A Great Feet!
The desire this year to kick off the fundraising for Ben’s Epic Christmas Boxes, turned into an epic walk across The South Downs Way. It’s something I’ve quite liked the idea of doing and because I quite often find myself walking the dogs around our neck of the woods, for sometimes miles at a time, I thought a few more miles couldn’t hurt.
On mentioning it to a dear friend of mine, also a keen walker, she immediately asked when I’d be setting out on this adventure and began to plan, which of course, inspired me further. And so it came to be!
We covered the hundred miles from Winchester to Eastbourne in seven days. We set out on Saturday 18 September, a day when the video we’d created to help raise awareness for the DKMS #BecauseOfBen Campaign, was streamed online on a live 24 hour feed by the World Bone Marrow Association as part of World Marrow Donor Day.
For the first three days, we were so close to home, that our husbands could duly come and pick us up. After a day off, we set off on Day Four of walking and then spent two nights away from home, to finish the stroll to Eastbourne.
It took us a while, practically, to get out of Winchester. I used to live in Kings Worthy, not far from town and thought it would be straightforward, but that wasn’t the case. As we stood and took our first ‘selfie’ by King Alfred the Great’s statue (yes, there is another in Wantage, where I grew up, but this one is just as great!) and I’d quietly been asking my boy for a sign that he might be around while we strolled on this epic adventure. Two seconds after said photo, a gentleman on a bike, asked me if I could take a photo of him by the statue, as he was cycling the South Downs Way and BACK within 24 hours for GLO, who were raising funds for people in Burundi. We chatted about our own challenge and I asked him his name. ‘It’s Ben,’ he said. Even my friend was impressed and I took that as a clear sign that Ben would be casting his eye over this intrepid adventure. Well, he would have laughed his head off to start with, as we found the signage to be quite confusing, however, finally made our way onto the South Downs Way about an hour and a half late and by 11.20 am, we were laughing, exhausted and mildly frustrated with the directions and missed opportunities for things to line up and be easy!
We had a number of locals comment that they were always seeing walkers staring at maps and unable to see the signs properly to know how to leave Winchester. Well, I can tell you, we had a number of inadvertent detours over the week ourselves due to lack of or vague signage. Yes, we used Googlemaps and an Ordnance Survey map!
Thankfully, both my dear friend and I have a good sense of humour, which stayed intact throughout!
I don’t know quite what I expected as I walked through tree tunnels and along high rise hills, by rivers and over vast vistas, stretching for miles ahead of me, but I think I the landscape began to reflect my heart and my grief with its light and shade. The hills undulate like the emotions. Some of the steep climbs gave me cause to just give in to the physical and mental pain. The thought some days of facing even steeper hills than we’d just walked along, when it was so hot and we were so exhausted, could have been enough to tip me over the edge, quite literally. However, the colours were so beautiful; the valleys and skies, breathtaking; and the joy of looking out over the ocean on the last day and seeing the sun reflected like a sheen of sparkles and magic, was something I will never forget.
One thing I learned about this particular friendship, is that this soul is as quietly creative, driven and tenacious as I am. When I was tired, she lead and encouraged me. I hope I did the same for her when things got tricky with feet and leg pain as the week progressed.
On the Friday, we were on the approach to Rodmell and Southease. At the stepping off of the South Downs Way as you are about to coast down a fairly steep incline to Rodmell, there’s a sign that simply says ‘To The Pub’ which brought a smile. However, we didn’t stop there. Instead, we wandered further down one of the quaint lanes to Monk’s House; run by The National Trust. It was a place my friend wanted to see if we had time. We were there mid afternoon and had made great time through the day.
What I didn’t quite anticipate was the effect that this House would also have on me. Monk’s House is the home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf. The cottage itself seemed small, but was beautifully set out; definitely the home of a creative soul, with furniture and paintings, some of them gifts and very personal from family placed neatly around the downstairs.
