The unofficial times are:

Ramblomatic Crew (23hrs 23mins 05secs)
Partly Ramblomatic (25hrs 39mins 15secs)
Ramblomatic Extras (29hrs 11mins 42secs)

Big thanks to the support crews and those who sponsored us!

We don’t have much to worry about in England when it comes to wildlife. There are no dangerous spiders, no killer bees and even our native Adder snake has a bite about as poisonous as good night out on the vodka. If you’re really unlucky you might get squashed by cows. But there is a new danger, one that threatens to engulf us all!

Well, perhaps not, but it’s good to be aware of these things I guess…

Tick Alert is a campaign “…to raise awareness of tick-borne diseases both at home and abroad”. TBE is definitely to be avoided but doesn’t look to be a concern here…yet. The one we should worry about is Lyme disease…and the South Downs is a UK hotspot! A HOTSPOT I TELLS YA!!!

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This sensationalist posting is bought to you in co-operation with the “Won’t somebody please think of the children!” (TM) campaign.

My theme was school disco with optional fancy dress. I had fruity cocktails, pass the parcel with a twist, a raffle and prizes for the most original boy and girl. I charged £7.00 entrance fee and charged £1 per raffle ticket or £5 for 6.  I asked guests to bring along a wrapped unwanted gift or item to be used a raffle items. My front room was decorated with 80’s and 90’s idols, films and icons to get people in the nostalgic mood.  I provided a school themed buffet, with cocktail sausages and cheese and pineapple on sticks. Very cheesy but that was the point of the night.

Dressing up was great fun. I went for a neon look with my school uniform.  Some of the other guests came along as school boys and girls and we even had someone who dressed as a dinner lady.  The guests who didn’t dress up were the teachers of the school and judged the competition.

I used Spotify for the nights music. That way all the great school tunes could be found with no cost as there is no charge to listen to tracks.  Towards the end of the night the party was in full swing with dancing and singing till late. Luckily my neighbour downstairs was away!!

The turn out was good and good fun was had by all. I managed to raise £133.00, which was excellent.  I would definitely have another themed party, it was a great way to let your hair down.

Now I’m detoxing for the final weeks of training…

We need your help to reach our targets, so please sponsor us through JustGiving. Links to all our team pages are below:

• Partly Ramblomatic
• Ramblomatic Crew
• Ramblomatic Extras

The day was a success and enjoyable too. Everyone was really in good spirit and donated generously. My cake seemed to go down well and I received lots of compliments. My thanks also go to Galla and Susannah who also contributed cakes. Everyone left feeling rather full and caked out by the end of the day. Would definitely do this again and recommend this as a great funraising idea if you have willing employers.

The plan was to go from Petersfield station, meet the Trailwalker route after about 6km and follow through checkpoints 1 to 7, then break off down the hill to Hassocks train station. That would have come to 80km, so we started at 12:30 with the aim of reaching the station for the 06:30 train to London. Alas, it was not to be…

Ben’s ankle had been troubling him after the last week’s walk, so it was a bit of a concern. By about 15km it was an issue, so at CP2 he stopped off to apply a bit of deep heat. It helped, but not enough. Before CP3 he had to change into his trainers, and we realised we had to abort at Amberley station, just past CP4. After that point we wouldn’t have come to another station until Hassocks, at least 9 hours later.

So. Petersfield to Amberley via CP1-4. Beautiful sunshine, our first trip to the Downs for the year and an important lesson about the value of support teams. Not only can they help to reduce the carry-weight by rationing out food, water and kit as needed, they can provide the invaluable service of recovering those who can’t continue. Lesson learnt, we’ll get back on with arranging our support team.

For reference for future walks, our stage times were as follows:

Route: Petersfield to Amberley
Walkers: Ben, Ferris, Sam
Date: 20/05/09
Distance: 39km/24 miles (approx.)
Time: 9h 10m
Average speed: 4.2kph/2.6mph

With this being my first solo trek - i decided on a far easier route than my previous one. It was a little touch and go with the weather to begin with - but as i arrived in Brighton the sun was shining and all was well.

Arrived at Brighton at 8:30AM with a mission to make it to Seaford and back in under 8 hours. Despite the on and off weather conditions i managed to cover
26miles in 8 hours 20mins - stopping at Saltdean for 30mins each way.

Having appropriate footgear made this trek, less of an effort. I even found myself jogging at times.

The scenery was beautiful and I’ll be repeating the trek with my trusty camera at hand this time.

I recommend this route to anybody.

Route: Brighton to Seaford and back
Walkers: Andrew
Date: 13/05/09
Distance: 42km/26 miles (approx.)
Time: 8h 20m
Average speed: 5.0kph/3.1mph

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Route: Marlow to Egham along the Thames
Walkers: Ben, Ferris, Sam
Date: 13/05/09
Distance: 35km/22 miles (approx.)
Time: 6h 40m
Average speed: 5.1kph/3.2mph

Route: Ystradfellte falls
Walkers: Tim, Ben, Elisabel, Zoe, Olly, Sam
Date: 10/05/09
Distance: 10km/6 miles (approx.)
Time: 3h 50m
Average speed: 2.6kph/1.6mph

We started out in Pencelli, went round the Talybont reservoir, then headed up Fan Y Big for some obligatory diving board shots before heading back down as the weather came in. Luvverly day out!

Route: Fan Y Big loop from Pencelli
Walkers: Tim, Dave, Ben, Elisabel, Zoe, Olly, Sam
Date: 09/05/09
Distance: 26km/16 miles (approx.)
Time: 8h 50m
Average speed: 2.9kph/1.8mph

Oh, and I’ve just got to recommend the cottage we stayed in - beautiful place, and the owners were brilliant. It’s called Blacksmith’s Cottage, and it’s just up near Sennybridge, a few miles down the road from Brecon.