We have done it!
Today, May 1st, marks the end of our month long Walk The Width Challenge. Our team of intrepid explorers have tackled the perilous roads of Glasgow, come face to face with wild animals in Kelvingrove Park, and defeated one of Scotland's most treacherous mountains, all to raise money for our environmental research.
Between us, we have travelled a grand total of 788.38 km!
Once again, after some highly scientific calculations and with the help of our trusty friend Google Maps, we have charted our progress and have now successfully walked the width of the widest point of Thailand. We believe we are about 8 km across the Thai border into Laos, inside the 'Phou Xiang Thong National Biodiversity Conservation Area'. It is the only national park on the Mekong River and is described as an 'ecotourism destination'. We could run into Leopards, Asian Black Bears, or Pangolins!
We started this challenge to fundraise for our upcoming research expedition to Thailand and have been collecting donations and sponsorships through our GoFundMe, with the aim of reaching £1000. We are extremely proud (and excited) to announce that we have raised a total of £675! Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. The eagle eyed among you however, will have realised that we are just £325 from our target. Anything you can give, big or small, will be greatly appreciated by everyone on our team and, I'm sure, by the wildlife we will be working with in Thailand.
We had planned on having 6 Walk The Width Diary Entries, spread over the last 4 weeks and each from a different member of the team. However, in between exams and catching up with family, a few of our team members couldn't find the time to write a blog. You can read the views of Kerensa, Dylan, and Laura here to see how they spent the first and second weeks of the challenge.
But what have we been up to this week? How did the team manage the final 200 km?
Paula is at home in Romania and yesterday walked through and around a vineyard to go wine tasting (living the absolute dream if you ask me)! Laura has been 'pretty much not walking' however, she has been recovering from a foot injury so the entire team is 100% behind her!
"My foot is getting better!"
She did walk to see Trixie Marrel the day before her exam and still managed 25 km towards this weeks total. Ashlynn's parents have been in town so in between working, studying and taking her exams, she found time to walk 20km along the river Kelvin with her parents, among several other walks and journeys.
"My parents love to walk, so when they're here, we're walking everywhere."
And in between all of that, she has been cat sitting so has shared a picture of the cat with us.
The cat Ashlynn is watching; Laura at Trixie Mattel; Paula's views while wine tasting
Maren ended her Easter Break studying for her exams but managed to pack in one final hike before she left Norway to come back to Glasgow. She hiked at Lysefjorden (meaning light fjord) which is a 42km fjord and tourist destination, home to popular mountains and trails. The most popular of these is Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) which is 900m tall and drops steeply into the water below. This cool mountain is so famous it even appeared in Mission Impossible, can you guess which one? She also saw several waterfalls and a rainbow!
"I may be biased but nothing beats the nature in Norway, although 6 weeks in Thailand might change my mind!"
Maren's hike along Lysefjorden
Armed with Alan Forbes 1997 "25 Walks In and Around Glasgow", Kerensa set about completing Walk 1: Glasgow City Centre; starting at the Botanic Gardens in the West End and ending at Glasgow Cathedral. As Forbes describes it:
"This walk goes against the flow of Glasgow's history."
Kerensa however, started at the Cathedral and ended at the Botanics (aiming to then spend a few hours studying in the library). The route takes you down past the necropolis to George Square, up and along Sauchiehall Street, over Charing Cross to Park Circus, through Kelvingrove Park, and finally up Byres Road to the Botanics.
Among the absolute gems of knowledge that Forbes provided within his book, the site of "Possibly Glasgow's most famous murder" is prominently highlighted. The Lord Roberts statue at the top of Kelvingrove park also receives a mention and Kerensa spent several long minutes considering the legacy of a man described by Fobes as "Hero of the Empire" and on Wikipedia as "[one of] Britain's leading military figures at a time when the British Empire reached the height of its power". In Kerensa's words:
"What is a Saturday afternoon walk without a moment for critical contemplation on the colonial legacy of our country?"
There has to be a final mention to one line in Forbes's writing that made Kerensa laugh out loud: "Byres Road which is thronged by students, latter-day hippies and other bohemian types". Upon reading that line, Kerensa assessed their daffodil-yellow-floral-patterned-shirt, third-hand suit jacket, battered Dr Martens boots and book filled tote bag and decided that he was probably not wrong.
Various Glasgow landmarks that Kerensa passed while adventuring
As we are sure you can tell, the team have had a great time completing this challenge and got to see a whole range of landmarks across Glasgow, Scotland and several other European countries. However, first and foremost, we have been trying to fundraise for our research. You can help us reach our final goal by donating to our GoFundMe.
We have several other blogs coming up as we now have just one month to go! If you want to know the specifics of our research projects, details of some of our past fundraising events, and just generally how our planning is getting along, keep your eyes peeled...
We are also hoping to host a virtual game of bingo that anyone can get involved with, whether you are in Glasgow or on the moon (assuming you have some sort of wifi connection) so get ready for that. It will be the best game of virtual-bingo you've ever played!
We appreciate all the support we have received so far and can't wait to get out to Thailand and put our plans into action.
Thank you to all of our sponsors!
Thailand here we come...
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