Photos & Reports Index

Photos Of This Walk

It all started back in the summer when Mark read about the Tour de Trigs, an event organised by the Banbury District scouts where you had to walk 50 miles in 24 hours……and just to make it a bit more of a challenge they hold it in December when the ground is normally muddy, the weather pretty grotty and daylight minimal. Less than a third of teams who enter make it to the finish!

John and Tim were recruited and the weekend of 3rd and 4th December finally arrived. Tim tried his best to get out of it by twisting his knee a few weeks before on Clive's Yorkshire Dales weekend (perhaps he wishes he tried a bit harder now!) but gallantly decided to start with the proviso that he would probably drop out after 10-15 miles.

We arrived late thanks largely to Mark's poor time keeping and found ourselves going through what seemed like an airport. We had to arrive 90 minutes before our start time which seemed far too early, but soon found out why. First there was a queue to check in and then a queue for kit check. Out came all the gear from our carefully packed rucksacks to check that we had everything……sleeping bag, survival bag, first aid kit, bandages and safety pins and not forgetting the snazzy reflective armbands (thanks Erica!).

Once through that we were finally given the route (a series of grid references which you had to plot). This consisted of a number of manned checkpoints, a number of unmanned checkpoints, and the path junctions in between. We were told that it would all be on Landranger (1:50,000) map 151 and had therefore got all the 1:25000 Explorer maps to make the navigation easier. But……along with the route description we were given another map which we would also need……so our plans were scuppered!

At 10:47, team number 48, Lets Get Ready To Ramble, finally took our first tentative steps into the unknown. The first 200yds was across a playing field and then we hit the mud……which was to be a feature of the walk! Two days of torrential rain meant that conditions underfoot were less than ideal (don't you mean absolutely horrible - Tim). Also 150 pairs of feet in front of us had churned the mud up nicely! So what would normally have been quite an easy path to walk along became pretty horrible and the ploughed fields we encountered later on were just horrendous, with thick brown mud that caked your boots, slowing you to a crawl. Everything was going fine……well at least for the first mile they were……then we came across a stream that had burst it's banks from all the recent rain. We had no option but to wade through the ankle deep water. 1 mile down, 49 to go……with wet feet! Great!!

We punched our tallies at the first 2 unmanned checkpoints and arrived at the first manned checkpoint after 3 miles near Adderbury SE of Banbury. Between this and next manned one, we reached a surprise checkpoint. These were strategically placed to make sure you stayed on the route and didn't take any short cuts. And it did its job as later on we passed a number of teams coming back in the opposite direction because they'd taken another route and missed it……adding 5 or so miles onto their walk!

We then turned north and at 15 miles we reached the third manned checkpoint in Charlton. It was starting to get dark so it was out with the head torches. At times you could see a trail of lights in front and behind which was sometimes an advantage to show you the way and sometimes not when the groups in front have taken a wrong turning! On one such occasion after realising we were off course we managed to find a stile and another footpath to take us back on track. We then immediately turned off the torches and walked in the dark while we watched the groups behind us all head off in the wrong direction!!

As we approached each checkpoint Mark and John would ask Tim how his knee was and whether he could carry on and each time the reply would be 'I'm OK, knee's not too bad'. At about 9pm we arrived at Chipping Warden and passed our first open pub! But much to John's disappointment there was no time for a quick pint! - who knows what the locals would have thought if we had gone in! We then headed west to Farnborough (30 miles) and on to Ratley (35 miles). There was a time limit here - everyone had to be through in 16 hours. We made it by 1.25 hours but lots of teams were retired at this point, especially those that missed the latest surprise checkpoint! As we moved into the early hours (it was now 1:30am) the lights in the villages got less and less as the more sensible people in this world went to bed!

We now had a section along the top of Edge Hill which would normally give glorious views across to Stratford, but not at 2am!! The going got tough as the walk got hillier and we got more and more tired. But the checkpoints kept coming, where there was a cheery voice and a sweet cup of tea, if Mark let you stop long enough to drink it! It was certainly harder than I expected and Tim was quoted as saying if he knew how bad the last 10 miles were going to be he would have dropped out!! Up until now we had been lucky with the weather, but then it started to rain! They even sent us up and down a hill just to get to a checkpoint at the top - what was the point of that!! (To have our photo taken at one of only 2 trig points on the walk - Tim) (So why is it called "Tour de Trigs" then? - Andy)

Eventually dawn broke (there was no spectacular sunrise to see although the rain had stopped) and the end was in sight (literally), although at the time Tim would probably have disagreed. At the penultimate checkpoint, 47 miles, they told us we had 4.5 miles left!! 51.5 miles….we were conned (apparently it has been as long as 56 miles in some years, so perhaps we should be grateful!). Never again will we complain about a walk being shorter than advertised (Waendel walk).

The final checkpoint was at the top of another hill and then it was a short dash(!) (more like a crawl - Tim) to the finish. We completed the 50+ miles in 23 hours and 8 minutes. A brilliant effort, even if I do say so myself. Out of the 102 teams who started only around 30 completed the walk and there were only one or two novice teams in front of us. The fastest time was 16 hours 13 minutes so that will give you something to aim at for next year.

Afterwards we measured the walk at 55 miles with 1400m of ascent (the height of Ben Nevis!). It was an enjoyable 24 hours (even if it was agony getting out of bed for the next couple of days!) and I would definitely recommend it (unless you have a mud phobia! - Tim).

So how many teams will we be entering next year?!

Report by Mark

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