I recently spent four great days on the Refugee Tales walk – it was the event I wrote about in this blog post, and I was pleased to be joined for part of it by one of Jae’s colleagues – Gina – of “The Cornrow Five“, who had decided to come after reading that post. The route followed the North Downs Way, starting in Dover and taking nine days to reach Crawley, where the headquarters of the Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group, who organised the walk, are based. On each of the four days I did, there were between 70 and 95 walkers, divided up into smaller groups of about 20 people. I think I probably did about 40 miles in total and am pleased not to have a single blister or muscle ache as a result. Most of the walkers were doing the whole nine days, sleeping in their sleeping bags in church and village halls en route. I am afraid I chickened out of that and slunk off home at the end of each day for a bath and a comfortable bed.
It was pointed out to me by several people, however, that it would have been good practice for roughing it on Kili, and that is certainly true. I think the last time I slept in a sleeping bag was probably in 1971, when Stew and I spent a weekend under canvas in the West Country camping with an American couple and their two little boys. It was Stew’s one and only experience of sleeping anywhere other than in a bed, and he has not chosen to repeat it, so I haven’t either – though I did have some camping experience before that. Come to think of it, it is rather strange that Stew didn’t take to camping, given that for many years as a student he worked in Roberts Stores, a camping and sports shop in Glasgow to earn money at weekends and during holidays. Somehow that experience didn’t turn him into either a keen camper or sportsman, although he is extremely knowledgeable about many spectator sports.
One of the highlights of the Refugee Tales walk was meeting the other walkers and talking to them on the way. Sometimes two or three miles would just vanish, when I was deep in conversation with one of the many very interesting people I met.
For example, at one point I walked with Alan, who used to be the British Ambassador in Senegal. He was a really nice guy, who wanted to hear all about our plans to climb Kili, and who has since actually made a donation on our VirginMoneyGiving site. This is despite the fact that he is heavily involved in fund-raising himself for a very worthy small charity in Senegal called Femme-Enfant-Environnement (AFEE), which works to improve the living conditions for women and children, and to protect the environment.
Another interesting person was Joe, who was born in Tanzania, and who had climbed Kili when he was quite young. He remembered how cold it was, especially at night, despite the mountain being on the Equator. He is now resident in the UK and is looking forward to embarking on a university course.
John was the person I met who had most to teach me. He has climbed Kili many times as a leader, but his latest project is to cycle right round the base of Kilimanjaro later this year – a total of 360km across rough undulating country – to raise money for primary education (Village Education Project Kilimanjaro) in the Kili region – even though he is not a cyclist! He said he has been practising. He was good enough to answer lots of my questions:
Should I take Diamox (medication for altitude sickness)? Yes, but just a small dose.
Should I pad the toes of my boots with foam for coming down? No, just make sure your boots fit and are tightly laced (and he got down on his knees to show me how) and your toe nails are well cut.
Will my water freeze on the walk to the summit? Possibly not, if you lag the tube to your water bladder with neoprene cut from an old wet suit (he showed me his) and put hot tea into your water bottle.
…..and so it went on as we walked, and the miles flew by.
I talked to a Kurdish asylum seeker, who had been a criminal lawyer in his own country; to a woman who was very excited about having met a long lost friend in the course of the walk; to a female barrister specialising in housing law who wanted to do the whole walk, but who might have to leave to do a court hearing for Shelter the following day; and to a lovely young painter called Benjamin Hannavy Cousen, whose first big exhibition was about to open and who was a bundle of nerves about it. If he becomes famous, remember you read about him first here!
We walked and talked through the most glorious Kentish countryside, and the weather was very kind to us – in fact there were quite a few sunburned faces. There were lovely wild flowers, including expanses of ox eye daisies and some startling red splashes of poppies.
We stopped at churches and pubs on the way. The Warden of Patrixbourne church managed to provide more than ninety of us with tea/coffee and cake in a church which has no running water! Water had to be fetched from a nearby stand pipe and the dishes washed outside on a gravestone, while we were entertained in the church to a saxophone concert.
I could go on about the evening performances of music and Tales, about picnic lunches in exotic locations and lots more. I have had a little taste of walking day on day and really loved it. The next time I do that will be on Kilimanjaro. A bit different from rural Kent, but I am so looking forward to it!