Recovering

It was wonderful to be met by so many people on the last day of the walk. Bro. Neil had braved a night under canvas to feed us with meaty beef casserole the night before and a full-on, never-to-be-forgotten cooked breakfast, before we set off at 7am.
Then, when we were flagging as we crossed the most barren part of the walk so far, bro. Steve and his doggie popped up (plus donuts!). We continued up the valley, with the castle in our sights. Finally reaching it, confident that this was the last significant 'up', we stormed Carreg Cennen Castle, and were greeted by cheers from the ladies who had reached it before us. Aneira, from the Christian Lewis Trust, was also there to hand out congratulatory certificates.

After a cuppa at the excellent cafe, we set off again and this gave Ally and I a welcome chance to catch up. Eventually we heard another familar voice: it was two more friends from church, Barbara and Bethan, who'd walked 3 miles out to meet us. A mile from Bethlehem, more friends and family had begun to cook a splendid barbeque. We paused to exchange greetings and passed on, eager to finish. We reached Bethlehem post office at 6:45pm, exhausted. It's great to have completed the walk and raised a significant sum for charity... heading on for £3000 between us.
Back at home, Pads has been feeling quite tired and occasionally giddy. It's not easy to tell what is causing it but we've tried reducing the gabapentin by a third. The medics want to scan him again. It will be a special scan but they can do it in Cardiff and interpret it in Birmingham. The purpose is to establish firmly that there is tumour there which could respond to chemo, rather than changes due to radiotherapy. The chemo would not be with a view to cure, but prolonging good quality of life. He's enjoying simple pleasures like jigsaws, donuts, audio books, and spending time with relatives and friends. For example, Latch are funding a trip to Oakwood on Thursday and to the climbing centre on Saturday, the latter is just for him and some of his mates from school.

The Black Mountain

We were delighted to welcome Anton back, fresh from a break and two good sleeps. He was in fine form and led the way at his own pace, which, it was assumed, would be slower than we'd normally go. But we were still tired from yesterday and so Anton's pace was a bit too keen for comfort at times.
Day 5 was always likely to be my favourite, not for the reduced milage (11miles or so) so much as the scenery which is a real favourite. However, it did turn out to be pretty gruelling, with a period of driving rain as harsh as anything we've had yet. Joe and Alex were flinching from knee pain on descending, but they're both very keyed up for the big 20 mile last day tomorrow.
Not long after we'd arrived at the campsite, Neil arrived with a sumptuous feast of beef casserole, bread from the deli and pudding. We were very well fed (Joe was hoping to loose weight this week!). Neil's gone to take Anton back to his car at Dan-y-Ogof, and is camping for the first time in his life tonight so that he can cook breakfast for us, ready for us to leave at 7am tomorrow!
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Good times and less so

Well the weather is wonderful. We had a couple of light showers and otherwise, as you can see, the clouds make for some stunningly dramatic scenery.
It was sad to have to let Anton go yesterday. We tried various tacks to bring him around but he was just feeling too bad to carry on.
We've all found it challenging though. Yesterday was a 14 mile day, and you can just see the half-way point in the picture - a tiny bump on the horizon - Pen-y-Fan. Today is the approach to that with two 300m ascents - 17 miles total. The next day, Pen-y-Fan day, is 20 miles.
We all like Cwmdu campsite (unlimited showers) and the local fayre is fine indeed. I ate too much and remembered at 2am that one thing I'd forgotten was indigestion relief but thankfully the feelings passed soon enough... As did the night.
The news from home is that Asher's school tag-rugby team had won 4/4 games - so well done them! Pads was in the crowd to cheer them on for me. Tag-rugby is a far better game than full-contact at this age: levels out the size advantage and develops important skills, like running straight and timing your pass.
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Because it's nice when I stop

Some would say it's a bit mad to walk 100 miles (or so) when you could drive...
We had a fairly strenuous 10miles yesterday, arriving at Llanthony at 5.30, accompanied most of the way by the sound of skylarks and thunder. We certainly got wet, but, by carefully observing the showers' path, accurately predicted when the rain would hit, donning the waterproofs. It was quite pleasing to feel the weather bouncing off.
Some cyclists we talked to described the roads becoming instantly treacherous, with 2 inches of hail falling suddenly further up the valley. Looking all around along Hatteral Hill at the storms, we could tell that we had done very well out of the day's weather. We pitched tents in the dry and retired for a very hearty meal around an open fire in the Half Moon Hotel.
We did not sleep that well but the weather was kind and the morning was fine. We had group devotions in the ancient church of St David before heading off and up.
The picture shows us resting at Crug Mawr. Just one more 300m climb left today :-) It'll be nice to get to Cwmdu.

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Beacons Way set to begin today

We're in the final throws of preparing for the Beacons Way trek. We're more or less nervous about the challenge. It's clearly no big deal to run 100 miles in a couple of days with 40Kg on your back if you're a marine. However, none of us fall into that category so we're trying to do it in 6 days with less than 20Kg instead... still expecting it to be tough.

In case you missed them, the justgiving pages related to this are as follows:
http://www.justgiving.com/bw2011-CancerResearchWales
http://www.justgiving.com/walk4wendy/
http://www.justgiving.com/bw2011-ChristianLewisTrust
Thanks to all of you who have generously given so that all targets have been exceeded, but if you still want to contribute - it's be great to see you on the 'roll of honour'!
We've had a few wobbles with Pads over the last couple of days. On Thursday night he was tired trying to do calligraphy for someone and a blind spot came over his right eye stopping him. This was gone in the morning but it did give us a glimpse of what could be coming in the near future.
Yesterday morning he was ill and that threw him, already tired from Longleat, for the best part of the day. He more-or-less brought up the paracetamol and gabapentin he'd just swallowed so that knocked my ability to give him those pain relief meds until much later on. And he did need pain relief - the effort of vomiting was a sore trial. When his tummy had calmed down I was able to gently squirt in an adult dose of ibruprofen and that helped in time. Later I could repeat the codeine dose and so he was happy to be able to get to the evening service, as jolly as ever.

Being on the walk this week, I have no idea of how much news I'll be able to bring through the blog or twitter but will do what I can.