We did it! We made it from London to Brighton, despite getting quite lost in parts. Leila lost the bottom of her hiking boots at the very start, which was perhaps not a good omen, but we found a Shoezone en route and we kept going. The tracker worked at first, but then we kept running out of battery because we had so many things to charge and only one power bank. Note to self: take more chargers and extra shoes!
Blisters were a big feature, but the weather was more or less good. Maybe too good on the Sunday when it was boiling. We came to a reservoir at one point and wanted to throw ourselves in it. We were joined along the way by family and friends which really bolstered us. Special thanks go to Arline Okin, my trusty colleague at workingmums.co.uk, who last two days, including the Chaldon stretch when we got very lost and ended up going back on ourselves and thinking we would never get out of Coulsdon.
Second note to self: do a course in map reading. Google maps was a poor substitute for the Ordnance Survey Map we were trying to follow as it kept taking us to fast roads with no pavement and through disused areas which looked a bit like they should be in a Zombie apocalypse film.
High point of the trek was definitely Tulleys Farm, a veritable oasis. We had not passed a single shop or cafe by that point and it was extremely hot. We even visited the Farm's Sunflower Festival, if only vicariously on the outer edges. We didn't quite hit our target, but we did get closer than we expected and that will fund some more training for next year as we look to expand.
Thanks to everyone who supported us. We may even do it again, once we've forgotten the blisters...
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