Fundraising - Oxfam Open at Skipton Tennis Centre - Sunday 26th May

Skipton Tennis Centre kindly offered their courts for us for free to hold a mini tournament in a bid to raise some more funds to go towards our pledge of £1800.  The weather was on our side again and with lasting sunshine for most of the afternoon some of us even left with sunburn!

We worked on a simple knockout basis and had 3 medals, bronze, silver and gold for the top 3 players. Some of the tennis skills displayed were pretty impressive!

Unfortunately Joel was unable to defend his champion title (after having held it for the last few years!).

Photos below...

Jez and Neville

Nick practising his model pose!

Getting ready for the tournament

Ball boys, scorers and matches!

Grant Pozzana

James Robertson

Selvah Rasappah

Neville in action!

Joel Dalby (Bronze), Gareth Ward (Gold) and Neville Grant (Silver)

Skipton Tennis Centre

Fundraising at HML - Friday 24th May

Thanks to those who baked we had a very full trolley of cakes and other sweet treats and samosas for sale at the HML offices in Skipton on Friday 24th May.

As usual the samosas went in a flash and we were left with the same thought as every other time we've order them - "we should have ordered more" lol

We had a raffle with many prizes on offer, including bottles of wine, beer, chocolates, jewellery, games, a cricket bat and even a space hopper!

A dingbats quiz also circulated and a Mr Bump novelty cake for auction.

A total of near £700 was raised and this was shared with the Samaritans charity so The Nerd Herd earned £350 from the day!

Mr Bump - winning bid of £12

Raffle prizes

Dingbats

Cake trolley after having been refilled 3 times!

Thanks to those who sponsored our pig racing event!

An early arrival at the Cross Keyes pub gave the Nerd Herd team a good chance to set up the pig racing board and warm up the pigs! :-D  Some photos to share below and once again thanks to all those who sponsored pigs and races to allow us to raise another £200 plus towards a great cause!

Pigs at the ready!

Pig race track and lanes

Spider pig cake prize, won by Jessica Liu

Winner!!

Pigs in action!  Looks like pig no 2 pipped the post!

Fundraising with Pig Racing and Tennis!

38 miles overnight training walk from Horton to Skipton - 10th May 2013!

Finally, it was time to tackle the overnight walk, the last 'long' training walk before the event!!!  This would be a true test if all our training so far had paid off with the added challenge of walking in the pitch black with only head torches to light the way!  And of course, it would be a very good reflection of what it will be like on the big day...

Today's weather was the worst by far out of all the training walks we have completed.  Setting off early Friday evening at 5pm from Horton in Ribblesdale we were met with consistent cloud and light drizzle, heavier rain at times.  The rain the night before had made the trek up to and across Cam Fell very boggy, creating many opportunities for 'near miss' slips although I did manage to slip and fully plant both hands and legs and a bit of my rucksack in it!  Luckily that was the only time.  The guys managed to stay steadier on their feet.

Following a short stop in Buckden we continued to Kettlewell where our supporter Nick met us around 2am  with hot drinks and chocolate treats, which were very well received (thanks Nick!!).  We could also finally change out of our wet socks and shoes, after having 'squelched' all the way from Cam Fell in our original pairs and of course put on more layers as we headed into dawn.

The morning sun didn't let us down as we wandered onto Boss Moor crossing over from Conistone Moor.  It was refreshing to be faced with some blue sky and the sound of the early morning birds.  It gave us a little bit of a boost since we were tired, exhausted, physically and mentally hurting by now.  We were nearly falling asleep walking at times and existing injuries were having a field day!

One more short stop in Hetton and we were on our final leg back to Skipton.  We were hoping to arrive around 9am but landed just after 10.  Not a bad effort at all, well done team!

A few photos we managed to take along the way...

A large hedgehog intrigued us for  a moment!

James crossing a thin bridge in the pitch black!

Emma doing the same! 

After carefully watching which stones James stepped on and
deciding it was too hard for me I went to cross at a different
(much easier) point and still soaked both my shoes anyway,
much to James and Joel's amusement!

Focus over the next weeks will turn back to fundraising as our bodies recover and rest for the main event....

Fundraising fun, team logos and passes!

As you can tell from the amount of blogging I've done today I've got a little time on my hands and have been working on sponsorship and fundraising ideas.

Plans are being put in place for Pig Racing, Cake Stall, Quiz and possibly a tennis tournament, updates to follow...

Adapted from the US action-comedy series 'Chuck', our captain Joel came up with the idea of putting walking boots on the nerd herd logo, (subtle but different and clever) so here is our version:

And here are the passes I've created for a bit of fun:

Superstar supporter Nick!

Walkers

Our team poster is still work in progress so watch this space...

Jez completes the West Highland Way!! 2nd May 2013

Well done to Jez for completing the West Highland Way, the equivalent of walking marathon distance each day for a few consecutive days, with no injuries and no blisters, so Trailtrekker will be easy in comparison right Jez? ;-)

Skipton to Ribbleshead 32 Miles - 27th April 2013

Just me and James again today.  Joel was supporting the Yorkshire 3 Peaks fell race and Jez was making his way up North to tackle the West Highland Way challenge!

