How to eat an elephant?

The idea is to walk 1800 kilometres or 1100 miles from Caen on the Channel to Marseilles on the Mediterranean. The idea is not mine but is taken from the website, France on Foot.
My own suggestion would be to bring the walk down into bite size chunks, a week here or a fortnight there, rather than attempting to do the whole walk in one. How do you eat an elephant? One mouthful at a time is the answer.

The fact that someone has done the trip before me and written extensively about the experience deters me not a jot. I feel that attempting the task and the effort/determination to complete it will be beneficial to me as a person. I am not a trailblazer or put off by walking in others’ footsteps. I am not trying to claim credit for the idea but am rather setting myself a challenge that perhaps would have been impossible at any other stage of my life. I will need to plan and prepare to a degree that I have rarely needed to do. I will also need the assistance of the best beloved in the matter of helping with the logistics. On occasion I hope to welcome her as a walking companion but don’t intend insisting on her walking all the way with me. I hope others will join me on occasions and in sections of the walk. I could also see if people were willing to sponsor me for some or the entire walk and give the money raised to charity. But the aim is the walk itself!

I am writing about it in my blog to publish my intentions and to stiffen my resolve. I don’t want the idea to remain a pipe dream. This is something I have thought about and dreamed of during the last few years of my teaching career. When asked what I was going to do on my retirement, I would often say that my ambition was to walk one of the grand randonnees in France without giving too much thought to how or when.

I believe my physical health and well being is now good enough to sustain the endeavour if done over sufficient time. Thanks to the lovely Debbie Hobbs (Cardiac Rehab IV), I am fitter now than I have been for some years. I am overweight. If, however, I wait until I have lost weight I won’t start. Instead by setting myself the goal and getting into training for the event I will actually motivate myself to lose weight, thus achieving both aims. I will also check with my doctor and cardiologist to make sure I am doing nothing untoward. The sufficient time though depends on whether I do one or two sessions per year. I would want to walk in spring or autumn rather than in the summer. I could therefore in theory do both a spring and autumn expedition in one year if I chose or was able.

In the walk described at France on Foot, the account is only of the first 494 miles or just under half of the trip. This half takes 32 days in 4 instalments of about 127 miles each. If I did one instalment a year, it would take me four years but if I could manage two instalments a year I could do the whole walk in four years, which would see me to 2013 or my 66th year.

In the walk described at France on Foot, the first section is 128 miles long over 8 days. This is approximately 11.5 miles per day. (There are 1.6 kilometres in a mile.) I had expected to do days of walking interspersed with rest days and may have to revert to this plan after I have reviewed my training. I need to build up my walking gradually in terms of energy levels and distance covered. There is the local Wayfarers Walk and, of course, the South Downs Walk on which to practise. In the past I have mainly done circular walks, which are still valid exercise, but are not extending enough in their own right.

I already have the maps on which to plan the route. I have thought about this plan before but it has returned to me with a new determination. I need to think about equipment especially boots and clothing. I will also need to think about the logistics as my initial plan is to move from camp-site to camp-site along the randonnee. Rather than carrying my tent, though, I have a different plan, which involves the best beloved closely. She is not adverse to the plan I have sketched for her but is interested in the detail almost as much as I am. This post is obviously one I shall return to frequently as the idea takes more concrete shape in my head. For now it is back to the funding applications I am putting in for the Havant Literary Festival.