Snailwalker.....Part 1

Our challenge for this week was to host our first Snailwalk for friends, family, colleagues, in fact anyone who wanted to join us.
It's difficult to know quite how long to make these sort of walks because of not knowing who will be wanting to join in, so on this occasion we opted for a fairly easy 5m walk from Parkgate (on The Wirral peninsula) - a circular route which starts by walking directly along the Dee Estuary before turning right inland, up a bit and then basically walking in the opposite direction a mile or so inland, with views once again across the Estuary to North Wales.
Crucially, this walk began and ended at a suitable local hostelry and, I'm sure that this was the real selling point for at least a couple of the willing participants!
Having pre-walked it on Thursday night, we knew that it was slightly muddy in parts but overall was a good, steady walk with some nice scenery (and lovely big houses) to look at.
So Sunday dawned bright and clear and, apart from some detours required to circumnavigate a local half marathon, we all arrived in reasonable time at the car park.  Here's our small but perfectly formed Snailwalker troop....

The walk was completed in about an hour and quarter, so not too costly on people's time and we had views like this along the way...

In a moment of extreme generosity, I offered to buy all involved a lovely ice cream when we hit the promenade again in Parkgate, but no one took me up on my offer, insisting instead on pushing on along the home stretch....to the pub!!  It would have been very rude not to go in, so we did, although it has to be said that 99% of us only had coffee - just one solitary member of the Snailwalker troop indulged in a pint of the brewery's finest ale, at just gone half eleven on a Sunday morning!  Disgusting!  You know who you are....Gareth Parry-Jones  ; )
In summary, a good time was had by all; we managed to add to the fundraising total (thank you everyone who came along for donating) and got some walking in as well - bonus.
NEXT TIME:  a full team walk taking in the whole of the Wirral Way and back again.

Everything but walking!

Its a couple of weeks since we've had a full team walk but that certainly doesn't mean that Trailwalker is forgotten!  As we concentrate on our own individual training, the fundraising and planning for the event have taken precedence just recently.  In a week's time we will be holding our Snailwalk and hope that many friends and colleagues will join us for a 5 mile saunter around the Wirral coast, finishing at a local pub....well, its a great way to encourage involvement!!  In addition, we continue to have our collecting tins out on the tills in work and the wonderful M&S customers continue to throw in anything from their loose change to the occasional note - fantastic way of adding to the team total with minimum effort.
Planning for the actual event has also come to the fore in the last couple of weeks; we have booked a Premier Inn for the night before in Petersfield and we have booked a Premier Inn for the Sunday night just 11 miles from the finish.  Needless to say, Team Coliseum won't need a bed for the Saturday night....we'll be trudging our way towards the finish line.  The support team haven't yet decided but think they will just catch some sleep in the cars, especially as none of us are heading back to Cheshire on the Sunday.  We can all recharge our batteries before heading north again on Monday.
The other piece of good news is that my hubby has managed to get a lovely new Freelander 4x4 for the whole weekend from his employers, Jaguar Land Rover!  Although we are hoping for dry conditions, at least the support team will have one vehicle that can cope with "off road" conditions, should they need it.
So time is marching on....how many weeks left till D-Day?  Oh, lets not think about that.
Just keep on Walking!