A huge thank you to Bill Merrington (and his wife in support), who walked the Wainwright coast to coast – a great distance – in August to raise money for Interface Uganda. Bill says: ‘Andrew and Sarah were originally in my church when I was vicar at St Paul’s Leamington Spa. The church raised funds for a village in the far west of Uganda and I went out to meet them in 1996 to see their work and do some research on bereavement issues.’
Have a read of Bill’s report – sounds like he had an eventful time!
I walked the Wainwright coast to coast from St.Bees, Cumbria to Robin hood’s bay near Whitby. The walk took 14 days walking on average about 10-20 miles. Its about a 200 mile walk including the ‘getting lost’ moments. Unfortunately on the first day I walked 6 miles only to find that I had ended up at the starting point. After that I took my navigating skills more seriously. Alas walking over Cumbria was extremely wet where the path had become a stream, the stream was a river and the peaks a bog. There was only one point when I was totally lost on a peak in the fog! I did the walk alone although met a range of people each day to chat to. Each night I met my wife in a campervan who supplied me with food. Its a wonderful walk across Cumbria, the Pennines, Yorkshire dales and the North Yorkshire Dales. It was a joy to reach the North Sea and put my feet in the water. Amazingly I didn’t get one blister.
I’m very grateful to people in the Bournemouth University and local churches that sponsored me. With the gift aid it should be over £1300.