We are on the Map

We made it onto the UN Map of Events for World Water Day! Check out the link below.












UN Map of Events for World Water Day 2013

World Water Day 2013

The 22nd March is World Water Day. Check this UNESCO site which colourfully divulges what World Water Day really means.

World Water Day 2013

The Route

Walking boots are expensive. I had to pick a lot of apples and shear a lot of alpacas to afford mine. And Jake, he had to spend a lot of days feeding sweet corn to turtles to afford his.

In Mid spring 2013, Jake and I will put on our backpacks, funded by apples and sweet corn, and leave number 29 Berkeley Road on foot. 2,000 miles later we hope to arrive in Menton, France, with blisterless feet and a skip in our step. The projected blisterless feet and skip in step may well be an ounce optimistic, but it pays to be positive.

By no means will we be tailgating the infamous crow; leaving Bristol we amble on to Bath, and then cut through the heart of the England’s south, dropping subtly south to Dover. A ferry crossing (in which we presumably have to circumnavigate the vessel, on foot, without stopping until it docks) will take us on to Ostende, Belgium. A brief section in the Netherlands then leads to Antwerp. It is here that we join the hiker-renowned GR5 trail, one of Europe’s most famous long distance paths. The GR5 heads south through Hasselt and Liege and into the south east corner of Belgium. Sandwiched between the border of Luxembourg and Germany, the GR5 then falls out into the Lorraine region of France. Sections in the Vosges and Jura lead us on towards Lake Geneva. From this point onward we gradually ascend into the mighty Alps. Several hundred miles through the mountains channels us to the Mediterranean, and Menton, our finishing point.

If all goes to plan we should arrive in the French Riviera just after the summer holidays, accompanied by a rather splendid short-shorts tan line.

Although this is a personal challenge, Jake and I are also trying to raise as much money as possible for Water Aid (see www.justgiving.com/awalktothewater). This is a fantastic charity and may well be the driving force that we need to help us complete our quest.

Map of the route - Map

First Night in the Vango Tempest 200

OK, so it's not exactly representative of the conditions that are to come, but it's important to have a transition period.

What's on Bristol

The March edition of 'Whats on Bristol'. And, if you missed the opportunity for free chips courtesy of the Evening Post, then learn from your mistake and be sure to collect your free sausage and bacon as detailed on page 82.

The Evening Post

It was fantastic to see our article in last weeks Evening Post (Late February, 2013). Unfortunately, the overleaf offer of "free chips" had expired before we even had a chance to process the gift in all its wonder.

WaterAid

Ventures, such as our walk to the water, do not come around all too often in one’s life, so Jake and I deemed it patent to make the most of our trip. With this enlightened state of mind we decided, amongst other things, to raise money for a charity, using our walk as the driving incentive for donations.

With little deliberation we chose WaterAid, an international charity working to improve global access to safe water and sanitation, or, as a certain Bristol based newspaper put it, ‘WaterAid, a water safety charity’. Well, they can’t get it perfect every time.

The picture shows a stand that Jake erected in The Bristol Aquarium, where he currently works. The stand, and its wealth of WaterAid facts and figures, depicts the effectiveness of small contributions on improving millions of lives around the world. With the help of the stand, a couple of press releases and our fundraising page (www.justgiving.com/awalktothewater) we have already raised almost £1,250. This is wonderful, but we want it to be more. Thus, with the desired risk of sounding repetitive and annoying, please donate, and if you can’t donate then talk about WaterAid; raising awareness and consciousness is an undeniably productive step towards improving global access to safe water and sanitation.

So, with our route planned and our charity determined, the next obvious step was to name the experience. Double meanings are, without a doubt, the highest form of wit. Thus, after Jake and I came up with the title for our trip – A Walk to the Water (water referring to both WaterAid and the Mediterranean) - we felt as intellectually sharp as Winston Churchill, a grand feat when considering quotes like this:

MP: "Mr Churchill, must you fall asleep while I'm speaking?"

Churchill: "No, it's purely voluntary."