Interview with a Coast of Britain Walker who arrived in Glencaple!

[Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment] – ‘but I was really fit cos I trained quite hard when I was younger, and a parachute regiment instructor asked if I’d thought of joining the Paras… the rest is history!

On getting dropped out a plane:

‘It is good fun! Not the first time, but it is good fun!’

Have you been to Scotland/ Dumfries and Galloway before?

I’ve never been to Dumfries and Galloway before. I have been to Scotland, but never really coastal. I think the furthest I’ve been is Aberdeen.

How did you hear about Glencaple?

I just sort of wandered in! I got to a point where I knew I needed a few calories in me, and I know it sounds cliché – but having a beer really does help! It’s full of calories, it picks you back up and you can get back on again. Just don’t go past two!

The Charity

What does S.S.A.F.A. stand for?

Soldier, Seamen, Air Force Association – it’s a tongue twister sometimes!

I’ve had first-hand experience from SSAFA. I’d had a couple of issues, I didn’t realise it was happening, but the charity were amazing and stuck with me the whole time, even when I didn’t ask for their help, coming down to check that everything was okay with me and they bent over backwards basically, went way above the call of duty.

I just had so much respect for them and then when I looked more into what they did, they help any armed forces, whether you’ve had mental issues, people who’ve lost limbs, you’ve had someone deceased – they help the families, everything, selflessly.

I’ve got friends who have really gone downhill since they’ve left [the forces] and even now they hadn’t heard of SSAFA until I told them. This was why SSAFA was such a good charity for me, because they helped me and it was a great charity for me to put out there. And already there’s another two and a half thousand people who know about it, and I’ve only just started, technically speaking, so if that trebles by the time I’ve finished, then job done, I’m happy with that. They are really good.

I met an ex-soldier, Gary, in Liverpool. I actually slept with him on the streets for a couple of days, got him in touch with SSAFA and hopefully he’s been re-homed now. It is complicated, that kind of isolation becomes normal.

It’s about giving back. I like the idea of putting the effort in. It’s a different kind of effort – they came to my home, took time out of their time, and to me that meant a lot. They could have given me a million pounds, but it’s time – people’s time, that means a lot to me.

I know that they’ve done it for my friends and other people too. The way I think of it, it’s actually the least I can do, I really feel like that.

The sad thing is that you get the big charities that everyone’s heard of, but they’re all in competition with each other, there’s not someone in the middle pulling them all together, it’s quite sad really.

Dumfries

I’m going to hang around Dumfries for the next day at least, but I’m going to have to do a bit more planning now as it gets a bit vast. I’ve got to walk down the other side of the river Nith, there’s Carsethorn, Sandyhills, Rockcliffe…

The Challenge

How did you train?

I didn’t really train for doing this, I was already quite fit – I really like to walk everywhere.

My daughter loves skateboarding, and it sounds silly, but it’s too hilly where we were, so it was quite dangerous, so as a bit of training, I’d tie a bit of rope around me and she would hold onto it and I’d go for a run and she’d trail along behind! It was good fun!

I’m an avid surfer, I love surfing hence the reason I couldn’t be away from the sea, I wanted to be next to the sea all the time.

I knew I’d get fitter along the way; I started off doing 3 days maximum, where I’d walk for 3 days and then I’d have to stop. I’ve got to a point now where I’m probably doing 5 or 6 days then taking maybe a day or two, then just carrying on.

It’s important to have the days off – otherwise you’d slowly wear yourself down; I noticed it happening… I don’t often check my mileage, but I know when I haven’t walked very far and I think, ‘I need to rest now’.

I do find though that you’re not mixing it up much – it’s just solid walking all the time, but your arms are very dormant so I make a real effort in the evening to do sit ups and things just to get the other muscle groups working.

I got my walking poles half way through Wales (I’ve gone through 3 sets already!). I didn’t believe in them at first but because the Welsh coastline is so up and down all the time, with this sort of weight on your back, they stop you from leaning forward – it keeps you upright. That’s the main reason – it gets your arms doing something rather than just dangling around like a tail! And through the Lake district when it was so wet and boggy, they stopped me from falling so many times.

