Time for some thank yous!

Hurrah! I've just hit my first major milestone of £1,000!

It's been a very hectic few weeks, what with all the training and continued fundraising. Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be allowed to run a collection stall at The Wellington Centre, Aldershot and made around £40. Of course, my stand wouldn't have been the same without my fantastic banner, created by the Hampshire County Council Sign Shop with the help of Mark Fenton. Thank you, Wellington Centre, HCC Sign Shop and Mark, and everyone who was kind enough to donate!

I've had some great publicity too - 96.4 The Eagle kindly ran a news feature on my trek, both on the radio and on their website. The Farnborough News also published a small piece on my collection on the front page, and the RAPTC Association featured me on their news and events pages (and were also kind enough to send me some sponsorship money). Thank you!

My next thank you for today goes to the lovely people at Cotswold Outdoor, Guildford who have very kindly provided me with some free kit and discounts.

Finally, thanks to everyone has helped so far - either by donating, getting involved with my fundraising activities or just listening to me witter on about it! :-)

So, what's coming up? Watch this space for a chilli night, car boot sale and more cakey goodness!

Of cakes and wet feet

I've been so busy fundraising and training I've barely had time to update this!Just a quick update as to what I've been up to...

My first big event was a work cake sale. Of course, not being someone to do things by halves I made things complicated by making and decorating around a hundred animal cupcakes. There I was, armed with more sweets than Willy Wonka - and a couple of fundraising buddies to keep me sane! Et voilà! Five hours later I had a selection of delicious lions, cats, mice and sheep to be proud of!

All the hard work was well worth it, though! Thanks to a variety of cakes and goodies provided by fellow fundraisers, and a big delicious choccy cake for people to guess the weight of, I walked away with £178 more in the kitty for the RSPCA - hurrah!

In other news... the training is going well! I'm now regularly walking 6-7 miles without suffering too much the next day - although I am suffering with a lack of walking boots. Yesterday's little jolly took us from the lovely little village of Bramley, Surrey, along the north downs link and up Farley Hill. Lovely walk - shame about the weather! Sadly my little trainers may not have survived the mud, as it was rather deep and a bit sticky in places!

Fortunately, though, pay-day is on its way and with pay day comes boot shopping! I will no longer have to tiptoe around the squelchy bits, and can instead bravely trudge through all terrains! Hurrah!

On the fundraising front, as I write this I am now up to £751, or 21%, as my lovely JustGiving page tells me. I'm well on the way to my target!

Sore feet!

Phew! What a hard, but rewarding, bank holiday weekend!

We decided to embark on not one, but two (yes, two) training walks.

The first took us from Tilford to the beautiful ruins of Waverley Abbey, then up Crooksbury Hill and across Crooksbury Common before returning to Tilford. It took about four hours, including a wander around the ruins (and a bit of a sit down at the top of Crooksbury Hill!). The total distance was just under six miles.

What a wonderful opportunity to get away from the rush of everything and marvel at that increasingly rare thing - silence. The silence was, of course, soon broken by the sounds of us struggling up hills and glugging on litre after litre of water!

Today we ventured out for walk number two. A slightly shorter one this time - just under three miles - due to achey, blistered feet (ouch). This led us around Puttenham Common, which included part of the North Downs Way. Stunning!

Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to the aches and pains that will inevitably come tomorrow. Time to sit down with a cuppa and rest before getting started on next weekend's fundraising activity - watch this space!

Info: For those of you interested in following our footsteps, we were once again following pre-planned routes taken from Pathfinder Surrey Walks, walks 13 (Tilford and Waverley) and 1 (Puttenham Common).

Training day!

After buying a little map book of walks around Surrey I decided it was time to start some training.

OK, so, like most 27 year olds I've been able to walk for about 26 years now. One would think this would exclude me from needing to practise for my 4,600m altitude, 4 day hike in the Andes, but apparently not!

I picked out a nice little six-miler, to take my training buddy (also known as my other half, Chris) and me from picturesque Compton, Surrey, up through Artington to the outskirts of Guildford, then back through the Loseley estate (although I have been berated by a friend for not using the opportunity to take in some delicious Loseley ice cream - sorry!) to Compton.

There really are some beautiful sights to be seen on this walk, from the unusual Watts Chapel, to the stunning Loseley House (pictured above - excuse the bad photography!). And despite being a bit off the beaten track, it's all so easy to find with a bit of a walk and some exploration.

A few hours later, tired and with aching legs, we returned to the car and headed for a relaxing pub lunch to "reward" ourselves. I think I'm going to enjoy this training!

For info: today's walk can be found in Pathfinder Guides: Surrey Walks, walk 14: Compton and Loseley Park

Off to a flying start!

Wow, it's been an eventful couple of days!

Decided to get things going with a bang, and had a chat with a journalist called Pete from the local paper yesterday - which resulted in frantic attempts to make myself look presentable as he arranged for a same-day press photographer to come over. Hopefully I'll look reasonably human when the article is published - I'll be sure to link it here for you all to judge for yourselves!

It's been busy on the donations front too - as well as lots of lovely donations from friends and family on my Just Giving page, the lovely Craig and Sarah at Clever Recruitment have contributed to the pot as well - thanks guys!

Where it all began...

Thanks for your interest in Gem's little jaunt up Machu Picchu!

I'll be trekking up Machu Picchu to raise funds for the RSPCA - an organisation that has meant a lot to me since I was 5 (yep, 22 years ago now!) - when I joined the Animal Action Club and wrote them a very demanding letter asking them to save ALL the animals in the world! It's very difficult to imagine the world without the RSPCA in it - quite simply, the animal welfare in England and Wales (and arguably, worldwide) wouldn't be what it is now if the RSPCA hadn't started doing their thing nearly two hundred years ago. They've done so much to shape attitudes, improve animal welfare legislation and help on the front line of animal cruelty, it's impossible not to respect and admire their achievements. And without the support and donations of the public none of this could have happened!

This trip is a big "thank you" to the RSPCA for all they've done for the millions of animals that need them - and for the impact they have had on my life. I hope to raise a hefty wodge of cash for you to help further your work :-)

So, the trek itself... on arriving, and after a bit of acclimatisation to the altitude (hey, its elevation is 3.5km!) I will take part in two days of community project work in the Cusco/Sacred Valley area, before embarking on the four day trek up to Machu Picchu. I'll be on the Salkantay Route, travelling through the land of the ancient Incas, crossing passes up to 4.6km high through the Andes mountains - and onwards and upwards to Machu Picchu itself!

I'll be keeping this page up-to-date with my fundraising and training efforts - so feel free to check back to find out how I'm getting on!

Thanks so much for visiting my page. If you've enjoyed it please take a moment to visit my Just Giving page and make a donation - double thanks if you donated! My target is a daunting £3,500 inc tour costs so every little counts - even if you can only afford £1! And if you've got a moment, I'd be eternally grateful to anyone who shares this page on Facebook, Twitter or by email. :-)