Leg 2: Brentwood Holiday Inn to The Bell Hotel, Great Western, Epping (12.9 miles, approx.)
I’ve survived day two and am writing this post from my executive suite room at the Bell Hotel near Epping. Got here shortly before 3pm, so managed the trek in about the same time as yesterday despite it being a couple of miles longer. This was mainly due to it being a much more straight forward journey (no boggy streams to cross this time) and the fact that the wind had dropped significantly.
Also much more straight forward territory overall- still a few brambles and thickets to negotiate but also alot of golf courses, which made things alot easier, despite a few mounds and hillocks to climb. Also had to negiotiate a few closed boundaries: fences, hedges and padlocked gates that were supposedly public access and that should have been accessible. I got over them anyway; there’s no stopping me now.
I’ve decided by now that this won’t be a full-on run and to preserve my energy and also myself my pace is pretty slow and also by necessity incorporates a bit of walking at times. After all, I am carrying a rucksack, which although small does carry some weight and will inevitably slow me down.
Started a bit later than I intended due my bank being stupid and blocking my debit card for no reason. Luckily I brought my credit card for safe measure, which is just as well as that would have stuffed me and the project, especially since I am not exactly near a bank round here. Of course when I ‘phoned them they were not exactly helpful. I shall be onto them when I get back- maybe I can entice them to make a charitable donation and to sponsor me as compensation.
As far as I know the live image and GPS worked again (at least I managed to be able to get a sense of it by going to the website when I got here). Apart from having to change batteries again near the end, the stream of images have also been saved to my ‘phone successfully, although I’m a bit annoyed by the fact that one of the gloves I took off managed to obscure part of the view finder for about 60 images. Will take more care next time. I also managed some video and sound footage of most of it too (before the batteries ran out), as I managed to salvage one of my recorders from its dip in the boggy stream; the other one is still out of action, at least for now until it dries out. The good thing was that wearing one recording device less on my body made it less of an encumbrance and easier to run.
I think that’s it for now. Will leave you with some images, including a screen-grab of the interface that’s showing in the gallery so you can get an idea of how it looks there (minus my drawing of the map underneath). I also have to eat before the restaurant closes at 9.30pm.
