London Night Hike 2011 for Maggie's Centres

Background

For me, this all started on 30 August when Tun gro tweeted about a charity walk he was planning. Perhaps mistakenly, I decided to enquire a bit further. I found out that it was the 20 mile variant of the London Night Hike for Maggie's Centres, and since I'd experienced of a number of family members coping with cancer over the years, I agreed to go along as well. Then I went to bed. It wasn't really until the next morning that I thought about it and realised what was ahead.

This gave just over a fortnight to raise funds and prepare for the walk. On top of this, Tungro also managed to pursuade Aesc to come along as well to join our little team. I managed a round trip walk to Guildford one weekend, and the three of us met at Guildford station and walked to West Byfleet station along the Wey Navigation.

I'm pleased to say that between the three of us, we've managed to raise over £1000 for Maggie's Centres. If you'd like to add to the funds raised for this wonderful cause, the donation page will remain open for two months from the date of the walk (16 September 2011).

The night

Tungro and Aesc met after work for a meal, but since I had to come from Guildford that wasn't an option for me, so I joined them at Bank station after having dinner at work beforehand. After that, it was a short walk to the start point at Leadenhall Market where we registered, picked up our T-shirts and joined the crowd ready to start.

Following a talk from the charity's patron, an unusually (but positively) short safety talk and one of the most bizarre warm-up exercises I've seen to the tune of Dolly Parton's Nine to Five, we were off.

As expected, the walk got progressively more difficult as time went on, but between the three of us encouraging each other on, and the staff and volunteers along the way providing water and snacks, we did make it around. Eight buildings had opened their doors to us along the way, providing a station for the refreshments and the opportunity for us to see inside these places that aren't normally open to the public:

City Hall
The South Bank Centre
The Royal Geographical Society
Maggie's Centre London
Heritage Routemaster Bus
The Royal Institute of British Architects
Horse Guards
20 Gresham Street

Along the way, we met plenty of people, all with interesting storied about why they were on the walk raising money for the charity, and all eager to encourge their fellow walkers along. With all of this, we did manage to make it to the finish line. We started at 20:15 on 16 September, and crossed the finished line at 05:47 on 17 September, just over nine hours including stopping in at the buildings. Not bad for three people who had never done anything like this before, I think, and all to raise funds for an excellent cause.

Route

While on the walk, I had a Garmin Vista HCx outdoor pursuits GPS receiver with me recording the track. This is one of the better devices for operation in difficult situations, but cities are particular tough, so the track taken does occasionally include some sections with low accoracy due to high buildings and dense tree cover. However, it does prove we've done it,and give you an idea of the route we took:

The route is also available as a GPS exhange file or Google Earth track if you'd like to view if yourself.

Photographs

Here are some photos from the night of the walk. Click on the thumbnail for the full picture.

	At Waterloo — where else would they go?
	The three of us registered and ready to go
	At the start line
	Crossing Tower Bridge
	Ninth floor of City Hall looking back at Tower Bridge
	Longer exposure thanks to Tungro's steady hand
	My hand is not so steady, it seems
	In the South Bank Centre
	Still there, but all three of us now
	Westminster Bridge
	At Maggie's Centre London, half way around the route
	Otters hiding behind the foliage at Maggie's
	Left alone, the otters emerge
	Finally managed to get the shot we wanted!
	Inside top floor of Maggie's Centre
	Looking down inside the centre to one of the rooms
	Did Routemaster buses always have reflective strips along them?
	Singers at the Royal Institute of British Architects
	Tungro stretching, rather sensibly
	Helium balloons with messages on them at Horse Guards
	Helium balloons and otters at Horse Guards
	Attendance at the LondonFurs meet was lower than expected
	Just fiinished. Tea and sunrise at 20 Gresham Street
	Done. Accomplished but tired