A journey of 500km begins with...

SO. The first few kilometers are behind me - but as they were through airport corridors and queue "stacks" they don't count. Basically I have arrived at my starting point!

Points of interest on my way here;

1.Confusion at airports as to whether hiking poles are to travel in the cabin, or in the hold of your plane. (from London to Istanbul the former, from Istanbul to Dalaman the latter, apparently, and this incurred some frantic to-ing and fro-ing at the security barrier).

2. The best place for lunch at Istanbul Attaturk Airport is the staff canteen, called the Botanik Cafe (see photo). Discovered by accident we were nevertheless welcomed and the salad bar was great!

3. A superb view of Dalyan from the plane. A sand bar beach runs across the delta formed where a waterway from Lake Coycegiz filters down to the sea. On this sandbar loggerhead turtles struggle ashore to lay their eggs. It is now protected against development.

4. The sight of the mountain Baba Dag's majestic cone, capped with a touch of snow despite temperatures at sea-level being in the low 20's (68+F)

I am staying at a "butik" hotel in Ovacik about to turn in, with a chorus of toads singung a lullaby.

First steps tomorrow. More news soon!

ONCE IT'S GONE IT'S.. SCONE!

The Cream Tea Party in aid of Water Aid at the Elmgreen School (DT dept.) raised £110 in cash and £180 in pledges. The latter is eligible for Gift Aid bringing the total for the event to £335! 

By far the greatest contribution was made by Gen Guise who provided at her own expense and labour100+ delicious scones, six flavours of homemade jam, table setting with white damasc linen and easter-themed decoration. Other DT staff did sterling work setting up and clearing up after.

As many as 75 staff attended. Some enjoyed testing their skills with modelling ballons, others the opportunity for a chat, and all the luscious treats and tea.

My role was to meet and greet, explain how I came to the decision to walk the Lycian Way and why I chose to raise funds for Water Aid.

My travel plans were "in limbo" recently due to the cancellation of my original Turkish internal flight but mid morning today finally confirmed. Rather than flying overnight Saturday the new schedule has an early start on Sunday and arrives 6pm local time.

I then need to get to Ovacik where I'll spend the night. I start the walk the next day.

I carried the fully packed rucksack to and from work today. No sweat, but I have to be very time-conscious as I can't really run with it to catch a train!

Murky Waters

This time next week I will be in Turkey, hopefully having completed the first day's walk on the Lycian Way!

Yesterday, as a training exercise I loaded my rucksack with all the gear I will be taking with me and set off on a hike of, ultimately 16+ km. This included an extra "loop" at the end pick up some groceries!
My pack weighed in at 10.5 kilos.

After trekking across parts of New Malden, Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common I arrived home feeling none the worse for wear, but the shopping loop left my shoulders feeling pretty crampy. I think the continual motion of walking keeps cramp at bay;  shuffling through the aisles of a supermarket and the added burden of a carrier bag are evils that I hope not to encounter on the LW.
I've noticed that the soles of my beloved Scarpa boots (which I have worn every day - 5+ weeks - since I got them) have pretty unyielding soles. At the end of work today my feet were aching a bit so on the way home I picked up a pair of "gel" insoles. I've just been for for a circuit of the local streets and they seem to work well. I'll test them with a day at work tomorrow and no doubt my feet will report back tomorrow evening!

I came across this Turkey-and-water-related article today.
Hasankeyf locals stuck in limbo after Ilısu Dam decision

Hasankeyf is a rural town threatened with inundation if the Ilisu Dam project goes ahead. The project, built for hydro-electric power, has also been criticised as threatening to deny Syria and Southern Iraq of the water of the Tigris/Euphrates.

It will be an interesting discussion point should I meet Turkish people with sufficient English to be able to give me their point of view!

I'm sending this from my smartphone and posting a photo just to test the system so.. forgive the random subject matter! (something I saw on my walk)

WORLD WATER DAY

I'm collecting, he's collecting...
A rainwater collecting "jar" in Uganda. As an amateur ceramicist I can only marvel at this!

Yesterday was World Water Day.

This was established by the United Nations 20 years ago to focus attention on the lack of safe drinking water in specific parts of the World.

I was rather late discovering this so it was a bit of a rush to produce publicity for the windows if the DT Department at Elmgreen.

Today 783 million people - about 11% of the World's population lack access to safe drinking water.

700,000 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation - that's almost 2,000 a day.

