Crikey, what have I got myself into?!?!?

The route from the Dead Sea to Petra

Britain V Cancer: The Jordan Desert Trek 15 - 22 November 2013

Okay, so this is what I'll be doing in November to raise money for Clatterbridge Cancer Charity http://www.clatterbridgecc.org.uk/

The blurb about it says:

'The Jordan Desert Trek entails five days of trekking starting at the Dead Sea and finishing in the red rock city of Petra. Accompanied by Bedouin guides you will trek through mountain and desert terrain using ancient trails. You will sleep under the stars en route to the beautiful city of Petra'

Which all sounds lovely! Then when the trek info turned up, it said that day 3 (day 2 of actual trekking) involves 8 hours of trekking up hill!! HORROR!!!! I needed to make sure you knew about that because I'm still traumatised!

The image below shows the route from the Dead Sea to Petra but it comes out as 154 Km which is an awfully long way and (I hope) further than we have to trek. Hence I guess why we trek for 8 hours uphill into the Black mountains (have I mentioned that already?) to go more as the crow flies?



So what on earth was I thinking when I decided that I should spend the week before my 45th birthday trogging across desert, mountain, valleys, donkey trails etc to travel from the Dead Sea to one of Unesco's Wonders of the World? 

Well the story kind of starts last November shortly before my 44th birthday. I was feeling pretty grotty and worn out and decided I'd have to do something to improve my fitness and general wellbeing as I was struggling to figure out how I was going to manage to keep going to work for another 20 days never mind 20 years (or more, depending on the pension situation!). So I joined our local sports centre but was so knackered I debated whether to ask if I could do the over 50's exercise classes. I went to Tai Chi but the flippin warm up nearly finished me off, all I could do to start with was aquarobics which is great for people like me who have NO co-ordination as most of you is underwater so no-one can see when you keep going wrong. So I carried on with that and started to feel a bit more human although I was still a big fatty and kept getting fatter and fatter!! So then I decided to join Weight Watchers to try to shift some of the flab. So there I was (and am); fat, unfit and heading for 45.

I'd been debating organising a girlie trip to Venice for my 45th birthday, then completely by chance I saw a flyer at work for the Britain V Cancer Jordan desert and found myself unexpectedly excited about the possibility of doing a fundraising challenge and having what qualifies for me as an adventure, instead of a girlie trip. So after consulting my husband (he said don't go), my friend Clare who has done the Grand Canyon and Machu Picchu for charity (she said GO FOR IT!) and the fundraising folk at Clatterbridge Cancer Charity (who said do it, but they get paid to say that, Iol) I registered to join the trek. There was a possibility I might know a couple of people who had also registered but I wouldn't find out for definite until after I'd signed up, but I decided I didn't care whether I knew anyone or not. After I'd registered I was VERY excited and told anyone who would listen. To my immense joy, 2 of the colleagues I bored to death with my excited witterings decided they wanted to come, so Flora Al-Samarraie and Angela Cross are coming too!

The Treasury at Petra

We started 2 weeks ago with roughly 6 months to fundraise and 9 months to train to make sure we don't cark it in the desert! We're all raising money for Clatterbridge Cancer Charity and each need to raise £2.5K by the beginning of September. We're planning lots of different fundraising events to raise at least £7,500 between us. I've decided to start small and have organised a Body Shop party for March 20th to get things started. I'm also planning a party night, Rock and Roll Bingo, a group abseilling trip and an Arabian Nights themed Dine at Mine (apparently it's entirely ethical to make people pay to come and eat at your house!!!!!). Flora and Angela are also busy planning ways to raise as much cash as possible.

Our fitness training began last week with a 3 hour walk along the Wirral Way and we've all started exercise classes of different descriptions. Angela and Flora are going to Zumba classes but I'd just fall over so I haven't tried that! For the first time ever I went to a spinning class. They call it Revolutions at our local sports centre and it proved to be just as dangerous for my health as a real revolution!!! I used to like riding my bike but haven't ridden full pelt or stood up on a bike to ride up a hill since I was about 11. It turned out that spinning involves pedalling furiously like a demented 10 year old on a BMX and I came to the realisation part way through that the (apparently) nice instructor lady was actually trying to kill me!!! I've booked to go again this Friday but have had to leave it 2 weeks for my bottom to recover.
We completed our 2nd training walk/hike/trek today accompanied by my dogs who have spent the rest of the day sleeping, it's alright for some!

The 3 of us, plus dogs, walked locally on the Wirral from Storeton Woods, though Brimstage, to Thornton Hough, circled back round to Brimstage (just in time for the Country Mouse opening for cuppas) then through Storeton village and back through Storeton woods to our starting point. 7.8 miles in 3 hours ish (plus cuppa time).

The terrain varied from soggy fields (here's me, my dogs and Angela on a slightly drier section) to dry fields, woods, roads, paths and quite a lot of stiles. We didn't actually find any desert but we'll keep looking.

 

Here's Flora having a great time being dragged along by the dogs :)

Cuppa time at Brimstage, I'm assuming there are Tea Shops in the desert?

So that's about it for now. Our news is bound to be thrilling, so I'll keep posting about our fundraising and fitness efforts over the coming months and I'll tell you a bit more about why we want to raise money for Clatterbridge Cancer Charity.

TTFN, Pauline.