Wrekking Tanker

  Only another weekend before the Hadrian's Wall trek! We are certainly feeling the pressure! But our training schedule was disturbed by the heat wave and other commitments, like camping!!! Last weeked was our annual camping trip with our Book/Film club which consists of four close knit families for which our kids grow up and go to school together since they were 6 years old! The mums are the 'book' club but as far as I know, they've never read any books and the dads are part of the 'film' club where we do actually go to cinema together occasionally.  But who are we kidding- we are actually the Wine/beer club where everytime we get together we just get drunk! During our weekend camp at Top End Farm, we manage to drag ourselves away from the drinking (for me anyway as Christine don't drink anymore) to fit in a walk to the middle of Little Staughton.  Our mission is simple - to train when ever possible and enjoy the great outdoors! And also, see if the nearest...

Well, what's going on this week and a half? It was soooo hot last week with the wacky 40°C Tuesday!  I've just managed one short walk. A trek with a familiar mixture of farm land and roads near our country park!  Road surface change from tarmac to grass and gravel, wicked scenery and decent elevation, comes in at just over 6 km which satisfy my slighty OCD. It had become quite a favorite route of mine as I know exactly where to go!  I have tried the same route with various set up in the last few weeks. I was trying to work out what is considered a good pace as I found Christine's obsession of '1 mile in 20 minutes' a bit too much.  But to my surprise,  I actually walk much quicker than this on my own! My normal walk on this route with only a water bottle takes just under an hour. A slow jog takes around 45 minutes and with the back pack it took one hour and 7 minutes.  This is 5.4 km an hour which is roughly 3.4 miles per hour! So I'm actually smashing the ...

  This weekend, we were testing out trekking with our backpacks weighted in two consecutive days to have a feel how its going to be for the real thing.  If some nutters (crazy friend from work) can run it in 20 hours and many people walk it in 3 days - to do it in 7 days can't be too hard right......? We did some thorough research when selecting our backpacks as we would need to carry necessities for the 7 days.  Minimum change of clothes, toiletries, and food for snacking as we can't guarantee we'll be near any shops in the middle 3 days of the trek. As with everything you can pay an arm and a leg for anything you want and I have no idea design of backpacks are so advance these days! At the end we both settles for Osprey backpack as they seem to tick every box of requirements.  We went for 50L (I think Christine's is 60L as it has a detachable top) in volume which seem huge. But consider what we have to carry this seem to be an ideal size.   The Osprey des...

It's been a busy first few days of the month!  This is the first walk of July! Only a short one to get our feet back in gear again!  Make no mistake this is not our first walk since we had decided to do the Hadrian's Wall trek.  We have actually planned to do this since we got back from our trip to Cornwall during the Easter holiday as we have really enjoy the walking. At the beginning of May we have planned our 87.2 miles route along the Hadrian's Wall and decided to do it over 7 days as we have never done anything like this before.    Christine was a little too enthusiastic and wanted to camp every night.  After I talk her back down from la la land we have agreed to have air bnb or hotel accommodation at each stop as we will have to carry all our clothes and food and necessities with us when we trek - adding camping gear to lug around would kill me.  Maybe on our second adventure! Since then we have been doing walks of various lengths.  We are l...

Welcome to Wrekking Tanker! My apologies first on the blog name.  But I think its funny and it keeps me chuckling like a 10 year old!  On 5th August 2022, me and my wife Christine will begin our 7 day trek on the whole length of Hadrian's Wall (87 miles)!  So why are we doing it? What started as a cheap getaway, self challenge, discovery and 'do it before we are too old' adventure, we had been asked constantly by friends with 'Are you doing this for charity?'  We thought to ourselves why not, so we have turned this into an opportunity to raise awareness and fund raising for mental wellbeing. Mental health problem is a terrible thing to have as it has no 'visible wound' for you to try to nurse and heal.   Christine started suffering two and half years ago. It came as a shock to me as I saw a happy, loving, caring, liberating soul become unhappy, numb, cold and had no interest in the world.  It took her a while to open up after a lot of how and why and w...