UPDATE - Issue 30 - Summer 2007
Coffin Trail Conquered
Twelve intrepid supporters of Prostate Research Campaign UK met in Northallerton the evening before their 42 mile hike across the North Yorkshire moors on one of the longest days of the year. Longest in more ways than one, since the alternative name for the Lyke Wake Walk is the Coffin Trail.
We began the eighth Prostate Research Campaign UK challenge, writes Roger Kirby, at two in the morning with head torches illuminating the pitch black moor. Walking was deceptively easy at first, with flagstones like a Roman road, and our spirits rose. By 6am the mist was gone and we were pleased to stop for bacon sandwiches and coffee in hazy sunshine. We looked as though we should make the 42 miles, despite several pre-existing injuries and several osteo-arthritic knee joints (Andrew Etherington and Rex Willoughby having worn away all their cartilage on previous challenges!).
We trudged on through damp waist-high heather, encountering the dreaded boggy middle section that John Robinson, the CEO of Wimpey plc, had warned us about. His team of ten had completed the trek two days previously with only one walker falling by the wayside. However, two of John's team had actually fainted during the celebratory dinner on completion of the challenge! Emerging on the far side of the bog with sore and soggy feet, we made a navigation error and convinced ourselves that we were on the wrong track and set off into the heather only to realise our mistake and struggle back to the path. Heaving a joint sigh, we pressed on.
By 3pm in the afternoon with the famous Fylingdale early warning structure in the distance, while crossing a brook, already swollen with recent rain, the heavens opened and torrential rain began to fall (the precursor of the worst floods to hit Yorkshire for a generation). The path turned into a stream, then a torrent. Scott Cormack noted dourly that the trip was turning into a white water rafting challenge. As we slithered down yet another steep gully, some literally on their bottoms, the skies cleared and the final section was completed in reasonable weather. The surface water though made the going difficult because almost every step was taken in slippery, often ankle-deep, mud.
Around 8 o'clock we finally caught sight of the radio mast at Ravenscar that marks the end of the walk and half an hour later we were there. John Dick, who had stoically accompanied us up Mt Kilimanjaro and Kinabalu, as well as across Hadrian's Wall and last year's West Highland Way, admitted that he had never felt so tired in his entire life. More than a few beers were called for, and we were further fortified by the knowledge that we had, thanks to the amazing generosity of our supporters, raised more than £160,000 for Prostate Research Campaign UK.
A cheque for the final amount will be presented at our Annual Luncheon at The Dorchester on 12 October. I do hope you can join us there.
There were, in fact, three groups who completed the formidable Lyke Wake Walk on our behalf. To them all, we say a big thank you - we are extremely grateful for your time, effort and support in taking on such a tough challenge.