it's all over

Well after my first nights sleep in my own bed, stretching out and able to turn over without being confined and lying on my sleeping bag zip, what we did over the last 5days seems likes a dream.

Got a baking soda foot bath, sea salt foot bath, then an all over muscle relaxing bath then slept lol

We will be posting all of our photos on facebook and a flicker account within the next few day so keep your eyes open!

Thanks for all your support and thanks for reading my blog!

James

HOME

castle green, Carrickfergus

On our way home!

Can't believe today is the last day, we've came so far already (110miles) and now just a little bit further down the line and we're back in Carrickfergus.

Work up this morning in Antrim High Street Presbyterian Church all ready to go. All the boys fired up and full of energy but on the way out of the carpark it was clear I had some major issues!

Shin splints had set in bad on my left leg and my achilles tendon on my right leg was giving me major pain! I got about 2miles outside of Antrim and had to stop to get treated.

Thankfully we had Micheal the medic onsite to help and a quick pryer and the pain was gone!

We walked then down into Dunadry and through Templepatrick where we had a little unexpected visit from Michaels mum & dad. That done we hit the back roads to Mossley and the it's onto Carrickfergus!

Aiming to be walking into the Church around 7pm!

Antrim! 4 down 1 to go!!

Well we're now in Antrim! We're extremely sore from the waist down and Stuarts feet were black when he took his socks off! Robert came straight into the Church and hit the ground, we thought he had fainted for exhaustion but no.

We got setup and then looked to this evenings food, we decided on Pizza and put Ian on the phone to Domino's , he successfully negotiated us a great deal which we couldn't even finish!

We're so tired, It's 9:30 and Roberts already sleeping! Though tomorrow our energy will be on a high as we're coming home!

So it's good night from us, see ya tomorrow!

The Ground House Cafe, Toome!

Made more new friends in Toome today. We stopped off at The Elk to use the facilities and got chatting to a couple of locals who were interested in our journey tho they compared to a wee dander lol

Jonny at the Ground House Cafe made us some amazing Lunch! And I think left a comment on our Church Facebook.

Tobermore! 3 down 2 to go!

Well today was our hardest day by far, tho Stuart keeps stating its 'we buns'.

We Newtownstewart and headed to PlumBridge, got there at lunch time, so we stopped into the local Day Today ran by Pinkerton, caused enough of a scene walking in with our bags & wet gear on (it had been raining for well over a hour). The lady asked about us, then showed us to a little shelter for us to stay in to eat out of the rain, then she came back to us with 3packets of Mars Bars, Snickers & Twixes for us to have free, then she came back again and said all ur food you just bought in the store, Pinkerton is gona cover! So we eat free!

Eating free was good because we had a 24mile trek up through the Spirin Mountains, nothing but God beautiful countryside! Not even phone signal lol

Loads of great banter tho throughout the Ulster Way, amazing scenery )as told to us before) lots of photos taken, and Micheal controlling the local sheep! Good Times!

We eventually got into Tobermore just before 10pm with Gods help, lovely we stretch in the dark to!! We met up with the Rev Flaherty & his wife who made us burgers & hot dogs!! Such an unexpected surprise a well received by a bunch of hungry lads!

That's us over half way now, tomorrow Antrim then home to Carrickfergus!!

Ivan 'the incredible'

Well we left the Rev Dinsmore's house with sadness in our hearts. There was no end to his hospitably! We were received with open arms, as I said before, foot baths, ice cream, hot dogs, burgers, hot showers, washed our clothes and made us a cooked breakfast each in the morning before we left.

Whata guy, great chat from him to, really nice guy! We hope to see him again really soon and also bring him down to Carrickfergus!

We would all like to publicly thank The Rev. Ivan Dinsmore for his kindness and we pray God will bless him & his ministry 10fold.

Cheers Ivan!

Newtownstewart! 2 down 3 to go

Well today we left the Fountian Centre in Kesh in search of the Ulster Way that would take us to Newtownstewart.

We had been told that this perticular part of the Ulster Way boasted some of the greatest scenery in Northern Ireland. So over the next few days we knew we'd be adding hight to our trek!

We certainly climbed high and everyone was in great spirits, Micheal especially, tho we later found out that we was munching down Ibuprofen tablets like Smarties!!

Ian keep us all upbeat with his verson of Will.I.AM's "you can go hard or you can go home" which quickly caught on. The sun was blinding today and we all got a little sun, we were close enough to it, Stuart got some very patchy sun burn, Robert got the shoulder burn whilst Ian just went red all over!

We arrived into Newtownstewart with a few injuries, safe to say non major but blisters etc The Rev Dinsmore aka 'Ivan the incredible' met u with very open arms, foot baths, BBQ, Ice Cream, beds & an Ulster Fry for the Ulster Way!

