WE NOW HAVE A BLOG WITH PHOTOS!

Go to www.paddyandandy.blogspot.com

Many thanks to everybody that has donated. Paddy and I are now just 8 days walk from Asia and have walked some 4,700 kms so far! Spirits are very high and we are so almost there. For updates on our adventures over the last 6 months check out the blogspot site above. 11 countries down and just 260 kms to go!

This summer, to raise money for the British Red Cross, I will be attempting to cross Europe on foot.  I will leave London at the beginning of May, with the aim of crossing the Bosporus into Asia four or five months later.

Beginning in London, I will walk southeast to Dover .  After taking the ferry to Calais (the only part of my journey not conducted on foot), I will continue south, through the towns of Rouen and Chartres, to Orleans where I join the River Loire.  After following the river upstream for several hundred miles I will reach Montelimar, where I leave the river and head due east across the Maritime and Ligurian Alps into North italy.  Continuing East I will pass through such towns as Verona, Padua, Venice and finally Trieste, where meets and the Adriatic Sea .  I then intend to follow the Adriatic coast south, to Albania, where I leave the coast and head east, and inland, to Greece.  A further hundred miles will see me at the Greek coast and Thessalonica, after which I will follow the coast to as great an extent as i can, until I reach the Turkish border.  Crossing into Turkey I intend to follow the coast of the Sea of Marmara for the last hundred miles to Istanbul, and the bridge of the Bosporus .  Crossing this bridge will take me into Asia where my journey, of around 5,000 kilometres, will finally end. 

This route is not set in stone, and neither is my destination.  But I intend to continue walking until my legs, or my savings, are fully exhausted.  This means I may only get as far as the Mediterranean, or Paris , or Bromley, but it's all for a good cause, and money donated will go straight to The British Red Cross, as this is an entirely self-funded adventure on my part, so please donate generously.

Please feel free to contact me on 00447793406667 or paddy_morris@hotmail.com for updates on where I am and how I’m doing.  But not before 8th May, as I’ll be in bed.

Many thanks,

Paddy Morris

*******************  UPDATES  ******************

5th July:  Hello from Switzerland!  But that's all i have time to write, as its half way through my day, i'm stuck in the backstreets of geneva somewhere, and really really want to get out of this horrid busy city.  Morzine tomorrow, where i will post a proper update.

21st June: This is unfortunately going to be our first update from two separate countries! Having made it some 700kms to the Loire Valley I have had to return to for a two week intensive physiotherapy session as I have managed to get severe tendonitis and fracture a bone in my left shin. This has ruled me out of any walking for 6 weeks and needless to say I am completely gutted. Luckily I spent the first two weeks of recovery still in France with Paddy at Will Wyld’s house where I could chill out by the swimming pool with my leg in the air. My leg didn’t heal quite as quickly as planned and I found myself on a Eurostar train back in on the advice of the French doctors and physios a few days ago. In the meantime Paddy has continued to carry on walking at an alarmingly fast pace and is eating up the kms down the Loire Valley . It’s a pity that because we are on such a tight timescale (to get paddy back for another ski season!) that he has had to keep moving and that I will miss a small section of the walk. However I am sure that in a few weeks and I shall be reunited with my walking buddy and that we can crack on to see what challenge the Alps has to offer!

Paddy writes, from France:

Oh poor old Andy.  Sitting at home getting fed by his parents while i sweat it out here concientiously raising money for the Red Cross, living in a tent eating tins of cassoulet on my own.  Dont buy that whole leg injury nonsense.  I suspect it's hayfever.

Anyway, its a lovely sunny evening here in...let me think... Cosne  (seen one you've seen them all, with these french towns).  This one is a little different, though, as it has a big music festival going on tonight.  At this very minute, outside the internet cafe, a band called 'in cognito' or 'in situ' or somesuch has launched into a reasobable rendition of 'Save Tonight'.  The only issue is that there's just one solitary audience member, leaning self-conciously against a rather optimistic crowd barrier.  I'm sure things will hot up in a bit.

The other big news is that this week i've made my first friend on the road!  He's a fascinating character called Henri.  A good 6 feet tall, a beard that could win beardy-competitions (and there are such things, i assure you), an eye-patch like a pirate, with a little white poodle by his side, Henri wasn't a man hoping to inspire friendliness when he siddled out of his transit-van-house by the bridge, and up to me during my canal-bankside lunch break three days ago, and asked if i was lost.  After telling him what i was up to, there was no stopping him. "Ah, Byzantium.  Dutera Roma... Constantinople.    Very good.  A beautiful city, you'll see.You know, the artist who did the mosaics in Istanbul's Haghia Sophia also did those at such and such a town up the river.  i suspect you saw them..? "  He then went on to talk about Voltaire, who's house Andy and I must visit if we're near Geneva.  "Of course, he doesnt translate into English very well, so you people have never appreciated him.  I cant get the hang of your language either.  I only spaek the mediterranean ones."  I'm sorry, i thought, am i talking to a smelly tramp who lives in a van with his ratty hound, or some sort of world expert on everything?  Either way, we chatted for a while and then went our seperate ways, him to go back to trying to fish Mailyr, his dog, out of the canal, and me to avoid the snakes and lizards (ladders?) along the by-now roasting towpath. 

