Travel with Champo

Lovely!

Don't know where this is but I bet you agree it looks like the most sublime place to spend Christmas! X

On M6? Very nice service station

Always good I think to big up good service when you find it. If your travelling South on M6 pop into Tebay services very very nice and excellent service, products and value.

Snowdon Trip Blow by Blow!

UPDATED!!

After having our first attempt at getting up Snowdon foiled by bad weather, I was glad to at least realize that today it was actually going to happen as the forecast was great, in fact maybe too great with the temp reported to be going to rise to the mid twenties, but given all of this we decided to get going anyway. I decided from all of the research that I had done on Snowdon to do the simple thing and not try to do one route up and a different route down.  Given the fact that this was meant to serve a few different purposes I didn't really want to make it any more difficult than it needed to be.

START OF MINERS TRACK

So I planned to go up and down via the miners track.  The time that I needed to complete the test in was a sprightly 3 hours 40 minutes. After thinking that the day was going to be over before it started because of the lack of car parking at Pen-y Pas, we were saved by the car park attendant who kindly let us park in one of the mini bus bays, my savior and also everyone else s savior, as it got rid of the biggest cob that i had on my face when i thought we were not going to be able to get a space. The first section of the walk was flat with the odd uphill section, but very flat under foot and easy and I made very good pace and ground on people who had started well before me.  This was to lull me into a false sense of security as I was to find out later in the trek.  As I approached the first waypoint on my GPS I felt really great and was celebrating all of that time I had spent on the dreaded StairMaster at the gym (see earlier post) I had to fight hard to stop myself not saying anything to those fellow walkers about there ridiculous attire of flip flops and vests.  I did their bravado come to an abrupt end though half way up the very rough zig-zag section which was difficult enough with all of the correct gear!!

 
(and also trying to master the GPS  not much use on this walk but will be vital on others! so i had better get it right!!)

From here on the path was very clear and very flat really so had time to take in some of the sights!

As you can see some beautiful sites along the way, the weather was really hot, got up to 25 degrees apparently which i started to feel later in the trek.  When you see scenery like this though it makes it all worthwhile!

One thing that did freak me out a little bit was the appearance of a helicopter trying to land in the smallest space near waypoint two.  The winch man was hanging out of the door shouting something that I couldn't hear over the obviously loud noise of the rotors (although not as loud as a woman tennis player I hear?)  I presumes considering he was trying to land this thing on a postage stamp he was telling me to get out of the way, which I did QUICKLY!!!

(mad helicopter trying to land in the smallest place on Snowdon)

From this point on the path stated to rise ever so slightly!  It was still good under foot, but it wasn't long before it started to get very rough and very uneven, which is obviously harder on the legs lungs and everything really. Whoever built the path decided that both the rough ground AND the very steep bit would coincide  NICE ONE! whoever that man is!!

Although the track did get very much different form this point, i was making very good process, no blisters, ankle was fine so i pushed on knowing that it was a tight time to make form my first attempt with pack on back and no gym like air conditioning.  There was still lots of great scenery to look at as you can see.

The last part of the journey to the top was i must admit tortuous in every way.  It would have been nice if i was just going fr a non time limited stroll but i wasn't!   Anyway i was relieved to reach the standing stone where the Pyg track meets the Miners track, which meant that in real terms i had only about 800 meters to go in distance but about 400 feet in elevation!!

So after thinking i was dying for about the next 40 minutes i managed to reach the top wohoooo!  I was OVER THE MOON until one smart Alec relayed those words to me that brings you crashing down to earth "your really only half way mate, and going down is more difficult on the legs"  how RIGHT he was!!!

Downhill, sounds much better than it really is, the pounding that your legs and the rest of your body gets is out of the ordinary in that you don't do much walking down steep rocky inclines in your normal working day do you?  Unless your a park ranger or a professional climber. 

I realized that it had taken me 2 hours 1 minute to get to the top so that left me with 1 hour 39 minutes to get back down (for those who know me i didn't need to use a calculator to work that out...i did it in my head!)  It sounded like a reasonable amount of time as "it was all down hill from here"  and YES IT WAS!!!  I was so tired, my legs literally felt like jelly!!  so much so that when i got to about a quarter mile to go i realized that i was going to miss my cut off time by a couple of minutes!  There was only one thing for it... i had to RUN  yes RUN!!  Don't ask me how i managed to summon up the effort, but i did!  i ran through the gate where i started from in 3 hours 39 minutes and 33 seconds!!!

I was so so pleased but i was tired and very very respectful of what i am trying to achieve with the 10 challenges. In effect i have to do this level of walk 3 times in 24 hours for the National 3 Peak Challenge and then walk up the equivalent of Snowdon every day fr 17 days during my Everest Trip across the high peaks and Khumbu to camp 1.

Trekking up Snowdon gave me exactly what i wanted out of the trip along with a better tan, a great cup of tea at end but very tired legs.

Snowdon Done! (update)

Well arrived at Snowdon today with quite a few objectives really, in my build up to the various challenges and ultimately Everest. This is just a brief update post to keep you in the loop as it where. Objectives Under 2.40 - done (2.39:33) although had to run last quarter mile! Which was good really! Boots & blisters - sorted. No blisters and boots where fine Check out ankle - not too bad. Starting to stiffen up now but will be ok thank goodness. Overall very good day but very hard. Will update tomorrow with more pictures as need to sleep now. Nite xx

-- Post From My Amazing Wandering iPhone

Don't forget!

As you all know I'm in Wales at the moment. I'm just realising how easy it is to forget how great our own country is. With the recesion still biting Im sure that the reported many families and general holiday makers staying in Britain this year instead of going abroad, we may see some better press and some more descriptive ways of describing our many under reported regions in the UK. Take the usual craggy and awe inspiring Welsh view as an example. If this was in Canada etc we would be eulagising about it's mystical beauty wouldn't we? Next time u think about an expensive holiday abroad using lots of those environment destroying air miles, spare a thought for good old beutifull GB!

Everest Training

Training for my everest trip has begin! Gym every day 2 hours aerobic and then weights. Trying to time my workouts at the same time of day as I will be walking and climbing on my trip. Early starts etc etc. Going well at mo except my shin problem still causing some slight issues. Will have to go and see the podiatrist and get my insoles tweaked. Anyway that's all for now so will keep you all updated as to how things are going. BFN

iPhone soooo cool

The iPhone has just proved how cool it is. Stuck in traffic on M1 just click on google maps, press traffic button and hey presto. You can see when the traffic jam will end. How usefull is that man! All packed into a thing if beauty!

Today is the day!

Well then, today is the day that the countdown and training for everest start! 365 days to go. Keep your eye on the blog as I let you take my journey with me. Happy Reading.

Iphone on it's way to. Everest

That's right. Me and my iPhone will be travelling to Nepal in 1 year (April 2010) and making our way to Everest Base Camp!

We have not posted for a while but keep an eye out for new posts from now on!

Strange!

why do strange people travel on trains? Just now on a train to London this guy just sat down I'm the seat opposite and said "I have a new mobile so you like it?"

Well what do you say to that??