Saturday June 17th, Tring to Ivanhoe Beacon, 8.3kms plus a walk back to the car

So to spoil the ending of the story, we made it. Liz didn't have to crawl up Ivanhoe Beacon on her hands and knees.

As we were still traumatised by our walk along the crazy busy road to the hotel, Liz had read my blog from yesterday so knew about the extra walk after the Beacon and thirdly the fact that the hotel was 4kms from the trail we decided to get a taxi back to the trail.

After we had eaten as much as humanly possible at the buffet breakfast (which wasn't as much as you might think due to potentially throwing up as we walked) we ordered a taxi, collected our stuff and then got straight in the taxi (it took 5 minutes to arrive). We were a bit hazy about where we wanted him to stop, (Liz did say the top of Ivanhoe Beacon but that would have been cheating) however once in Wigginton Liz suggested the top of the hill - good move!! behind the parked cars and would you belive it that was exactly the point where the trail crossed the road. For 8 pounds it was a bargain journey.

The walk took us through a bit of an overgrown path, I hate stingers, then onto shady woods then up again on to the chalk ridge. Really good to finish on a proper ridge just like at the start. There were more people around running, cycling, dog walking etc.

We got within 500 metres and then settled in to wait for Ian who was held up in traffic, Liz finished of her sketching and I read. There was a couple sitting waiting for friends as well.

And then up to the finish line, we'd heard that it was really steep to the top but our week's training meant that it was okay. We celebrated with bubbly and an amazing picnic, thank you Ian. Then back down and then up to the car park, sorry Liz. They dropped me off at Tring station which is huge and out of all proportion to the size of town. Someone please explain to me why they don't have toilets there, maybe commuters don't ever need them. The car park CCTV footage may have seen me but really!!!

Both our journey's home were straightforward, we came in well under budget so we should start planning our next trail! Be prepared for Liz's anonymous comments. 

We lost one item, a torch, at least it's not lost, its under the bell tent bed. We used all 6 million plasters, we ate a lot of sweets, there weren't too many tears, we're still friends and talking to each other, we know what we would say if we bumped into the Prime Minister (maybe as Liz was graffiting the Chequers driveway) and what we would do with 10 million pounds. There were lots of discussions. The best hotel was the Premier Inn but The Swan at East Ibsley was a very close second and was 30 pounds cheaper. Glamping in our view is very over-rated! 

Until next time that's it!