Thursday 24 July 2008

Where there's Hope....actually where IS Hope?


I know where it is, and me and mine are going there tomorrow - how cool is that!?


Some friends of ours are lovely and mad, and love walking ridiculous distances over tough terrain and some times in the dead of night too and over the last 3 years have tricked Keith into believeing that he will have a good time if he joins them.
He has now tricked the rest of us, his lovely family, that it will indeed be 'bare jokes' if we joined in too.

So, I just found out about 2 minutes ago that the place where we are staying and starting the 'walk' from is in Hope,( which means 'a valley') in Derbyshire.

Apparently the walk is in a figure of eight and about 21 miles long, but it also goes up and down a few miles too - so add in that, plus any weather that there might be and the odd need for the loo and we are looking at a fair old yomp.

Having said that, Elyse, Thomas and I will only be doing the short walk - 3 miles + height and weather etc, along with another member of the mad family who has young-ish children. I have a feeling thought that they will already be accomplished in the walking thing, so fully expect to be bringing up the rear.
Joe and Keith will continue for the rest of the way with the others. Joe has been training and Keith is training tonight by going to play football with the guys from the Corps in the vain HOPE that running round a footy pitch at 10pm at night will provide him with all the condition he requires.
I too, have been training!
( Fiona, this will be just a warm up for you) I have been getting up at 6am, flinging on some 'sweats' and power walking for a half hour every morning this week. I think I found my stride today - a moment of suddenly thinking that I wasn't thinking about my technique ( heel, toe, hold in the tummy, swing arms and smile!), but was, infact humming a song. It was a fleeting moment and then the pain returned, mostly down the front of my legs at the moment, but I am advised that this will soon pass and then the real pain starts down the back of the legs. CAN'T WAIT!
Back to Hope then, at the north end of the village are two hills, one called Win Hill, the other called Lose Hill after some 7th century battle and Hope has the uncommon honour of having it's Church mentioned in the Domesday Book, something that no other North Derbyshire Town can claim. there is also an 'abundance of shops cafes and art galleries' . So certainly worth a visit...maybe some other time!
So yeah - three things remain- faith, hope and love. The greatest IS love, but I think Hope is going to be a great, if painful place too.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

sounds fun :/ enjoy yourselves - it's good to do something as a whole family

Dawn said...

Am excited about the reason I am staying at home, but wish I could have the best of both worlds and be there too!

Certainly not jealous of the geo-caching detours which'll turn the 20+ miles into 30+ miles!

Liz said...

We made it!

NO time for geo-caching though, but timing and heat were major issues. Short walk ( climb!) took about 3 hours and Long Walkers didn't get back 'til 8:30.

Anonymous said...

well done you and yours - Yes, I can imagine the heat would be a concern!

Anna said...

Hey Liz...just popping in to say hi and that I loved the Mr Hall/Darling bit of your comments. ( I love the whole blog of course, but that made me laugh out load, in the office, which is not supposed to happen!) xx

Mr Hall said...

A round of applause if you will for my dear Son. Not only did he walk every step of the way, but even carried the rucksack that we agreed to share for last up and over that the remaining 6 of us (foolishly) said we would do. Half way up the up bit of the up and over, my Son's overweight and underfit Dad realised he'd probably bitten off more than he can chew and asked said Son if he would carry the bag. Managing to understand this request amongst the puffin' and pantin' he deduced desparation and took the load that should been his poor old Dad's. In the famous words of Butch from Tom and Jerry "That's my Boy!"

Liz said...

Mr Hall your comment is a bit like a riddle....this man's father is my grandfather's son sort of thing - You should write a blog about the walk...hey that's an idea!

Dawn said...

Mr Hall admitting defeat - I love it. Well proud of you, Mate. I take it Joe's boots held out then?

Liz said...

Joes boots and everything held out. We were really proud of him. Only thing was that today he said YES to going on a bike ride with my dad and they did 27 miles! Needless to say, he didn't feel too good this evening. We should have suggested that he rest today, he should have realised that it would be hard and my dad...maybe shouldn't have gone so far??

Dawn said...

27miles? I struggle to cycle 2.7miles!

Mr Hall said...

MW, I admitted to being foolish not defeated. I did finish the walk, albeit only just.

I will blog Mrs Hall, when I have a chance.