These are shocking facts to throw at young people. Ironically it is the very young who are most at risk of these diseases.For the purposes if campaigning I try to balance this with positive messages - about how the efforts of organisations such as Water Aid bring about change for the better.

One positive message I can pass on to all my supporters is that I have passed my initial fundraising target of £500! I now have a new target in mind - I want to double it to £1,000!

THIS WOULD BE A FANTASTIC ACHEIVEMENT! Whether applied to one large project or a multitude of small ones such a sum could have a dramatic positive impact for a cimmunity or for literally hundreds of individuals. (If £15 can ensure a continuing supply of clean water for one person, we could multiply that by 667!)

If you haven't already donated, or know someone who hasn't "got round to it" yet, now us the time to act! You can experience that warm glow next time World Water Day comes around knowing that your contribution will have helped change lives for the better!

Here is a link to a new feature on the Water Aid site www.wateraid.org/welcome-to-alakamisy It is intetactive. It's a nice way of seeing one of Water Aid's project sites, meeting some of the locals and appreciating how they benefit from clean water. In a cold damp UK it's also nice to visit sunny dry Madagascar and see how the water sparkles!

Don't forget the donation site! uk.virginmoneygiving.com/RobinThomson

Jews Ear, Soggy Meadows, Steaming Mugs of Tea

 

 Hi!

I hope that those of you to whom I recommended the blog have found your way here and have enjoyed what I have had to share with you so far! I have had one comment, constructive criticism you might say, that I should be describing the region I will be walking through, its unique history and natural character, rather than rambling on about seemingly irrelevant matters (like this photo of Jews Ear fungus taken on Sunday).

He may have a point.. but rather than describe the wonderful Lycia to you now I will tell you a bit more about my preparations for the walk. I’ll give an introduction to Lycia in my next blog post, and subsequent ones, hopefully, will be relayed from that very land itself!

So you may guess that with only 19 days until I fly to Turkey my plans for the expedition are gathering pace. I have had the inoculations recommended for Turkey and am working through the last remaining items on my pack list. This includes some odd ones; a whistle, a tick remover, a ball of string. This last one is for lowering a billy-can into a well or cistern to collect water. Some of these cisterns are quite ancient, and strategically located to accumulate rain fall. Of course I have water purification tablets and I plan to get filter-fitted bottles too.

 Towards the end of last week I was thinking that camping a few nights might be a good idea, reducing accommodation costs and  making the options of where to stop and spend the night more flexible. It would also add to the sense of freedom and adventure… but probably at the expense of good quality sleep. An experimental attempt to fit camping gear into my rucksack this weekend was less than encouraging – a two-man “bug” tent added 3 1/4 kilos and a lot of bulk to my pack. I'm trying to keep my pack weight down to 10 kilos!

On the subject of walking with a back-pack I decided that I needed some practice, and on Sunday loaded my rucksack with an odd collection of items to provide a weight of  12 kilos (Curiously these had a beverage theme; bottled water, cartons of fruit-juice and two ancient bottles of cheap bubbly – as well as the aforementioned tent, poles and a rolled-up sleeping mat). The weight was daunting but once on the rucksack was reassuringly comfortable, the straps and padding fitting comfortably against neck, back and shoulders. I set off for The Common at noon.

 Despite grey skies and a bitterly cold North-Easterly wind I found that the main problem was regulating body temperature - unexposed parts having a tendency to over-heat!. After a long muddy trek through muddy forest, over muddy hillocks and soggy meadows I arrived at the Windmill. I had completed over 5 km and was ready for a rest and refreshment. Did I mention it was muddy?

The Windmill café is a useful facility for local families enjoying the fresh air and wild landscape, and exercising dogs and/or children. They offer all-day breakfast, a full menu of traditional café fare, cakes, ice cream and steaming mugs of tea. I suspect that there are few patrons who arrive with the Sunday paper, spend more than a lunch hour there and whose only experience of fresh air is that encountered between the café and the adjacent car-park. Good luck to them.

Having collected a justifiably calorie-loaded snack and the obligatory tea, I disengaged myself from the rucksack and lowered it to the floor – then almost floated to the nearest table! I mused about the prospect of refreshment stops on the Lycian way. The attraction of the Windmill café on a cold and blustery March Sunday in South-West London is the warmth, piping hot tea and shelter from the wind. In three weeks time my ideal rest-pause site might be altogether different!

