Brynna Juniors have been established since 1986 and play in the Bridgend & District League in South Wales.. The team currently have over 100 players on their books, which includes both boys and girls from ages 7 upwards. The teams home pitch is at the welfare ground in Brynna, opposite St Peters Church and the Community Centre. The club has many volunteer coaches that give up their spare time to help support the children and their development.

Behind the scenes the club also has many committee members whose work is also and invaluable to the club and often goes unnoticed. I have been involved with the club now since last season as an assistant coach, completing varioius coaching and child safeguarding courses through the Welsh Football Association and looking forward to the 2017/18 Season with the Under 9 team.

Our event - Early June 2018 we are walking and running (where possible) the GR20 on the French Island of Corsica in the Mediterranean. I am doing this with my K9 partner 'Otto' who is a husky crossbreed and he is always attached to me via harness, line and belt. We have been doing Ultra Marathons of between 30-69 miles long since Otto was 12 months old in both the UK and France but this will be our toughest yet.

The GR stands for 'Grande Randonnee' which in french roughly means 'Great Trek'. There are many GR routes in France but the GR20 is the toughest and the most beautiful. The route is normally 180km long and normally starts in Calenza in the North and finishes in the South at Vizzavona in the South. It has a variation in height of around 10,000 metres.

Our route is a bit longer (around 210km) and will start at Camp Raffalli, Calvi which is the home of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment of the French Foreign Legion (known as the 2eme REP) where i served after service in the British Parachute Regiment.

I have completed this route before and it is tough going for even the toughest soldier let alone a skinny husky attached to a bald bloke that is nearly 50!!!

I had always wanted to do this route with Otto but a section early on in the route called 'Le Cirque de la Solitude' made it physically impossible for him and me, due to climbs and descents involved. Events two years ago have now changed this - 7 hikers where sadly killed in a landslide on the cirque which called the authorities to temporarily close the route before last year re-routing it over Monte Cinto the highest peak in the island. This gives you an idea of the unpredictability of the route. Going over Monte Cinto however is no mean feat, the summit is 2,703 metres in height - for local people to Brynna, thats over 3 times higher than Pen-Y-Fan.

Monte Cinto - gives you an idea of the route.

Early June is the best time to do this route not to warm, some snow lingering on the peaks and an abundance of water and with not many other people to see.

A normal hiker doing this route in stages (which we will be doing) and stay at the many remote refuges en route. Us however will not be, as there are no dogs allowed in the refuges so we will be staying in our own small tent outside them - this gives us the ability to recharge phones and maybe get a hot scoff. I will be carrying all our kit, which includes Ottos food and anything else he requires for the duration. We will be aiming for around 10 miles a day, which in itself does not sound much - but take a look at the terrain in the picture above.

Anyone in the UK will be able to check our progress online as we will have a GPS tracker attached to Ottos harness and this will enable to keep people at home updated via the wonder that is facebook, twitter and instagram along with Go Pro video footage on both Otto and myself.

We will be doing many events prior in both the UK and France which will be used as training that includes:

Trail de St Paul le Jeune , Ardeche, France (55km) - Trail du Petit Ballon, Alsace, France (55km) along with various in the Brecon Beacons and the Lake District.

This along with our usual training runs around the local mountains around the Brynna areas.

This event is funded by myself and all proceeds raised will be going directly to the club.

Please donate anything you can - if you think about it £2.00 will work out at around 1p per kilometre. It all helps.

The crowd funding page runs out at 28th December this year but it will updated and extended to go up to a month after the event.

Follow us on social media:

twitter: @airbornemuttley

Instagram: airbornemuttley

Thanks for your support.

Jon & Otto