Next Friday morning, the 24th August, I will be setting out on my longest ever walk.
Over the Bank Holiday weekend I will be walking from the Ellenor Lions hospice in Northfleet near Gravesend to Dover Castle - a total distance of around seventy miles.
I am walking to raise money for ChYps, the children's and young person's section of the Ellenor Lions hospice.
ChYps currently look after around one hundred seriously ill children and young people in West Kent and the London Borough of Bexley. ChYps ethos is to provide care in the familiar surroundings of the patient's own home wherever possible.
I hope to generate at least £ 500 for ChYps. As at the time of writing this post total donations stood at
£ 280 - already over 50% of target.
This week I have been planning the actual logistics of the walk.
On the first day I'm aiming to walk from the hospice to Cuxton where I will pick up the North Downs Way then cross over the Medway Bridge at Rochester before climbing up Bluebell Hill and finally Detling Hill.
On day two, I plan to continue on from Detling along the North Downs Way past Thurnham, Lenham and Hollingbourne and stay overnight in Ashford.
Ideally I wanted to find a small B&B but as it's the Bank Holiday weekend a lot of places were already booked out so I've had to plump for the Holiday Inn on the A20 - not the most scenic part of Kent!
On day three I plan to continue on the North Downs Way again from Ashford through Wye over the Downs then on to Brabourne and Stowting and finally to the outskirts of Folkestone where I have managed to find a great looking B&B.
The lady that owns the B&B (in an 18th Century farmhouse) has very kindly given me a 50% reduction on the usual room rate and has also promised to make a donation to ChYps. I will write more about this place next week...
On day four, the final day of the walk, I will follow the last leg of the North Downs Way along the coast from Folkestone through to Dover. On the way I will pass the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, the Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel le Ferne and Samphire Hoe Country Park so there will be plenty to write about.
My "finishing line" will be the keep of Dover Castle pictured above where I hope to meet up with my wife and son. I hope they will be there... it's a long walk home again.
If you would like to keep up to date with my progress, I will be tweeting (@wavecrestglen) whenever possible and hope to update this blog after each day of the walk.
To help ChYps care for more children in their own homes you can sponsor me at -
If you are a Kent business and would like to promote your business on this blog in return for a donation to ChYps, please contact me via Twitter or e-mail: glen@wavecrest.co.uk
Many thanks for your support.
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You will be walking past some beautiful built architecture and natural landscapes. North Downs Way would be very special.
ReplyDeleteBut you probably won't have energy for taking photos. Hope you do very well :)
Hi Hels, thanks. Don't worry I will be taking plenty of photos for the blog updates as I go.
ReplyDeleteGlen