Weather

I’ve got a new strategy now – I used to just plough through it, but now, because its colder, you get colder much quicker when you’re not moving. When I stop I just freeze over – so I’ve got a tarpaulin which I pull over me and I just sit down and wait for it to go!

The Journey so far

How many miles are you managing to cover on average each day?

It’s hard to say – I don’t check – but I’d definitely say between 12 and 20 miles daily, though there are days when I’ll only do 4 or 5, and it does depend on what supplies you have and where the nearest town is. The reason I wanted to get to Dumfries is that I’d run out of supplies when I saw you, so I know I had to get there.

I looked at one place in particular up North, and I think it’s going to be 5 days without seeing anybody – no shops no houses, just greenery – there’s absolutely nothing.

I know enough about survival training that I have no issues [with foraging or road kill etc.] but the thing is that you need to be eating well when you’re banging out 20 miles a day, with a big back pack, you easily need a good 3000 calories a day… It feels like I’m floating when I’ve not got the back pack on!

I think people will be more interested in Scotland because its much vaster, and it’s more of a danger in many ways. [If you’re caught out on a cold night] you’ve got nothing – you have to knuckle down then. I expect it!

It’s a different ball game in Scotland now!

Promotion

It’s going to be important when I hit a town to promote SSAFA, essentially that’s what all this is about. I’ll also try to get a following so that when I move on, people might have heard of me.

I’d planned to take some more time when I got to Scotland to speak to as many people as I can, trying to get interviews etc. to promote SSAFA and my walk.

How do you navigate?

Up until now, it really has been as simple as this: keep the sea on the left-hand side! That’s all I’ve needed to know!

I did take a few days out in the Lake District (where I met you at Penrith) as someone had offered me their holiday cottage. I put a message on Facebook and raised some extra money by climbing as many of the mountains as I could!

When did you cross the border into Scotland?

Can I tell you something that’s quite embarrassing? I couldn’t even tell you what day it is (it’s quite wonderful)!

…

I passed through the border 4 days ago. My daughter came up to see me, and we stayed in a caravan for a couple of days, so realistically I’ve only been walking in Scotland for 2 days.

I’m strictly sticking to the coast – if the tide’s out, I’m on the beach, and as it comes in I’ll scramble back up wherever I have to. Sometimes you do have to get on the roads though. Depending on the weather, especially if it’s foggy or misty, it’s quite dangerous really. But only when I have to – I hate the roads!

I’ve had nothing but problems on the Lake District coast – there were no paths, a lot of it is privately owned, so that’s where I’ve had to go on the roads for example – I got kicked off farms twice.

My life has completely changed once I crossed over the border to Scotland! One of the hardest things I’ve had since I started was camping – where do I camp? Land is privately owned.

Wales is the only country in the UK to have a coast path that goes all the way from start to finish – you can do the entire Welsh coast on a path! It’s wonderful! There’s some parts you look over 100 foot cliffs, where you might want a parachute! 

It’s so frustrating because you have to head inland (I call them ‘junk miles’ in my head) because I’ve had to walk for 2 hours just to find a place to camp where it’s out of the way.

My life’s completely changed with the Scottish wild-camping laws.

This is what I’ve been looking forward to!

Off on a tangent

I heard an interesting fact recently… If you work shifts, then the best way to reset your body clock is to go camping with no alarms or anything! And it works – I’m asleep for about 7pm in the evenings, cos I’ve got nothing to do. And it’s dark, pitch black as soon as I turn the head-torch off, that’s it. In the summer, I was up as soon as the sun came up every day. As soon as the sun comes up, you’re awake!

Senses

It’s fascinating the things you can hear and pick up! Some of the things I’ve learned have been amazing. Simple things, it’s beautiful in a way, I’ve started to tell the difference between a badger, a fox, 2 different types of owl, all these different things. I’ll just switch off and try to see what I can pick up.

