Asleep On The Train / Welcome Home

I arrived home on Monday night at about 8 O'clock, after a fantastic evening and day in Bristol with Nathan, his housemate Louis and his girlfriend Scarlett (all of whom are dead cool!), unpacked my stuff, put on some clean clothes, and crashed out for some mad sleeping action.

Here are some pictures from my day in Bristol. We spent a really hot day sampling local culture, and sipping some rather lovely pear cider. Wonderful.

Here's a video too:

As well as the people I mentioned in the video, I also want to mention the wonderful folks who called me, texted me, befriended me, supported me, sponsored me, and kept me company at any point during the week! You're all awesome and I totally appreciated it; honestly, there were points when without your kind messages I could've happily given up. So thank you all very much.

Now, in case you're wondering about the title of this entry, it is the titles of the introduction and rather wonderful opening track to the Radical Face album Ghost.

This is the last you'll be hearing from me on this particular blog, as its time has now passed us by. Thank you all for reading, watching and bearing with me over the past week, and the preceding months.

That's all! You've been great.

Edit: Oh, and here's a map of my final route.

Day 6: All About The Destination

Actually, it's not all about the destination. At all. If it were, I would've got the train. As it is, I have walked from my house in Bishop's Waltham to my friend Nathan's in Bristol. Awesome.

Today was a good walk, 13.8 miles, and most of it was pavements today. I got a tiny bit lost finding Nath's house in Bristol, but apart from that all went well. I appear to have twisted my knee sometime yesterday (probably Brassknocker Hill), which slowed me up a fair amount.

Here are some photos. And a video:



I'm spending the night at Nathan's and then getting the train back home. Many many thanks for all the Facey messages and texts, they've been super encouraging.

I will more likely than not put a final blog up tomorrow night when I'm back home. For now, I will enjoy the evening with Nathan and his friends, and some rather lovely local cider he's in possession of.

Day 5: Bathtime. Ooh, this water's Fromey.

Do you like the title? It's a good pun I think.

I'm writing this with great haste as I only have half an hour on the computer (and then the internet disconnects - boo!), so I'll be brief. I'm at Bath YHA; it's very plush for a youth hostel, which is why it was fairly expensive in YHA terms.

Today was good. Not very eventful really. A funny man stopped to offer directions and ended up giving us a local history lesson, and a big gang of hairy bikers went past us on the A36. Oh, and we climbed Brassknocker Hill (which if you know it, you will be impressed by).

Harry has decided he's not enjoying himself and doesn't want to spend any more money, so has gone home on the train from Bath this afternoon. I'm not wussing out that easily, though, and will be plowing ahead with the last 14 miles to Bristol tomorrow. As it happens, Harry had time constraints on reaching Bristol, so with him gone I'm free to take my own time about it.

Now for some photos and a video:



Final day tomorrow, ending with a night with Nathan in Bristol. I'll probably be less up for partying than he wants me to be, but hopefully I won't be too much of a spoilsport.

More from me tomorrow (if Nath has internet - I think he does), and then home on Monday. Sweet.

Day 4: To the west, to the west, but I haven't got there yet

Harry joined me last night, we slept in a two-man tent with all our stuff, and (on my part) no sleeping bag. I didn't sleep all that well, it has to be said. Nevertheless, we set off with great aplomb this morning for our first tandem walk so far.

We learnt the hard way not to trust technology over instinct, but not after going a mile or so up the wrong road and having to take two sides of a triangle as the shorter route by the time we realised. I was not a happy bunny for an hour or so. That little detour made our relatively short 13.8 mile walk into an almost-17 mile walk.

Here are some photos and a video:



The first (and hopefully only) big change to the route has arisen, and this that tomorrow we will not be walking to Bath from Warminster, as it is involves 12 miles of very fast A-road, some of it dual carriageway. We thought it would be far more enjoyable and much safer if we were to start from Frome tomorrow and take that route to Bath instead. The route is a little shorter, but still a fairly hefty trip.

That's about all I think. Just two days left now! Crazy!

Day 3 (Thursday): A Henge made of Stone

It's always quite impressive whilst driving down the A303 when Stonehenge shows itself peeping over the hill. I tell you what, it's ten times more impressive on foot. If I could remember the song Stonehenge by Spinal Tap, I would've been singing it.