Having spent two weeks travelling around sunny Cuba I wasn't particular ready for this and I was also suffering from a lower back injury but we needed the training so we went ahead with the route from Skipton to Gargrave onto Malham, up Fountains Fell down to Horton and onto Ribbleshead (the toughest part of the Trailtrekker route!!).

The weather couldn't make up it's mind today, it started with some drizzle and sun, creating a rainbow along Skipton canal but we had warm temperatures.

Rainbow over Skipton Canal

The sun soon stayed out and we had another glorious day for most part of route.  We reached Malham in 3.5 hours which was pretty good time for 12 miles and we were both still feeling quite fresh and spritely, so after a spot of lunch we pushed on past Malham tarn and up Fountains Fell at speed.

This might have been a mistake as we started to get very tired, my hip started really aching and putting load on my right leg really hurt so going uphill was not welcoming.  It also clouded over and started throwing little pellets of ice which actually really hurt when it hit you in the face so our spirits were a little dampened at this point!  But, we ploughed on....

By the time we reached Horton we had almost decided we weren't going to make the last 6 mile stretch to Ribbleshead, because our pace had dropped considerably the last mile or two from the bottom of Pen y Ghent down to Horton due to my hip and unless we picked up pace we would miss our train back from Ribbleshead to Skipton.

We were determined to do this though, so after a break we took to the route again and soldiered on and got to our train with 15 minutes spare!!!  We'd been walking for nearly 12 hours.  Needless to say it felt wonderful being able to put our feet up on the train but agony kicked in when it was time to get up and I was literally hunched over shuffling out of Skipton train station holding onto my hip!!!

Hopefully this was a one off, and the lessons learned were to make use of the regular breaks and pace ourselves sensibly but we did ourselves proud today completing a mammoth 32 mile trek!  James was a great support.

The next one will be the 38 mile night walk.... GULP!

Snow fun!!! 29th March 2013

There were three of us today, Jez was unable to join us, so it was me, James and Joel, nearly a full team :-)

The plan was to walk the Troller's Trot route again starting in Threshfield.  We had thought about doing a tougher one, maybe 2 out of the 3 Yorkshire Peaks however the weather conditions made it all a bit risky so we stuck to a familiar route we'd done recently which still covered 25+ miles.

Unfortunately, we weren't all feeling that well and a few miles into the walk we decided to call it a day and loop back to Threshfield, being creative in the snow along the way!  We managed to cover about 10 miles today, finishing with lots of runny noses, sore tummies and chapped lips!

The day begins....

To jump or not to jump!

Hiding behind the snow!

I lost my leg in it!  I'm not even
touching the ground!

Beautiful view

The wind was so strong down this stretch
my cheeks and lips were burning!!

A cold seat!

Hungry horses looking for treats :-)

Until next time....

Horton in Ribblesdale back to Skipton - 16th March 2013

Just James and Joel today, completing 20+ miles from Horton in Ribblesdale back to Skipton whilst I was on my way to enjoy sunny Cyprus for a week!  It wasn't all rest though, as I'd signed up as an honorary member of the Ernst & Young team in Limassol to run a 5k corporate charity race :-)  Still, that's nothing compared to the miles these boys walked today!

Unlike the previous sunny weather we've had on our walks, it was a duller day, but no rain I believe.

Altogether another successful walk!

James in deep thought...

Tree fallen over onto a feeding tray.
Luckily there was no sheep there at the time!

Trollers Trot 2nd March 2013 - 25 miles in 8.5 hours!

The Trollers trot is an organised event, a "25 mile walk/run/jog from Upper Wharfedale School, in the picturesque setting of the Yorkshire Dales National Park via Threshfield Moor, Winterburn Reservoir, Rylestone Moor, Barden Tower, Trollers Ghyll and returning to Threshfield via Burnsall and along the banks of the river Wharfe".

It was just me and James again today and perfect weather again too!  Jez was training separately for another event doing a similar distance and Joel could not make it in the end, so James was 'Joel' for the day as there was no point registering a third place if we were only going to use two!!  We promised Joel we'd try not to damage his reputation too much!

We were expecting to complete the walk in 10-11 hours and even packed "flattering" (ahem) head torches in case, but the course was not as hard as we expected plus we pushed ourselves most of the way through and in the end we managed to complete it in 8.5 hours including all stoppages - we made a point of having a quick lunch and every now and again we had to stop to check we were still on the right route as at times it wasn't obviously marked or signposted!

Overall a very successful day and a fantastic effort, we were very pleased with ourselves and got a certificate at the end too for completing the event within 10 hours.

No slips or falls today - bonus! :-)

Runners jogging past - it was too tempting to jog after them!

About half an hour into the walk...

Just before Winterburn Reservoir

Winterburn Reservoir

Amongst the people we attracted today (mostly admirers of James' Iron Maiden tshirt!!), two lovely Ladies who were running the course took our photo for us just before we approached Winterburn reservoir.

Smile!  Winterburn Reservoir in the background

Just after Winterburn Reservoir

Barden Tower

Trollers Ghyll

On the final stretch along the canal we walked past some shetland ponies rolling around on the ground and then they decided to rub noses - cute! :-)

Playful Shetland ponies

Black Beauty - a beautiful horse enjoying the fields and the sunshine!