Three days later, 90km down the road.  I'm sitting outside a cafe watching the world go by, trying to block out the rowdy English tourists on the table next to me, when a hand grips my shoulder.  I look, up, and see the hand belongs to an arm, that belongs to a beard.  "PADDY!", said the beard (for it was he).  what brings you here?  anyway, the tramp insisted on buying my lunch and my beer (there's a first for everything).  But if he crops up again in another 100kms time, I'm going to start suspecting something.

Anyway, the crowds are starting to fill out so i think I'll go and join them.  I'll let you all know if these "In Cognito" chaps are any good, another time.

850kms down, plenty to go. 

1st June:  This is going to have to be a very quick update as we're in a bit of a rush. The weather has finally taken a turn for the better, and the french sun is shining down on us.  The last week has been what they call, in ramblers' circles, 'Epic'. We left Paris on the monday, and after pushing out a couple of whatare by now pretty standard 30km days, Andy took a look at the map and made a suggestion.  "Hmmmm... looks like about 100kms to Orleans.  reckon we can be there by tommorrow?"  "May as well", i replied. Sure enough, after trudging a massive 104kms in a straight 33 hours (Including 4 hours' kip behind a motorway service station), we crawled, while murmering one last stanza of "Jerusalem", into Orleans, and crossed, for the first time, the River Loire.  We are still here in Orleans, as we are waiting for our worn-down little stumps of legs to grow back again.  We hope to be back on the road before too long, but not before a bit of R&R chez monsieur Wyld, well earned, we think, after what we estimate to be around 630kms.  We shall report back shortly, but for the time being, here from Orleans, a bientôt!

27th May: After arriving in France we immediately... had a beer and Steak Frites.  It had been a long day.  After a digestion break of which our mothers would approve we found a nice straight canal towpath that led us rapidly out of Calais.  The map and tourist guide promised us a campsite 15kms down said canal that boasted a swimming pool, fishing, and a vibrant bar.  France was looking promising, we agreed.  After arriving at the campsite, and being greeted by two fairly ferocious dogs who barked at us all the way up the mile-long drive, we arrived at a deserted farm building.  Wandering round the back we found someone to show us somewhere to pitch our tents.   After seeing the bald patch of scrub-land offered, we thought it best not to bring up the swimming pool and fishing (it must have either been fishing in a swimming pool, or swimming in a pond) we put up our tents, brewed up some pesto pasta, and settled down to our first night in France.

12 days walking later, and its been a fairly similar story most of the way.  The dogs are still following us down the road ( they may be different ones... they all look the same) and we've bought a fishing rod in case we encounter more swimming pools. We are currently Writing from the suburbs of paris, some 400 or so kms of walking later.  Tomorrow we head off for Orleans and the Loire, which will lead us on south towards the Alps...

More updates to follow!

Paddy and Andy

xxx

14th May:  Shortly before my final departure date i managed to ply one Andy Ward with enough homebrew cider that he agreed to drop everything (he's unemployed/unemployable, so i don't think he was much put out) and come on my adventure with me.  Though initially agreeing to accompany me to Dover, he has since changed his mind, several times, and now seems to be going the full stretch to Asia.  ("maybe", he says over my shoulder as i type...)

And so it was with a a song in our hearts and spring in our steps that we cantered out of Trafalgar Square on a rainy Monday morning, off down the embankment in search of sunnier climes.  We trudged on and on, but the M25 just didn't seem to be getting any closer.  Eventually, after a long, long, long walk of about 45km, we cleared london, the motorway, and city life, for the beautiful village of... Bean.  Odd name, but lovely people, and after a couple more drinks in a local pub we asked the barman if he knew where we might sleep the night.  He checked with a chap at the bar, who, it transpired, knew 'of a guy who might help'.  An hour later, after being offered a lift to germany in the back of an HGV (and declining) we found ourselves encamped in a feild at the back of a truckers' yard.  We settled down to a peaceful slumber.

And so it went on.  Each day followed a similar pattern, only with a steadily decreasing amount of miles covered.  People would try and shoo us away, we'd wheel out the Red Cross business cards, and the gates would swing rapidly open.  But true hospitality was exemplified by our hosts of last night, Sue and Ron Cooper and their family (and two brother Shitzus, Jasper and Mischief).  They not only welcomed us into their home, but also fed us a wonderful feast of roast pork with all the trimmings.  So if anyone is ever stuck in the Folkestone area without a place to sleep, Andy and myself both heartily recommend The Garden Lodge in Densole.

After leaving the Coopers at a rather ungodly hour this morning, we trecked at full pace to the charming town of Dover, from where we type this update.  It's been 5 nights, 160km, 4 very sore feet and 5 blisters, but we're still in one piece.... well, two pieces, counting both of us... and tomorrow we catch the ferry to France!  So many thanks again for all sponsorship so far, and keep it rolling in.  There will be more updates to come soon.

In the meantime, our regards,

Paddy and Andy