This Easter sees me finally handover my fundraising to two charities. I will have raised in excess of £4000 including Gift Aid, with over £2500 going to Moray Women’sAid and the rest to WaterAid. After a year of walking well over a million boot steps, that is over 500 miles, and taking myself well out of my comfort zone by agreeing to walk some of those steps in the Sahara, that challenge is done!
I am finding it hard to let go, but I know I have to look ahead to new adventures now. I need a focus. I can’t simply stop. For a start I will probably put on a couple of stone while I sit here looking at the photos! And I will also undo all that effort in getting fit. And despite thinking I would want to hide my boots in the back of a cupboard, I still want to walk. Mentally I find myself able to handle stress (a little) better. A friend said to me just the other week “you seem more content than I have ever seen you”. See, even others can see it. I also put that down to the company. The knee-buckling hysterical laughter. The “are we nearly there yet?”, “car!!”, “My Fitbit says…”. The silly incidental stuff which happened along the way. The warm feeling you get from just being with people who will walk by your side and simply let you be you. And when you are not your best version of you, those who know just what to do to help.
So we weren’t back long from the Sahara when the conversations among some of us began to turn to “what next”. We are ten women all with different priorities. We could never recreate what we have done, nor should we try. But I can already see some new drive emerging in some corners to do something, anything. And that includes me. My mind has been whirring away and finally there is something coming over the horizon. It’s not a solid plan yet, so while it’s still being hatched I thought “how about I squeeze a mini target in”? You know…just to keep my hand (or feet) in. So here it is. The next target…
To complete The Moray Way.
Rewind a couple of weeks or so and I never even knew there was a Moray Way. Then someone invited me to a Facebook group (there are way too many of those groups in my life). How did I not know that? Moray Coast Trail? Yes, I know all about that. Dava Way – well I have done all of it and half again. The Speyside Way? I’ve quite a few bits of that ticked off too. But what is this “Moray Way” walk? Well here’s the thing – he is a welcoming circle of some or all of these trails. So you can go round in a circle if you really want to (just don’t forget to stop).
Ok I own up. Around half of it is in the bag already thanks to the accumulation of Million Boot steps. But this girl does nothing by “half” so the plan is to complete it all this spring. But those of you who know me (well) will have already discovered I don’t like to repeat myself (much) so I have opted not to start the whole thing again. After all, this is just a kick start onto adventures new. But I am going to make sure it’s all done, ticked (and most blogged too if I have my way). Now to work out which bits are missing…
Looks like the next stop is Covesea – destination Garmouth! Are we ready Jennifer?