And distances – how far away it is from the tent. It makes you think, I wonder if this is how they used to think back in the days. It’s awesome – like seeing with your ears.

 

Practicalities

How heavy is your rucksack/ load?

Your guess is as good as mine! [@25 – 30kg] Everything counts – I wouldn’t even carry a receipt! I know it sounds ridiculous and it’s just in my head, but any rubbish or anything, I just hate it being on me because it’s just in my mind that I’m carrying extra! Boots and flip flops, that’s all I carry [no spares].

What are the essentials in your rucksack?

I don’t think there is anything, clothes wise, that is actually ‘water proof’. So, I’ve binned the idea of carrying waterproofs, because it just gets heavy. That’s why I use the tarp – that’s that covered!

But water is my main one. That’s probably the hardest one of all, because you need to carry as much as you can, but not too much that is slows and weighs you down. That’s probably the only real gamble of it all – do I carry just enough water and get there in good time, or carry loads more, but it slows you down a day?

It’s a tricky one, I am going to have to think about getting another water bottle.

And a frying pan.

 

Humanity

It’s not in my nature to ask, but people have been so kind. I set off with a tenner in my pocket and 2 days-worth of rations, and I’ve got this far on people’s generosity.

People are genuinely interested. It’s such a big cause to me, for that reason, I do have faith that it will be okay.

It is interesting though, I have a small bag that covers my [SSAFA] T-shirt – and before anybody sees my T-shirt, I can honestly say I get snubbed. Once they see the T-shirt, it’s a different ball game then.

I understand it, and I’d probably be even a little bit like it myself, but I can really see how a real homeless person can be treated – I’ve had people look at me like absolute filth, didn’t want to talk to me, being completely ignored when I asked directions… Then take my bag off, and the next minute you’ve got people coming up to you. I’m human again.

It’s sad, it really is…

 

How do you keep warm and dry?

Over the last month, I knew that I really had to be out in the weather all the time to become acclimatised for Scotland, and I had offers to stay, and politely declined them because I knew when I got further up this coast, it’ll be me that suffers.

When you’re wet, you get cold when you stop, it’s that simple. I’ve just got to make sure I have enough dry kit – wearing my wet jacket in my sleeping bag is not ideal, so I’ll maybe upgrade at some point to a good, warm jacket for the evenings.

I’m on my 4^th pair of boots, not all because they’ve fallen apart… They were just testing the water really – they were either too short, or felt like I was getting shin splints. The one’s I’ve got now are really probably the first decent ones I’ve had, and they’ll get me through Scotland, I know that.

I got treated recently, Kevin Harrington down in Workington, I was suffering (I sugar coat most of the stuff I do, I don’t want to go online and moan – I want to be happy about this!), but Kevin seemed to pick up on it, and when I met him, he said I’m going to take you up to Keswick for a look around…

Little did I know that he’d pre-arranged and splashed out on a Rab -18°C sleeping bag (about £300!) and a proper pair of walking boots – he really went to town, I didn’t know what to say because these were the two things that I was really suffering with. I was freezing.

I think he twigged. He’s done a bit of walking himself and I think he knew as soon as he saw what I had, ‘that’s not going to do’!

So that’s the kind of thing I mean. That’s not to say, I’m just as grateful if someone invites me in for a cup of tea. It’s amazing!

 

Personal

What do you miss most?

I’m going to sound so cheesy here, but it’s the truth – my little ‘un! It destroyed me when she went the other day – a very sad day. But I do know that after a day or two, getting my head back into it, it’s all okay.

I miss my surf-board, my guitar. In the summer, I’m going to work out a way to waterproof my guitar and bungee it to the back of my bag!

My surf-board, I don’t know, this was the longest I haven’t surfed in about 14 years!

Those are the 3 things. I don’t miss the rat race, the junk mail through the door, the commercialisation.

What keeps you going/ most memorable moment?

The moments that steel me, I like walking until really late.