I was aware of her story, just a little, but on wandering round the garden, where she and her husband’s remains lie, there is something very real, very honest, beautiful and stoic in the effervescence of colour in the landscape. The allotments at the back hold fruit and a host of different, colourful flora. There are apples and pear trees scattered among the cosmos and dahlias.
The small dew pond and statues placed discreetly in the green add to the innate charm of the place and then the summerhouse; home to the history of the feminist who wrote such epic pieces I’ve yet to discover. Well, on seeing her typewriter and words from her book, ‘A Room of One’s Own’ highlighted on one wall there, I was left totally inspired.
As early evening came, we arrived, tired and hungry, at the Youth Hostel at Southease, where a large jacket potato and simple, but comfortable bed awaited my shattered knee joints and poor, blistered feet.
On our final day, we had a more leisurely start, although the intention had been to start walking earlier. We set off into the only fog of the week and managed to stay on the Way until the sun burned through the mist and the beauty of the hills and mesmerising sparkle of the sun on the sea could be seen.
We stopped enroute in Alfriston, a very pretty and quaint village, where we found ourselves very much drawn into Much Ado Books, home to a myriad of exquisite gems and old texts, along with a host of Virginia Woolf’s written treasures. I bought To The Lighthouse for myself as a treat.
After our indulgent shopping trip, we wandered down a nearby street and had a welcome and very lovely cream tea at Badgers Tea Rooms. https://badgersteahouse.com/
My goodness, that was delicious and we even saved one of the fruit scones to demolish later on Seven Sisters overlooking the sea. As we walked the steep hills and our knees almost buckled under the pressure of those downhills of Seven Sisters, I honestly felt like Angels and relatives were walking with me, protecting me, guiding me and enjoying the views. My feet were able to walk at speed and for. a time, I felt no discomfort, only courage and determination.
By the end of the afternoon, early evening, just around 6.30 pm, we were almost running at a determined pace to get to the end of the South Downs Way. We’d seen biplanes as we wandered along Seven Sisters and were almost beaten by the uphills and downhill stretches! My friend’s words stick in my head and I am smiling now. ‘We’ll do this together. It’s all downhill from here!’ We just fell about laughing in our overtired, slightly over exhausted kind of way!
It was quite a feeling of overwhelm and surreality as we stood at the 100 mile point. Without a taxi present, we decided to walk the last mile and a half to the train station, whereby we’d walked 18.9 miles that day - over 42,000 steps. In total, we walked not just 100 miles, but 117.5 miles to allow for visits to houses, pubs, etc and wanderings off piste and back again! We walked thousands of steps, each one of them so worth it.
This was fundamentally a fundraiser to raise awareness of the need for stem cell donors, in the month of September, where we help to raise awareness of Childhood Cancer and this is. the time of year where we begin raising money for Ben’s Epic Christmas Boxes, a project; a statue, created in my son’s name.
There’s not a day goes by when I don’t think about my boy and the fact that the girls will not have the chance to grow up with their brother. It doesn’t ever feel real. I almost feel like he’s gone on a road trip himself and one day, he’ll just walk in the back door and say, ‘Just mum, can I just say …’
I am so glad I had the pleasure of such great company throughout this week and I’m so blessed to have the good friends that I do in my life - you know who you are. I’m so grateful for the support from my family, especially my hubby and my beautiful girls; and I’m so blessed to be able to walk a whole hundred miles for the children who will be in the three hospitals this Christmas, where Benny was treated.
If you’d like to take a look and donate, the fundraising page is here. It’s open until 11 December 2021. Thank you.
https://gogetfunding.com/bens-epic-christmas-boxes-season-3-lego-strikes-back/
It was a great feat for my feet and The South Downs Way has gifted me the time in nature I needed at this moment in time, to be able to allow my heart to just be and absorb all that is beautiful and light, all that is possible and it has left a lasting impression on this bereaved mum, something I will treasure always as I continue to put one foot in front of the other.
Love my bears xxx
Wishing you all love and courage xxx
Overlooking the beautiful ocean at Seven Sisters with Angels xxx