During the summer of 2017, I took Sméagol for a walk!
Just me and the dog, a backpack and a tent, 10 days and 100 miles from Winchester to Eastbourne across the rolling, whale-backed landscapes of the Sussex South Downs.
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Our adventure started in Colchester on the morning of August 16th. Awake into the early hours packing and repacking my rucksack: the load weighed-in at a whopping 5.2 Stone when I was finally done!
I was heading off straight after work, so needed to wrestle the pack onto a morning train and then find a corner of the office where I could stow it for the day. My sister, Charlotte, collected my dog Sméagol and met me after work with a change of clothes to make the exchange.
All set for the off, our first challenge was to get Sméagol and the backpack safely across London through the evening rush hour and onto our Winchester train.
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Walking to raise money for the Dog’s Trust I maintained a Facebook blog for those who donated to keep track of our progress.
Other friends not on Facebook have since asked me to repost those entries here, so what follows is a daily blog of our South Downs adventure…
Some Things Written 