The idea is to walk around the Isle of Wight in a day - that's 66 miles in 24 hours - for fun!

I've chosen to raise money for South Bucks Hospice, a charity based in High Wycombe who support people with life-limiting illnesses.

It all started many years ago as a bit of a laugh – sunshine, beers and a nice pub lunch!

We’d walk perhaps 15 miles in a day, enjoy a really good lunch and stop at as many pubs as we could on the way home. The finishing line was usually the Horse and Jockey in Tylers Green and the starting point was somewhere that we had been dropped off in the distance.

Gradually the walks got longer, until we hit 26 miles (a marathon!) on a walk to Henley. We also had the famous Scotland trip, a two-day event, where we alighted the sleeper at Corrour, the most remote railway station in the UK and got back on it in Dalwhinnie – after visiting the whisky distillery of course! The scenery was amazing, but it was tough going underfoot.

Now, it’s all got a lot more serious. On one of those late evenings, someone suggested we walk around the Isle of Wight, there was even an organised event for it and you could do it in one day….

So, here we are. The event was cancelled last year – thankfully, as I don’t think I would have been fit enough. I have now walked every weekend for the last 3 months and the longest walk we have done so far was 39 miles.

We still have some training to go, including another very long walk of 40 miles plus, and, hopefully, we will have done enough in a month’s time to be able to reach that goal of 66 miles.

Did you know: the Isle of Wight is not flat – there are 2080 metres of elevation (i.e. walking uphill) on the walk. I live in the Chilterns and we have only once done half of that.

So, it’s not going to be easy, which is why I would appreciate all the support you can give me by donating to my chosen charity.  

For more information on the Isle of Wight Challenge, please visit https://www.isleofwightchallenge.com.

Thanks for visiting my page and for any donation that you may make.