Can I Borrow A Kayak?

I have discovered that the route of my walk will, sadly, follow the exact line of some of the worst flooding seen in the past week.

As this image from the BBC shows, I'll be walking from near the spot that says "Warwickshire" down to Oxford, across to Marlow, Windsor and then into London. The vast majority of the walk is through open countryside, which is mostly under 5ft+ of water. The environment agency expect the flood water to take at least one week to disperse, so it's touch and go whether large sections of the route will still be submerged when I start next week.

There's no question of postponing the walk, so I guess I'll just need to adapt the route when I hit an obstacle. It certainly seems like I'm going to work a little harder to earn all that sponsorship money (there's still time to sponsor me -- please click this link!). It's rather bad luck that I choose to do this walk after the worst flooding in 15o years and during the wettest summer since records began in 1766 -- but good luck, I suppose, that I didn't plan to do it this week!

Stratford UNDER Avon: The Flood

In the past twenty four hours, two months worth of rain has fallen in the UK. The Met office said "it was the worst deluge in living memory". Here in Warwickshire, one of the worst affected counties, many towns are totally submerged under many feet of water and roads in/out are impassable. These pictures of Warwickshire and Gloucestershire (Cotswolds) give a sense of the floods. The cost of the floods? 2 billion!

Stratford has been hard hit too. The River Avon, which runs through the center of town, broke its banks yesterday afternoon and rose more than 5 feet. The flooding caused a lot of damage to the town alongside the banks and the theatres are closed. Luckily, even though we live very near to the river in the center of town, we are on a slightly higher level.... however, that didn't stop us looking at the river and worrying that all our recent building work would have an unwelcome water feature running through it! The pictures show how the town was transformed into one great lake. Hobbes had a great time swimming in it though, of course!

My drive home from work last night was more brutal than normal. The usual 1.5 hour trip took four hours because the main motorway (M40) was under water, so I weaved north on tiny roads through towns in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. Some poor folks had been stranded on the M5 for 15 hours. Most main roads were closed at multiple points, so it was a case of just pot-luck to see if I could get through the Cotswolds to Stratford or not. I finally got home to find my sister in law and her little boy, B & N, taking refuge at our house because their home just outside Warwick was completely cut off.

But every "cumulonimbus calvus" has a sliver lining. The torrential rain and road closures meant that Stratford was relatively quiet for........ the release of the last Harry Potter book! Yes, despite the horid drive home and being up for 22 hours, I was there in the queue at midnight to collect my copy. Those of us that braved the weather for our copies last night can confidently call ourselves true Potter fans!

The Route

As "the walk" rapidly approaches, I have worked out each stage of the walk. Here it is. I have decided to start one day later (Saturday rather than Friday) to accommodate three American friends flying in to join me for a few days. Distances are "miles from Stratford".

Saturday August 4: Stratford to Shipstone (17 miles)
Sunday August 5: Shipstone to Chipping Norton (31 miles)
Monday August 6: Chipping Norton to Woodstock (47 miles)
Tuesday August 7: Woodstock to Toot Baldon (65 miles)
Wednesday August 8: Toot Baldon to Cookley Green (81 miles)
Thursday August 9: Cookley Green to Bourne End (99 miles)
Friday August 10: Bourne End to Iver (116 miles)
Saturday August 11: Iver to Kew Bridge (130 miles)
Sunday August 12: Kew Bridge to Globe Theatre, London (146 miles... phew)

For the Chop

Not that anyone but the residents of our little street in the center of Stratford cares, but today a landmark tree was cut down because of trumped up health and safety concerns from a nanny-state local council. OK, I'll come off the fence and say that anyone with an ounce of brain matter knows it doesn't make sense to cut down trees just for the hell of it. Sadly, Stratford Upon Avon council thinks differently, and it has caused quite a stir in our local community, as this story shows.

Here's the chronology of death for a beautiful old silver birch tree. Not sure how they'll remove the body that they have so gamely painted orange.