It was a good time to take a break, giving me the chance to flex my neck and shoulders, and when I hauled the pack back on it felt familiar and comfortable. The five km return walk seemed to pass more quickly. I was home by 4.30pm not too much the worse for wear. I did however crash out of the sofa and it was after 6.30pm before I “came round” and resumed an upright and conscious state.

During last week at The Elmgreen School I was delighted to venture into a classroom to find a class of Year 7 students busily designing and colouring posters entitled "Water Aid". Although the school is not officially part of my fund-raising challenge my joint Head of Department, the lovely Genevieve has decided to make an end-of-term staff tea-party an instrument for fund-raising for Water Aid! I also received my "official" Water Aid T-shirt (photos soon) and leaflets to back up fund-raising efforts.

Fun-raising is going really well. I am now confident of achieving my target and now secretly setting my sights on a much higher figure! If you have not yet donated, or know someone who might, please go to, or direct them to; http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/RobinThomson

Thanks to all donors for you thoughtfulness and generosity. Thoughts of your kindness and of what your donations will achieve will give me energy and resolve to carry on when things get tough. To find out more about Water Aid go to http://www.wateraid.org/

Robin

Training; Limbo, Shopping and the Cowboy Spidermonkey..

"How is the training going?" It's a reasonable enquiry from someone interested in my preparations for the walk. But for me its a tough one to answer. The response "It isn't!" hovers like an unquiet soul... But, borderline delusional as ever, I can point to a range of recent activities that, to my mind might be construed as "training".

My recent rip to Paris included a few treks across the city; the Louvre itself boasts many kilometres of  gallery that I did my best to cover. And the occasional encounter with natives exercised communications skills that will be valuable in Turkey. "But they don't speak French in Turkey!" I hear you say. Do you think I was speaking French in Paris? 

Last week I made the mistake of doing a major midweek "shop", forgetting in the excitement of my supermarket sweep that I no longer possess a car. With a couple of bulging carrier bags in each hand I walked the couple of miles home. It was painless, but tiring (this was at the end of a normal working day). 

Thinking about the prospect of carrying all I will need for a walk of 135 miles I was curious to check the weight of my shopping, so once indoors I stepped on the bathroom scales first with, then without the bags. After a bit of mental arithmetic I concluded that my shopping weighed 13.5 kilos. My walk guide book recommends a pack weight of no more than 14-16! My target pack-weight is now under 10 kilos!

My plan for training includes a regular physical workout with emphasis on maintaining flexibility of joints (especially hips, knees, and feet) and improving cardio-vascular efficiency. I have to confess to failing to keep up this regime. So I have been surprised to find that recent activities that would tend to leave me winded or with a crick in my neck or shooting pains in my knee have produced no such horrors. Perhaps it is my regular morning run for the train that is keeping me fit! (I find I do this now even when I know I'm in good time) - maybe also the series of physical challenges that come my way in the course of my work.

Last week's physical challenge was the "Scenery Limbo". In this event the plucky volunteer has to carry a succession of 15 stage flats (painted canvas-covered frames), balancing them on his back, while stooping under the head of the Hobbit-sized doors that access the under-stage storage space.(I had Hobbit-sized assistance getting them out but at about 5pm they disappeared probably on some ring-quest.)

This weekend I was recruited to assist in installing a Velux roof-light on the pitched roof of a three-storey Brixton terraced house. The job was too small to justify the erection of scaffolding. Having conducted all the necessary Risk Assessments,  a full set of climbing gear was procured and the work proceeded with me "in harness" and carabina'd to ropes lassoed from one chimney-stack to another.

When I was young I remember being shown pictures of the "Spidermen" who pieced together the steel frames of the burgeoning sky-scrapers of New York and Chicago. I was already an adept tree-climber; these men were my heroes for their bravery, skill and acrobatic prowess. Now at the age of 58 I feel entitled to borrow something of their name, coupled with current jargon for a casual trader, and an able assistant and declare myself a Cowboy Spidermonkey! 

Once again I claim this to be appropriate training for my trans-Turkey trek. I'm sure there some ridge walking involved and at some point I expect to experience some degree of exposure (this is climber-speak for being on the brink an eye-watering precipice) 
and a sloping slate roof three-storeys above a Brixton back-yard is as exposed as it gets.

More soon!

By the way; the fund-raising for Water Aid is going really well, maybe thanks to the Virgin money Giving site that makes it all so easy and straightforward -  don't forget to make your donation! Go to http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/RobinThomson