Destination Kilimanjaro

I have signed up to climb Kilimanjaro in January 2016 and have started some preparation.

I am running 4 - 5+ miles every other day in the beautiful rolling Suffolk countryside and this is enabling me to to increase my mileage, my miles per hour and fitness. I am not fast yet and never will be back down to the 6 minute miling of the 1980s but I am heading in the right direction.

I have decided to do a long walk each week and today (Friday 18 September) was the first one. I covered 16 miles in just over 5 hours and almost all of it was cross country. Said hello to two horse riders and waved at a tractor driver but apart from that, not a human ion sight for hours. It was dry and sunny for most of the way and there was an abundance of wildlife - including partridge, pheasant, green woodpeckers, larks and one  buzzard. During the morning a lovely roe deer ran in front of me and I got close to a hare before it took off across a field at a rate of knots.

At 12 miles the heavens opened. I got very wet but after about 20 minutes the rain stopped and a stiff breeze dried my clothes. Home: sore toes but no blisters!