I’ll tell you why: There’s nobody about, especially in a place that’s really beautiful, sometimes I have sat there at 12 O’clock at night, it’s a beautiful evening, I’m just completely in the middle of nowhere and I’m just sat there, just me, nothing else but just me.

And I do that quite a lot, so they are probably my little key moments, and they’ll keep me going.

Cos I’m going to do it – that’s what makes me enjoy it, because I look forward to those kinds of things.

The people that I’ve met – there’s too many to have just one memorable moment!

Again, there was another perfect evening in Wales, before I went to Anglesey, and I was about 150 foot up and you could see down, and the moon was out and there were dolphins splashing about and messing around in the water, a perfect night. And I thought, ‘I’d be setting my alarm now to get up for work the next day’…

So, I think, ‘I’m going to take this in!’.

You don’t need to get straight on the internet and tell people about it. Even sometimes when something happens with the weather, you’ve gone through a really bad bit and then suddenly it becomes lush and you’re just like ‘wow’. And I notice it all the time. Today [walking in Caerlaverock] it was lovely and then ‘bang’ – it just came from nowhere! I could see it coming and I was walking into it, and I thought “here we go!”.

Tarpaulin!

 

Reality

For me, having brought up my little ‘un, I was so adventurous and active all the time, and I always wanted to do something really cool, something big to me, and so I had all that time to build up, I knew something was going to happen. When I thought of the walk, ‘bang’, it’s just doing my head in – there just was no turning back from that – I wanted to do it!

I don’t think I’m going to get back to the rat race. What I mean by that – I’m getting such a buzz; I’m as poor as I could possibly be right now but, I kind of think I am richer than so many other people.

I see people walking past, dressed up to the hilt and it just seems very pretentious, and on show for other people to enjoy. And even when you’re talking to people, it all seems very false – I just wish I could strip that layer off and actually have a decent conversation.

Resilience

My very first night, I had one fire, and I just fell asleep because I’d put in quite a few miles on my first day, and I put my arm straight into the coals. I knew anyone else would go straight to the doctor, but I thought ‘no, I’m going to do what I think’s right’, and I healed up probably just as quick, I was out in the fresh sea air all the time, it healed in no time, no infection, nothing. I wasn’t bathing every day, I couldn’t, and I’ll be the first to admit that I use the sea most of the time, so it just seems like a bit of a myth…

I’ve cracked two teeth out as well. I had a nasty fall (I didn’t put it on Facebook at the time, I was too embarrassed) and I was quite new into it at the time, and I slipped and the weight of my bag just took me down, and I just hit my face and it cracked two of my teeth and after about two weeks they came out, but I’ve never been to a dentist about it – I’m not like that. I’m just interested to see… I don’t think it’s always necessary to go to the doctor with a cough or a cold or something. I feel as healthy as I ever have been.

 

Worst bits?

Social media is probably the thing I find the hardest about all of this. I never wanted to feel like I was under any obligation, I didn’t want to feel pressure at any point. I started to notice that if I hadn’t posted for a little while, I felt obliged that I should be. I had those few days off with my little ‘un and I just didn’t post anything, and the same thing happens every time – people’s interest just goes!

I keep a journal every day – everything – feelings, the works, just for my personal use. When I finish it all out, I’ll maybe take just a couple of days and have a couple of beers and just read through and see how my emotions go up and down.

You cannot actually ‘think big’ – take every day at a time, and it works. Just get out there and get amongst it!

 

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To read more from Chris himself, and to donate to his fundraising cause for SSAFA charity, go to his just giving page here:

www.justgiving.com/fundraising/chriswalks

“My goal is to raise £100,000 for SSAFA. This will help them continue the incredibly vital work that they do with the Forces and their families.” 

 

Follow Chris ‘live’ on Facebook, where you can catch up on his visit to Glencaple, and watch his journey into Dumfries and beyond…

https://www.facebook.com/chriswalksuk/

 

Chris’ website, where you can read more and watch videos of him as he starts his journey:

www.chriswalks.com