Here's a video:



And here are some photos: clicky

Other things this day included walking on a civilian road through Porton Down (the MoD own some superb land!) and watching the footie with the owner of the campsite I stayed at in Orcheston. Lovely campsite by the way, Stonehenge Touring Park, Orcheston, I thoroughly recommend it.

That's all. Now to write a blog for today!

Day 2 (and 2b): The Journey Continues

The more observant amongst you will have noticed that I did not post anything yesterday. Since I'm having a day off today, I thought now was a better time to blog, rather than being unsociable with my hosts the Pearsons (whom I only met yesterday, and are awesome)

Day Two photos can be found here

Day Two Video Diaries (parts 1 and 2):





Tomorrow's walk has been planned out and I'm in the midst of sorting my gear out so the weight is better balanced. It's about 16 miles tomorrow, followed by a night in a tent when my friend Harry is joining me, and about 13 miles to Warminster on Friday. I'm telling you all this now because I have a feeling the campsite might not have internet access, so it's more likely to be Friday.

If you're on Twitter, you can tweet about me using the hashtag #JulezWalks and it will appear on the right-hand side of this blog page, and you can send me texts for absolutely nothing by DMing me as well. Isn't technology great?

That's all for now; sorry this is such a long post. Speak to you all soon!

Day One: Into The Wild

Well, "The Wild" is a little bit of an overstatement. I'm currently in Southampton after an uneventful and very boring walk. I'm staying with my old schoolfriend James, and my shoulders are a bit sore. My big toes don't feel too great either, but other than that I'm feeling pretty good about this walking lark.

No photos from today, I'm afraid (there was nothing very interesting to snap) but I have a video diary for you here:

So there you are then. More to come tomorrow, where I will be very very tired

On your marks . . . get set . . .

The day is upon us. And by us I mean me. This is by far the most ridiculous thing I've ever undertaken, and the added pressure from all the sponsorship I've been given isn't helping my nerves (not that I'm complaining!)

I just woke up, had a nice bowl of cereal, and am preparing myself for the first leg: Home to Southampton. It's not far today, only about 14k (9 miles), but having now packed and put a tent into the mix (for one night on a campsite in Wiltshire) I've had the realisation that this whole expedition might not be quite as easy as I first thought.

I'm going to try my very best to do a video diary, but I'm not sure how utilitarian my mum's camera is, so please forgive me if I can't sort it out. I will definitely be blogging most evenings, and hopefully putting some photos up as well.

Fabbo. Let's do this!

4 days . . .

I depart on Monday. This morning I thought it would be wise to book the Youth Hostels, and to no surprise to anyone with a brain, two of them were fully booked.

Nevertheless, contingency plans have been made, but will involve a little more intense walking at some points. Burley is now off the route (which is a crying shame, as I would've loved to walk through the New Forest), as is Cholderton. I'm hopefully going to spend an extra night in Winterslow (courtesy of my friend Joe)

There was some miscommunication with my uncle (whom I was meant to be staying with on Monday) as he will be in France, but thankfully Skinner is putting me up for the night - what a legend!

I have emailed some churches in Warminster, so hopefully that'll come up trumps - if not, we'll be sleeping al-fresco, which is okay providing it doesn't rain.

From there on in, it's plain sailing to Bath and onto Bristol, where I am staying with Nathan, which will be a rad good time.

Sponsorship: a few people have expressed an interest in sponsoring me, but I haven't got any names yet. If you contact me on Twitter or Facey, or by phone or email, I will put your name down for any amount you wish to give. Please do, I'd really appreciate it!

Don't forget, Twitter hashtag #JulezWalks - all related tweets will appear on this page! If you want to contact me, I will have my phone on me, and I will receive DM's (not mentions - not sure why, but just no) from Twitter as texts.

More to come soon!

On your marks . . .

The date is set. The equipment has been obtained. Now all I need/would like is some sponsors.

I will be departing at the slightly-later-than-previously-stated date of 14th June. I've managed to plan a pretty cool route (I think), and my good friend Harry is joining me on the 17th, just in time to see Stonehenge on the 18th.

Don't forget, if you want to publicise me (it might happen!), you can use the Twitter hashtag #JulezWalks, and then all your tweets about it will appear on the right of this page. Also, you can DM my Twitter and I will get it as a text on my antiquated phone.

I'd like to quickly thank the friends and family who are putting me up for a night during the journey.

I promise to get a sponsorship form soon! Honest! Give me a shout if you want me to put your name down for any amount. It's all for a good cause!

More still to come . . .