Dear Morning Porridge Reader
Walking With The Wounded Charity Appeal – Blain’s Butser to Exton Yomp!
28th November 2020
Down a leafy lane…
She-Who-is-Mrs-Blain and I completed the first of our three 20 km charity hikes for Walking Home For Christmas on Saturday! It was a fantastic day – starting in the mist and ending a beautiful autumnal day walking part of the South Downs Way across our home county of Hampshire. We both really enjoyed ourselves – and, having burnt off an enormous number of calories we celebrated with a curry!
This year Nicky and I are joining my colleagues at Shard Capital to raise money for the UK ex-military charity Walking With The Wounded. The Charity supports ex-military and their families in need of urgent mental health care so they can thrive and contribute in their communities once more. This year our veterans faced the new battlefield of the Coronavirus and the mental challenges it raised for us all. Together we are Team Morning Porridge.
Mrs Blain heading into the Butser clouds…
We started with a yomp up to the top of Butser Hill, but couldn’t see a thing because of the low cloud. By the time we got to Sand Hill, the Sun was burning off the clag and we got the most wonderful views of the hang-gliders on Old Winchester Hill and the Meon Valley. We stopped for lunch at Meon Springs before walking up Old Winchester and superb hazy views across Hampshire.
Hang Gliders over Meon
Unfortunately we didn’t make our final hill, Beacon Hill above Exton. We’d got our logistics somewhat muddled. The original plan for the walk was a group of socially distanced colleagues all finishing in the rather superb Shoe Inn at the end of the stroll. We stuck to that plan, but we got delayed finding somewhere to park at the starting point, Queen Elizabeth Country Park off the M3, meaning it would have been dark for our final descent – and that’s a recipe for twisted ankles. What we should have done is left the car at the top of the hill. The pub was closed anyway
The Meon River
Total distance was around 19.7 km over 4.5 hours and some time for lunch. Next week we’ll be doing a coastal walk round the Beaulieu River.
The shot to sum up the day…
Here is the link to the donations page where you can donate:
https://www.walkinghomeforchristmas.com/teams/team-morning-porridge
Every £75 funds a 1-2-1 mental health therapy session that can save jobs and lives.
Thanks very much for your support
Bill and Nicola Blain