Distance walked by Mike 1081.6km Walked by Toby 457.3km Walked by Idol 664.1km Funds raised Over $11,400 (including what is in the bucket)
Thank very much to Liz Tolhurst for stepping up today to be support person.
This morning I took Idol to agility at Feilding. Thanks every one there who put money in the bucket. I walked the first course with Hanna de Meo and then left Idol in the care of Hanna and Katrina.
To accommodate Liz the walking started an hour later than planned. The weather was overcast but the rain never came until I was on my way home from Feilding. I stripped off my parka after an hour but didn't ditch the jersey until early afternoon in spite of being hot on the uphills.
There is a narrow bridge with poor visibility only 250 metres after the start of the walk. Liz didn't realize quite how close it was - not being visible where we were parked and then had to back across the bridge so she could form a roadblock for me. That was the only bridge of the day that required an escort. The road from Linton is quite narrow until after the Tokomaru bridge. Toby was quite relaxed which surprised me - I think because there were very few trucks. I however was concerned by the number of idiots driving too fast - I think my presence on a road with a narrow shoulder constitutes a condition that makes driving at 100kph or more not appropriate. I spent far too much time having to walk in mud as I was being denied the few inches of sealed shoulder the road has.
Tokomaru is a strange little town. It has the school and museum on one side of the road and jut about everything else on the other. There is a corner that limits visibility and until today I hadn't realised that there is an underpass under the highway to get to the school.
The were a lot of bridges today. 5 short ones that had good visibility and the Tokomaru River which is quite long and narrow but still has the ledge along the side for the dogs to walk on. As we were crossing the bridge a large turck and trailer came up behind us. Toby got nervous. (the only other time he got nervous today was a car pulling a trailer with a noisy flapping cover). He stepped down off the ledge. There was a ute approaching from the south an fortunately it stopped just before coming on the bridge. I got Toby back up on the ledge, the truck went and the ute crossed the bridge on the wrong side of the road giving us heaps of room. As I waved my thanks the driver - a young man - gave me the finger.
After the bridge the road widens a little but is still narrow enough to require using the outside of bends until shortly before SH56/SH57 junction. Just after the bridge is an old dairy factory which has found an unusual new use as a hairdressing salon.
Last year the road from SH56/SH57 junction through to Shannon was widened and armco barrier placed along almost all the 4 and bit kilometres. Because of the barrier traffic is not getting close to the barrier and the stones there are still quite angular. Idol with his sore feet would have rally struggled - even Toby looked a bit uncomfortable.
I stopped for a cold drink - an iced chocolate with lashings of cream - and a piece of cake at Shannon. Liz started pushing for donations while we were in the cafe and I kept it up through town - over $50 added to the bucket which is great for such a little town.
The last 800m were uphill and I was very relieved to get to the finish.
I drove Liz back to her car at Feilding; checked with Hanna and Katina if Idol was ok to keep doing agility (had only been scratched from 1 class); then drove back to Wellington. Including a stop for takeaways and some quick shopping at the supermarket that took nearly 4 hours and there wasn't a peep out of Toby the whole time. Until a few minutes ago he was snoring in the corner of the bedroom but has now woken.
I have 2 loads of washing to get done - one of them is all the merino I own apart from the long johns which haven't been needed. I need some fine weather tomorrow afternoon to get it dry.
Thank very much to Liz Tolhurst for stepping up today to be support person.
This morning I took Idol to agility at Feilding. Thanks every one there who put money in the bucket. I walked the first course with Hanna de Meo and then left Idol in the care of Hanna and Katrina.
To accommodate Liz the walking started an hour later than planned. The weather was overcast but the rain never came until I was on my way home from Feilding. I stripped off my parka after an hour but didn't ditch the jersey until early afternoon in spite of being hot on the uphills.
There is a narrow bridge with poor visibility only 250 metres after the start of the walk. Liz didn't realize quite how close it was - not being visible where we were parked and then had to back across the bridge so she could form a roadblock for me. That was the only bridge of the day that required an escort. The road from Linton is quite narrow until after the Tokomaru bridge. Toby was quite relaxed which surprised me - I think because there were very few trucks. I however was concerned by the number of idiots driving too fast - I think my presence on a road with a narrow shoulder constitutes a condition that makes driving at 100kph or more not appropriate. I spent far too much time having to walk in mud as I was being denied the few inches of sealed shoulder the road has.
Tokomaru is a strange little town. It has the school and museum on one side of the road and jut about everything else on the other. There is a corner that limits visibility and until today I hadn't realised that there is an underpass under the highway to get to the school.
After the bridge the road widens a little but is still narrow enough to require using the outside of bends until shortly before SH56/SH57 junction. Just after the bridge is an old dairy factory which has found an unusual new use as a hairdressing salon.
I stopped for a cold drink - an iced chocolate with lashings of cream - and a piece of cake at Shannon. Liz started pushing for donations while we were in the cafe and I kept it up through town - over $50 added to the bucket which is great for such a little town.
The last 800m were uphill and I was very relieved to get to the finish.
I drove Liz back to her car at Feilding; checked with Hanna and Katina if Idol was ok to keep doing agility (had only been scratched from 1 class); then drove back to Wellington. Including a stop for takeaways and some quick shopping at the supermarket that took nearly 4 hours and there wasn't a peep out of Toby the whole time. Until a few minutes ago he was snoring in the corner of the bedroom but has now woken.
I have 2 loads of washing to get done - one of them is all the merino I own apart from the long johns which haven't been needed. I need some fine weather tomorrow afternoon to get it dry.
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