Rowayton, Connecticut, US

After an intense few days of back to back meetings in Connecticut, I escaped the office with my boss for a well deserved dinner and large glass of wine. We eat at the Rowayton Seafood Restaurant, nestled on the banks of the Long Island Sound. If you ever wanted to see picture-postcard America, this town and restaurant are a slice of genuine East Coast, blue blooded Americana. And the food was as good as the views!

Hidcote Manor, Cotswolds

At the weekend, we took "the olds" to the second most spectacular English country garden we know -- Hidcote Manor in the Cotswolds, luckily only 15 minutes from our home. Paradoxically, it was designed by an American called Lawrence Johnston who was born in France and later became a Colonel in the British Army, fighting in the Boer and First World War. In between world travels and battles, he managed to design this gorgeous garden. Its now a National Trust property and a day walking through the intricate and densly populated gardens-within-a-garden design leaves one speechless. It's even a great day out for kids, because there are plenty of places to run and lots of nooks to explore.

Here's just a couple of pics, but they don't even come close to capturing the subtle beauty of this garden in summer.

Oh, and THE most spectacular English country garden? It has to be "The Lost Gardens of Heligan" in Cornwall, of course...........

Tropical Connecticut, US

The bad weather seems to be following me around! After two weeks of torrential rain in the South of France and UK, I arrived in New York to 30 degree heat and pouring rain. It sounds crazy to say, but the humidity was also very high. When I walked out of the airport terminal, not only did I get soaked, but the temperature difference/humidity made my glasses steam up like I had just walked into a sauna. Arriving at my usual hotel in Greenwich, Connecticut (about 40 minutes outside NYC), the climate made the forest in the foyer (pictured here) seem like a tropical jungle.

Keeping up my fitness regime for the upcoming walk, I did my regular run this morning at 6am in the Hyatt gym. I'm no fan of gyms -- in fact, I hate them -- so I thought that an early visit would spare me the embarrassment of other "fitter" Americans outpacing me on the adjoining treadmill. In fact, the gym was packed and, judging by the rather thick atmosphere in the very confined space, it had been sweating the stress out of a quite a few corporate animals for many hours already.

The one treat at the end of my run -- iced towels!! Yep, the towels were doused in water and then stuck in the fridge at a low temperature. Oh, the bliss.

Huge Thanks to Early Sponsors

After just three weeks and only one begging email, my friends, family and colleagues have donated nearly 900 pounds to the Shakespeare Hospice. Incredible! I want to thank everyone who has sponsored me so far and remind you that your donation has been doubled by my company -- which means that one month before I start "the walk" we have raised nearly 2000 pounds (that's US$4000)!!!

Every single penny you have donated will make a huge difference to people as they end their life at home with the professional support of the staff at the Shakespeare Hospice.

I have also got something out of this walk already -- the realisation that I have such generous and supportive people all around me. My sincere thanks to those of you who have taken the time to donate -- from as far away as the USA (California, New York and Connecticut), The Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago, Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa, Sweden, Finland and, of course, all over the UK.

If you haven't already visited my sponsorship web site (see link on right or click here), please do!! Or if you'd like to find out more about the Shakespeare Hospice or why I'm doing this before you decide to sponsor me, please don't hesitate to email/call me.

South of France

We spent last week in the South of France in a delightful house near the village of Najac in the Aveyron valley. It's a gorgeous, rural and unspoilt area of the country. Sadly though, we did not escape the terrible weather that has plagued Northern Europe for the past few weeks. We saw a lot -- and I mean a lot -- of rain last week and it was pretty cold on occassions. The poor weather didn't stop us enjoying ourselves though.

We visited the incredible new viaduct at Millau designed by British architect Sir Norman Foster, the tallest vehicular bridge in the world. Probably not surprisingly, the French seem to have neglected to highhlight that this spectactular bridge was designed by a Brit -- and the English are rather miffed that the French could build it so perfectly without a ten year delay.

We also explored a few beautiful local towns such as San Antonin and bored the pants off B with tours of ruined castles and chateaus. We did get one day of good weather to enjoy by the pool -- luckily the freezing water shocked my nervous system so much upon diving in that it removed all traces of the cold I had developed in the previous days!