Robin’s Walk and AXA PPP Step Up Challenge
Tintern, Devil’s Pulpit, Wintour’s Leap and Sedbury Cliffs
Imagine the scene with two grown men in their 50’s dancing around a stone on the edge of a cliff shouting ‘we did it’, doing high fives and then screaming ‘yyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessss’ as loud as we could. That was Rob and me at midday at the end of Offa’s Dyke at Sedbury Cliffs.
We end on the last bit of the dyke itself and with humour note how there is a steep descent and then a final ascent in the last quarter of a mile. Brilliant effort and we are both very impressed with what we have done. Offa’s Dyke has presented the toughest physical challenge both of us have endured in our lives and we have pushed ourselves on to do it. With 184.1 miles of Offa’s Dyke behind us and reaching 500 miles in total today we are now half way. We have already met thousands of people and donations are now over £33,000 and it feels like we are making progress on the road to raising hope for people with MS.
It is our shortest walk today of the whole two weeks on Offa. We set off from Tintern and there is no surprise any more that there is a 500 foot climb up to start the day. We talk about the psychology of walkers who starting out from Chepstow had told us it was all downhill for us. We think most people only remember the struggle and pain of the uphill part of their walking and put the downhill out of their minds. We are finding there is plenty of challenging uphill even on this final section in to Sudbury. We complete 500 miles at the Devil’s Pulpit overlooking Tintern Abbey which is an amazing sight. I can’t spend too much time looking as it is a sheer drop below us. Rob will have about 100 photos so I will be able to look at leisure from the safety of my armchair in the future. 
We meet Graham Lee and Don Jordan from Leeds and Scarborough who are starting out on their way to Prestatyn. Again we exchange notes about what we have done and they tell us about Hadrian’s Wall and Coast to Coast. Our walking today is about four miles of forest with wild garlic in flower all around. We think we are leaving Offa’s Dyke for the last
time near Little Chase so Rob gives it a farewell hug with another tear in his eye. Later we reconnect with the Dyke for the last quarter of a mile when he is overjoyed once more. 
The final part of the walk for three miles through the outskirts of Chepstow is nothing special apart from some high up views down on to the Wye. About two miles from the end in a meadow we meet a large group of schoolfriends who left Wyckham Girls High School in 1965 and are now here with some husbands and friends to take on the whole walk to Prestatyn. Looks like a fun crowd and thanks again for the donations. Enjoy the walk and we know there is so much in store for you as you trek up north.
Finally we are done and it is still sinking in as I write this. Over 1 million footsteps so far and the big lesson is you can only do one at a time. Also never fear great heights tomorrow as there is so much to enjoy today and there is plenty of time to live the fear in the moment when it arrives. And finally can someone tell Rob I do not like heights and that he should not say things like ‘oh Len you are not going to like this, don’t look down!!!’. Well done Rob....was great doing this with you and enjoyed your company and good humour along the way. Big thanks to Karen for ferrying our bags around and bringing stimulating conversation and fun to our evenings.
Post script: As Len and Karen head off to Cheltenham to celebrate with friends they dump Rob and his luggage at Chepstow railway station to let him struggle back to his London home.There he meets Nick and Trudy Veres who are waiting for a train to Gloucester and take sympathy on a bedraggled, exhausted and hungry rambler and offer help and support. They were both born in different parts of the UK - Trudy is the daughter of wartime GI - but now live in the Yukon. They are the second party we have met from the Yukon walking Offa's trail - it's a long way to come for a walk but it seems the ancient King of Mercia's pulling power goes way beyond these shores.
Well done guys, looks like you've completed over half now!!
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