100 miles Part 4 – things I learnt along the way

30 miles is about the limit I can walk in a single day and I’m not sure that I’d want to do this on multiple days. 20 miles is quite comfortable at 2mph allowing plenty of time for lunch and other breaks.

The closer you get to a car park and people the more rubbish you see…..

It is hard to find anywhere along the South Downs Way where you can’t hear traffic.

The tent worked really well (Vango Zenith 100). I found that if I put my backpack at one end with my head in the middle of the tent it really didn’t matter which way round I pitched it. This did give a few more options when the ground slopes and you are trying to keep the door out of the wind.

Millie was a real star. She was obviously tired at the end of each day and curled up as soon as the tent was pitched. She slept on my down jacket and the night it was chilly she wore her fleece over night as well. Millie didn’t eat much in the evening but did eat most in the mornings when I stopped for coffee.

Carrying 2 litres of water in 4 bottles worked really well. It was easy to see how much I had left and they were easy to refill. I do need to take a few more things to snack on during the day. I didn’t really fancy anything sweet and trail mix worked well. I would also like to take nicer food with me rather than the freeze dried meals that I had.

You always learn something about yourself as well, I learnt how tiredness affects my morale and that a mix of a few relatively minor things can have a negative impact. It is amazing the difference that a good nights sleep can make !

The other thing is that I’m really glad I took the time to adjust my backpack and make sure it fitted properly, even slight adjustments on the second morning made a substantial difference to the comfort.

I did film a few clips on my phone, I wasn’t sure if I should include them here because it is how I felt at the time rather than a glossed over version…. Anyway, I’ve put them on to YouTube..

,
%d bloggers like this: