Finance Bulletin Newsletter_November 2022 V1

Taff Trail

Day 1 We headed off from Brecon to start the first 25 miles. For the first 6 or 7 miles we were ok, lots of talking and Mel taking pictures, feet holding up - all really good. After 7 miles, we stopped off and had a drink and short rest, bought some more fluids before setting off again. A few hours later, we wanted to stop and grab some lunch somewhere, but we realised there was literally nowhere to do this or to get fresh drinks. More miles followed and we managed to find a nearby village - no local shop, but luckily a pub that was open. That was the good news. The bad news was that they stopped serving food! So, a few full-fat cokes later we rebandaged our feet (with them starting to hurt a little), filled up our water bottles and set off to find some shade and to share the food I had. The last half of the first day really started to take its toll on us - it was very hot, we were getting low on liquids and we hadn’t had too much food for energy BUT... we made it, and all got there. We had our meal and went off to bed to get rested for Day 2 - 30 miles.

So, what started out as many who signed up for the challenge, turned in to the “fab 4” that were left. Melanie Lowe, Matt Jones, Anthony Khayat and myself (Paul Stirk) were the chosen few who were about to embark on the 55 mile 2 day walking challenge. How hard can that be right! ? We had several meetings beforehand, and a few suggested trial walks before the main event but, given home commitments and probably more ignorance than anything else, pretty sure we all thought, yeah we’ve got this, its walking – how hard can that be! (Later to be proved oh so wrong) We had the meetings and soon got a list of items we needed, which was growing by the day. You’d think we were heading off to the Amazon jungle judging by the ever growing list. We had walking sticks, rain coats, change of clothes, change of shoes, blister plasters, blister powder, drinks, more drinks, food, more sweets than Willy Wonka’s factory with more and more items being added/suggested. The big day arrives (Wednesday 10th Aug). Its 3am when the alarm goes off. I’m up, packed, and off to T2 for a 5.30am meet with the “fab 4”. Everyone’s on time and Matt Jones kindly drives us to his 2nd home where he has a static caravan near the start point. We get our rucksacks on - as we are carrying everything we need for the next 2 days walking as well as for the third day when we travel home. Now let me tell you, the bags weighed an absolute tonne - don’t really know why, but trust me they did. (If you look closely at the pictures of Mel, the bag pretty much covers her entire body and from behind all we could see was just a head and boots (sorry Mel)).

Finance Bulletin

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