Blisters were soothed and sorted by Mike the Medic and then it was off to bed, we were so tired from a days walk in the sun we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer!

Big up Chris & Casy! Cheers for all your help!

The Fountain Centre!

wow what a night we've had in Kesh! We wouldn't have asked for a better place to say!

We were greeted by a young girl who asked if we of we wanted some dinner which she had made! Turns out a group of YWAM'ers were saying here to and this was their last night.

We got chatting and Ian was playing around with one of their guitars and then all of a sudden a prayer meeting had started with Ian leading us all in worship! Totally unexpected totally amazing. The guys we've met have turned into great friends for the night and hopefully we will keep in contact.

Just want to thank them all for dinner and a great evening of fun filled music, pool, table tennis and friendly banter!!

Thanks guys!

Kesh! 1 down 4 to go!!

Well we arrived in Kesh with the help of the good Lord Jesus!

We're currently at the fountain centre a local youth centre ran by Church Of Ireland. We has our own room with kitchen, tv, Xbox & ps3 lol unfortunately were only here for another 11hours so were showering, Mike is the onsite medic has treated himself for two blisters already whilst we're all blister free. So Mike is our foot checker, he has loads of talc!!

Well we crossed from Ireland into Northern Ireland a little behind schedule due to new directions given to us by a local girl who told us that ours were !! So we've at least got that under our belts, now we take on 2days of the Ulster Way!

Taxi?

So far the boys are in good spirits, fairly tired and drained of energy as to be expected, so please pray we all get a good nights sleep and our feet toughen up for tomorrow!

ta ta for now...

And we're off ....

Well the bus finally came and we're off! Packed the bus with food & clothing, had some family wave us off and then we hit the road.

We have about a 3hr drive ahead with dropping supply foods in at Tobermore, Newtownstewart & Kesh.

Bus driver is driving like he's looking back for his dinner! Has us all scared -

just under 17 hours until go time!

well the countdown has now went from days to hours, is my bag packed?  NOPE

Just got everything else done, maps & directions are organised, food is organised, getting my music and clearing my iPhone space for pictures and video footage.  Have to remember to pack my headphones.

So we leave tomorrow at 4pm from our Church and then the real game begins!  Sadly we just found that Roy our 6th member has had to pull out of some of the walk due to personal health reasons.  I know this guy well and I know he is truly gutted but at this time he needs to put his health first.  We're all looking forward to when he joins us, will be nice to see a new face even if it is only for part of the walk.

We all have our own personalised hi-vis jackets thanks to CopyWorld, meaning we all have to wear hi-vis jackets but thanks to CopyWorld we have our own names on the back!  Means you will be able to see us along the way and you can beep you horn and shout nice things out the window!

I will be keeping this blog as up to date for all you viewers & readers!  Im sure Mike & Ian will update their own Facebook pages and the Church Facebook page will also be updated with images and funny stories from along the way.

Right well time to clear space and upload some motivation music for the walk home ....

when's your walk?

when's your walk?  when's your walk?  when's your walk?  when's your walk?


We leave this Tuesday at 4pm, travel to Donegal Town where we stay the night until 7am Wednesday morning when we begin.


have you sponsored me yet?  have you sponsored me yet?  have you sponsored me yet?  have you sponsored me yet?

4days until go time!

Well we now hit 4days until we leave. Anticipation has now set in for all of us. A special dinner & documentary viewing last night at my house has got us all fired up and ready go!

We all have our new 1000 mile blister free socks & and questions have been raised of what happens at 1001 miles? Not that we will be walking anywhere close to that next week, tho we will be able to say we have walked over 125 miles from the west coast of Ireland to the east coast of Northern Ireland.

1000 - 125 meaning our socks will have 875miles in them lol

So just checking things off my list then for 'the big bus trip to Donegal' as Stuart says.

Pre walk haircut - check!

7DAYS UNTIL GO TIME

We're now in our final 7day countdown.  All being well in 7days the 6 of us will be on the (Star Travel) bus heading over towards Donegal's Waters edge!

More itching to get going rather than nervous at this stage.  Taking a break from reading the maps to write this post, all I can see in my head now are road names, followed by streets & highways between each stop.  Everywhere I go now people are asking me about it.  A lot of local business' in Carrick have given a lot into helping us raise more money.  Some giving money and others giving shop vouchers and other goodies for us to raffle or auction off.

It's great to see that kind of support in the local town where I'm from, makes you feel more excited about it all.  Hopefully use some of that same charm along the way and gather more funds!

The main reason we're doing this is to see our new Church building come closer to finish.  We're not trying to rush God along, we have all said that the building will be completed in God's time.  We want to show Him that it's our hearts desire to see the empty building become not so empty!  As Tesco says "every little helps".

