(Naked?) ramblings

This will my first epic walk. In my early 20s, I did complete (half-completed, actually) an epic bicycle ride with a friend that took us half way around the South Island of New Zealand from Christchurch to Greymouth, a distance of around 1000km I think, and over a couple of highish mountain passes. We had intended to circumnavigate the entire island, but I was fed up by the time we reached Greymouth and insisted we take the train home. Earlier still, as a child I completed a non-epic walk that seemed epic at the time, when I was dropped off in town for a recorder class and couldn't find the right room, and decided to walk the 5km home. I was oblivious to the panic that struck my parents when they went to pick me up and found I hadn't made it to the class, and according to family legend, was discovered at home sitting nonchalantly on the toilet eating a piece of toast (with marmite).

Having set a tentative date (October-November 2007) for walking the Nakasendo, Erik and I agreed we should start doing some serious walking, firstly to make sure 30 or 40km a day was a reasonable pace, and secondly to get into shape. I started by walking into town and back. I'd done this journey in one direction on numerous occasions since that fateful recorder class, once or twice at night in a pretty drunk state, and most recently when I got sick of waiting for the bus during a bus drivers' stop-work meeting a month or so ago and legged it home. But I'd never done it both ways in a single day. So that was around 10km. I felt pretty dehydrated when I got home, and resolved to take a water bottle on future outings. My legs also ached for a day or two afterwards. Once I'd recovered, I did another longish walk to a local shopping mall and back.

I was feeling pretty proud of my achievements, but when I next got in touch with Erik he told told me he'd completed a walk of something like 18 miles up and down Manhattan Island - with a loaded pack! Not to be outdone, a few days later I set off in the direction of Tai Tapu to see how far I could really go in half a day. I left at 9am and got back just before midday, and though I didn't make it as far as Tai Tapu, I did cover about 14km (including some small hills). Double that is practically 30km, so I figured that 30km in a day wouldn't be a problem. And once my fitness improves, 40km should be achievable. I haven't done any major walks into the countryside since then, but I have done some walks around town in the 5km range, plus I walk to the supermarket occasionally (a return journey of just over 3km).

Update: I've been flooded with emails asking for more details about the Naked Rambler. I need to stress again that I won't be doing this walk naked. So get over the naked thing already. But since you asked, here's the very latest, courtesy of the BBC website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/6542329.stm

Distance walked today: 0km
Total distance walked since blog began: 5.1km