Hello jack planancers,
Christ on a bike - The sponsorships are rolling in! Wow! I am utterly overwhelmed and extremely grateful to everybody who has chipped in. I am delighted to report we are way over the target figure thanks to all y'all! The amount going to Save The Children's Emergency Haiti fund stands at £1920.95 and rising. That works out at about €2185 so far. THAT IS SO INCREDIBLE and makes my little heart skip like a schoolgirl! Thank You. It also needs to be stated that I am humbled to have received so much non monetary assistance and goodwill along the way - waves, texts, calls, massages, beds to kip in, ovens to cook in, baths to wash in, pubs to go potty in, cups of tea etc. The final credits will roll when I've finished the walk but so far, this is just smashing. Well done and thank you.
On a personal level, I am making more discoveries about my body than I think I did during puberty. I am walking roughly 5 k per hour and 35k per day. That works out at, let's say, 7 hours walking each day and throw in an hour lunch, that's roughly 8 hours on the go in total. The bizarre thing is that it is actually getting easier each day. For example, on Tuesday I walked 42k to Ballinasloe and wanted to cry like a slapped baby. I was in a jocker - blisters and stinging, swollen feet. Today and yesterday I walked almost 75k combined (Athlone to Edenderry) and I feel stiff and tired but overall, pretty comfortable and raring to go tomorrow. As many people know, I am not the most athletic person you'll encounter and I generally break out in a rash at the thought of exercise. However, I think my body has now gotten used to walking for 7 hours a day on many different standards of road. It wakes up and says "Hit me". It expects it and is preparing for it each day. This adaptation might be glaringly obvious to many people but to me it is startling and exciting. In fact the worst time in terms of pain is not when you're walking. It's when you're
not walking. That's when you feel the gremlins in the works, tightening your quads and inflaming your ankles. I don't feel much when I'm actually going; at least not until about 4 hours without a break. A cross Ireland trek sounds daunting but if panty mc panterson here can do this, many of you can too. I'm not trying to say it's easy. It aint. I'm knackered and my legs feel like they are connected to live cables. But I am trying to say your body will surprise you. I know a guy (I was in primary school with him) who, by his own admission, carries quite a lot more weight than me. That didn't stop him walking from Mizen to Malin head for Cystic Fibrosis. Amazing feat. (No pun intended) His name is Emmet Ryan and he's a remarkable guy - look him up!
Tonight I bed down in Edenderry, County Offaly. A lovely, funny guy called Paul is putting me up and I thank him for his hot water, squishy bed, delicious pizza, invaluable laptop and general savageness. I might even have a pint tonight. Have been dry all week but the goo won't go away. Tomorrow I will head for Maynooth (33k I think) and on Sunday i shall arrive in Ringsend, Dublin Bay (30k) I shall lash up photos and video pieces I did along the way when possible. I will leave you with ten random discoveries I have made on this trip so far
1)Badgers are killed all the time in County Westmeath. There are dead ones on the sides of roads everywhere
2)John Updike is a really really really really good writer. (Read 'Rabbit Run')
3)'Beatles for Sale' is a dark horse for my new favourite Beatles album. It's a corker
4)Farming gentlemen driving tractors on secondary roads in Ireland always salute you with a swoosh of the pointing finger on their right hand. It's a lovely trait. Car drivers rarely do it. I hereby christen it 'The tractor finger'
5)The R400 that crosses the N6 to Rhode in County Offaly from Westmeath is very beautiful
6)Googlemaps's written instructions are as easy to follow as Mulholland Drive. At least, in the midlands they are useless
7) There is no moat or even so much as a castle in Moate. Very disappointed and disillusioned
8)'Under armour' skintight shorts will stop your legs chafing (sp) when walking long distance. They are fantastic.
9)Billy Bragg is the man. I would happily exchange my hips to be able to have written the following lines:
" She danced with me and I still hold that memory
Soft and sweet
And I stare up at her window
As I walk down her street
But I never made the first team,
I just made the first team laugh
And she never came to the phone
She was always in the bath
In the end, it took me a dictionary
To find out the meaning of unrequited
While she was giving herself for free
At a party to which I was never invited"
Genius - see song of the day
10)I remain heavily addicted to tangle twisters. They are ice lolly royalty and I am their loyal and faithful subject
honourable mention: sea trout is the most sensational fish ever
Ok, talk soon
Track Of The Day -
BILLY BRAGG - THE SATURDAY BOYJ
SPONSOR JOHN
HEREOR EMAIL JOHN AT galwaydublinhaiti .at. gmail.com