If you haven't given yet, please please do so, it would be great to know that you are behind us on this walk, not physically of corse lol but to know that we have your support, which is important to us all.

I've made it simple to  - just email me (jamesclarke@carrickcommunitychurch.org) your full name, postcode (for gift aid) and also your amount, whither it's £5, £10, £15, £50, £100 or even £150 (wishful thinking), it will help us in our cause.

James

11days until go time!

We'll be well on our way over to Donegal to rest up for the night in Donegal Presbyterian Church before we hit the road to Kesh in 11days.

In 14days we will be somewhere inside the Ulster Way heading to Tobermore and the good folks at the local Presbyterian Church will be accommodating us for the night.

The Ulster Way as I said before will be the toughest part of the event with its ups & down, empty signposts and general madness!

Any hints & tips are welcome!!

14 days and we're on our way

This time in 14 days we will be on our way over to Donegal courtesy of Star Travel (startravelgroup.co.uk).  Lots of typically last minute things to arrange and the thought of what lyes ahead at the start of every morning is goring more and more stronger.


Getting my head around the physical and mental challenge of this fundraising walk is mind blowing, thankfully I have Jesus Christ who's name I shall be calling on a lot over the walk!  Really excited about the Ulster Way parts of the walk, will be interesting to see the team work together as one to over come getting lost and having to get up earlier and sleep less etc 


Had a little pep talk from my old friend Alwyn yesterday, his words of "don't forget to change your socks at least twice a day or you might get a bacterial infection and your toe might have to get cut off" those words haven't left me yet and will be a while until they do!


Great to see more money coming in which is the main reason we're doing this, we want to get our Church building closer to completion rather than lying empty.  So please please if you haven't done yet, drop me an email - jamesclarke@carrickcommunitychurch.org and sponsor me some lovely money.  I wouldn't want to do such a walk / trek for less than £1000 considering it's a fundraising event not a fun run!


I'll look out for your email ...

ONLINE SPONSORSHIP

We have a couple of methods of giving online if you would like to give via your debit card or PayPal?


Ian Mckenzie'sFundRazr app on Facebook -
http://apps.facebook.com/fundrazr/activity/ef8f23553bd640008e57e167ffcd5854

Holly Clarke on behalf of myself (James) FundRazr app on Facebook -
http://apps.facebook.com/fundrazr/activity/8325e8d21a904c1ea76a0eba03923996?psid=c1a0237b7fa14b7ea2a87fd0ecea8f09

Many Thanks if you do!!

16days until go time!

Only 16 days left until our big walk, and the realisation of what lies ahead really starts sinking in.  The equivalent of walking 5 marathons within 5 days.  The marathon has an official distance of 42.195 kilometres (26 miles and 385 yards).

We shall be walking an average of 28 miles every day, for 5 days until we reach home in Carrickfergus.  That's walking a marathon, going to sleep, getting up and walking another & another & another & another!  In total we will have walked approximately 130 miles from A to B

19days until go time!

Well in 19days time we will be walking from Kesh up towards Lough Bradan Forest to the Start of the Ulster Way section of our walk.  Our new friends at WalkNI.com had suggested this section for a ‘change in scenery’, and so on the Thursday & Friday of our walk we shall be trekking through the Ulster Way.  I’m really looking forward this section as I’m a keen hill walker, as are some of the other boys.

www.WalkNI.com is the definitive online guide to walking in Northern Ireland and is a favourite website of mine and I would have visited it regularly to find new walks and see where’s good to go, so for them to feature us on their site and Facebook Page was great. 

A couple of us recently took a we dander up Slieve Commedagh down on the mountains on Mourne. Was one of those, lets not follow any path’s or trails, lets just get to the top! Was a great experience and we loved every minute of it.

(Photoshop is still a great application lol)

will you sponsor me?

ello ello

asking for your help here …

As you might know I’ve organised a fundraising walk in aid of funds for our new Church building.  You might have seen me tweet about it or use #watersedge in some of my recent tweets.
The fundraising walk is in May (this year) and it is – from the water’s edge in Donegal Town to the water’s edge in Carrickfergus Town!

It’s over 125 miles and will take 5 days to walk / trek through part of the Ulster Way, various towns in 5 counties and 2 countries!

It is a lot, but we want to raise a lot to!  That’s were you come in,
will you please sponsor me?

I’ve made it easy too – just send me an email, direct message or even a txt - with your name, address & postcode, amount you want to sponsor me for and if your ok for gift aid – simple!

I will contact you when were done to arrange to get your money.

For you own amusement, I have created a promotional video for the event which you can view on YouTube at - 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH7qy4bsZxo

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks64atrGSr4

It is a lot, but we want to raise a lot to!
That’s were you come in, will you sponsor me?