67 miles around the Isle of Wight!

As a geocacher, I do a lot of walking on a regular basis. Doing the Cranborne Chase Circular of 100 caches was a 15 mile walk which took all day but then I was stopping every few minutes to look for caches!

I don't think I've ever walked any further than I did that day and I was exhausted by the end of it... so what was I thinking when I said "Yeah, sure!" when asked if I'd like to walk the entire coastal path of the Isle of Wight with a friend of mine? Even though we'll be breaking it up into three days, that's still over 20 miles per day, and no idea what the weather will be like! Not very good if this country's reputation and the year so far are anything to go by!

We'll be walking anticlockwise and stopping off at guest houses in Freshwater Bay and Shanklin. I don't know whether my knees and feet are going to find it a doddle or will be aching and defiant by day three, but we'll see! If I enjoy this, maybe I'll do something similar again.

Anyway, I decided that I would use this opportunity to raise money for charity too as I'm really not in the habit of doing sponsored anythings and now is a good time to start! My chosen charity is Crohn's and Colitis UK. I have the privilege of working with a fantastic team in Southampton, looking at research into treatment options, and hopefully a cure, to these really debilitating diseases. The work of the charity is phenomenal and I am proud to support them. Please have a look at my JustGiving page and, if you are willing, please also sponsor me! It'd mean a lot to me, to the charity and to sufferers. Thank you!

I'll blog again once the walk is done; I have the Monday off to recover (and sleep) so maybe then will be an opportune time to do so. :)

Paragliding in Northern Cyprus

My husband and I have recently returned from a very enjoyable and relaxing trip to Northern Cyprus, the Turkish half of the country. I'm pleased to say that I managed to get some caches out there but that's not - for once - what this blog entry is going to be about.

We were staying at a very nice villa which had an array of leaflets about local activities. I had intended to go horse riding or mountain biking - hobbies I enjoy back in the UK - but the leaflets I had been expecting to see weren't there and rather than try to track down the companies on their websites, I had a better perusal of what leaflets were there.

Paragliding has never been something that takes my fancy but after reading the leaflet, I had to admit it sounded pretty good. Before I knew it I was checking out their website for further details (www.highlineparagliding.com) and made arrangements to fly tandem two days later! It wasn't exactly cheap (270 Turkish Lira - about £70) but it was worth every penny!

I met with Angela and Ozgur, husband and wife team, down in Kyrenia Harbour and then went with them in their all-terrain vehicle up into the mountains to the take-off point at 2500ft. Ozgur, a qualified and experienced pilot, got me kitted out with all the necessary equipment including spare parachute which he's never needed to use! He explained all I needed to know and before I knew it we were waiting for the wind to be favourable. All I then needed to do was run down a gentle slope at the top of the mountain and keep running until my feet no longer touched the ground. We were then flying! Ozgur was a very capable pilot and had camera equipment with him to get plenty of photos and videos whilst up there and the views were stunning. You could even see as far as Turkey! As we came in, Ozgur asked if I'd like a little trick of his where he spirals in and before my stomach could get too worked up by this manoeuvre, we were strolling back onto terra firma!

What a fantastic experience! I just wanted to get straight back up there to do it again! Oh well, next time!