willing volunteers. We’d also be delighted to welcome as many people as possible to join us along the way – wouldn’t it be amazing to have a whole gang of us crossing that finish line?
If you’d like to follow our training and the planning updates, then please head over to my Blind Man With a Backpack socials on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and if you’re interested in joining us for part of the way or even giving up your time to be in the support crew then please drop me an email at chris@blindmanwithabackpack.uk
And finally, if you could spare a few pounds then please consider donating at www.justgiving.com/page/blindmanwithabackpack
See you at the finish line!
Chris
*Point to note, this was correct at time of writing but the visit went really well and all the cubs absolutely loved the evening!
7th March 2023
Take on 250: Can a blind bloke walk 250k of the Welsh coastline?
Almost a year ago I was sat in a holiday rental in Nine Wells, a tiny hamlet nestled in a crevasse on the Welsh coastline not far from the cathedral city of St David’s. We were there to visit Skomer Island, a picturesque rock which is home to a huge range of rare sea birds. I won’t spoil the surprise of the visit – if you’d like you can read all about it in my article “The Bitterest Pill” – but the reason I bring it up is this was the time plans began to formulate for what will be happening later this year, but more on that to come.
We all react differently to receiving life-changing news – anger, bargaining and so forth – but for me it simply didn’t compute for years. The first time anyone noticed there may be a problem was during a routine check-up for some corrective surgery I’d had back in 2015. Alone, leaving the appointment, eyes fully dilated and having to navigate my way from Regent’s Park, across a busy Marylebone Road to meet the family at Madame Tussauds I didn’t really know what to think – was the issue simply a problem with the new lens or was it something more severe?
Scroll forward a few weeks and I’m back in the clinic’s reception awaiting the results of the Electro Retinagram (ERG) I’d had earlier that day at Moorfields. An ERG is an intensive exam which measures the performance of the Rod and Cone cells in the back of the eye. It’s a highly specialist procedure which is only offered at select hospitals such as Moorfields in London and the John Radcliffe in Oxford. It seems more like something out of Stanley Kubrik’s A Clockwork Orange rather than a medical examination – the only thing missing was a soundtrack of Beethoven’s 5th!
Anyway, back in the consultant’s office and having been given the grave news that I had the macular degeneration, Cone Dystrophy (a rare genetic condition affecting around 1 in 30,000 people) I left the office with my wife, in complete denial. This should have been life-changing but, at that time, it had absolutely no impact on my day-to-day life. That came a little over two years later in 2020 during a follow up with my consultant in Oxford (if you’d like to know more then you can read about it in Cracked Leather and Straight Sixes).
But what has any of this got to do with sitting in a holiday home on the Pembrokeshire coast?
During that trip, an idea began to form deep inside – just how far could a blind bloke walk?
After returning home, I began some planning by mapping out the Welsh coastline from Chepstow to Wrexham (just shy of 1,400 kilometres). Of course, I didn’t get much further than jotting down some distances and working out how long it would take (42 days if you must know). Over the coming weeks and months I often looked back at those pages in my notebook but then things like home renovations, changing jobs and general life got in the way so it wasn’t until just before Christmas when Berkshire Vision announced their ”Take on 250” fundraiser.
This reignited the idea and I began to look once more at the coastal walk. It just so happens that the Pembrokeshire leg of the Welsh coastal path is 290km but, to get to a small chapel just outside Pembroke was exactly 250k. It’s as if it was meant to be because this tiny 2 room ruin holds many fond memories from holidays with the family. I have a photo on my bedside table from 2010 of my eldest and I when they were 7 years old, us sitting on the rocks below the chapel – them with a huge grin as we sit watching the calm Irish sea and so it seems only fitting that this should be the finish line.
For a walk like this that will take all week there is so much planning to be done such as where will I stay overnight, how will I carry all the clean socks I’m going to need, is it possible for a novice fisherman such as me to catch enough food to survive the week and how does someone with no central vision navigate cliff top pathways safely?
The answers to these questions and more are still being bottomed out but the thought of completing such a challenge is one that I’m relishing. Of course, I won’t be alone – I will hopefully have some family and friends coming along for a day or two. More importantly, my partner in crime will be my close friend, Dom whom I only expected to join for a day or two but I really can’t think of a better person to accompany me for the whole trip.
As plans unfold and as I get back into training I will share updates online – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and if you would like to support, then there is my fundraising site.
I hope to share more with you but until then I bid you farewell.
