Bob in the Desert

SO nearly there, then… this time next week I’ll be out of touch, somewhere in Morocco.  Seems to have come around really quickly – it’s not that long ago that I thought shall I… shan’t I… before having a Nike swoosh moment and telling myself ‘Just do it’ and signing up for the trek.

Touch wood, the gout problem is fading, today was the first time I have managed to walk without having any kind of pain so that has to be a good sign.  Tomorrow I’ll try a bit of distance walking to see how it goes.  I have a cocktail of drugs and natural remedies to get me through, and at the end of the day it’s going to be a case of mind over matter.  There is no way I am not going, and no way that I am not going to finish.

What’s the alternative anyway!  It’s not as if I can sit there and wait for it to pass, is it!

Last weekend all my family came down which was great, we had a bit of an early send-off dinner which would have been all the better had I not been suffering from huge bolts of gout-inflicted agony.  Next week I am working until Thursday and then packing a few‘t’ shirts and pairs of shorts - anything else is going to be pretty superfluous I reckon.   But bring it on I say.

It’s going to be a bit weird being out of touch with everything and everyone, it’s the first time I will have been away from my family for any length of time for a start. My other half did ask me the other day if I was going to miss anything, my answer of Leicester away and Wasps at home was probably not the right one though.  That drew the classic laser-beam stare that all women are born with.

On brighter news, the sponsorship will go through £6,000 this weekend, helped in no small part by over £280 raised at the quiz on Thursday and another £230-odd raised by Fred, my father-in-law who talked people around his village into making donations. 

To think when I signed up that I was worried about reaching the go/no go target of £2k…

If I don’t get a chance to update this before I go, thanks to everyone who has supported me financially or otherwise.  Together we have done a great thing – all I have to do now is go for a bit of a stroll in the sunshine.

How hard can that be… J

… and I’ll be on a plane heading to Morocco.

At the moment though, I am sitting at home with a bag of frozen veg wrapped around my foot trying to take the swelling out of the base of my big toe.  Having cleared up a bit the gout problem is back with a very painful vengeance.  Anyone got any good ideas on how I can tackle it - I’ve got through several boxes of ibuprofen already. 

That aside, the sponsorship still comes in.  I went along to watch the Shedweb boys going through their paces in the week, on that performance they have nothing to worry about from the Cherrypickers.  Just as long as they play tag.  No, seriously boys, I admire your efforts and am grateful for your support.  The boy Matthew enjoyed himself. though not so much getting munched by Snowy as he thought he would make the corner.  He’s really up to play - we’ll see.

Otherwise this has been a slack week - the bad foot has stopped any training or walking which is not good.  Though as one of the causes of gout can be from over exercise perhaps a bit of a break is no bad thing.

Onwards!

So picture this then…Wake up on the morning of 13th February – precisely 21 days before departure for Morocco – wit a bit of a pain in my foot.

It’s dismissed as nothing.  By the end of the day it feels as if some little (insert appropriate expletive) is standing next to me banging nails straight into the joint of my big toe.  An uncomfortable night – and not much sleep – follows, various bags of frozen veg are strapped to my foot to try to ease the swelling that has come up from nowhere. Come Saturday morning and I can barely stand on it.  Fears of how I am going to drag myself through the desert on one leg start to form in my mind.  More to the point, there was the small matter of Gloucester v Sale to get to and the requisite three-and-a-half hours of standing around to contend with.  Fortunately the pain subsided to simple agony by the afternoon so I got through it.  And the mighty cherry and whites won too, so that helped.

A phone call to the doctor brings the response that it is probably gout!  Man alive that must mean I am old and a lush.  The sad thing is that I have hardly been drinking lately, I am a gym junkie in preparation for my walk and have cut out the booze almost completely. 

So I surfed the net to find out what causes Gout, apparently it can be caused by eating too much rich food, also chicken and fish.  And meat.  And vegetables.  And coffee..  So everything really.  Except pasta maybe - and water.  I have eaten a skip load of ibuprofen and that seems to be doing the trick, the pain has subsided from unbearable to just ‘ouch’ every time I take a step.  No sympathy from the family who helpfully told me that I looked funny when I limped.  Nice.

Apart from that, and definitely more importantly, I have smashed the £5,000 target and am now thinking about what to put it up to next - £6k is definitely do-able, should we go flat out for £7,500 – that would be awesome!

The Ian Jones jersey (see below) went well, and the kind chap who bought it has not only paid a handsome amount for it, but has also donated an England shirt signed by the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Lawrence Dallaglio (boo!), Jason Leonard and a whole host of others.  That’ll be on ebay shortly and should bring in a fair bit.

Then there’s the quiz night, the rugby match, the other auction stuff I have… £7.5k is definitely on!

Thanks to everyone who has supported me so far – you people are amazing!

As of tomorrow there is just four weeks to go before I set off for the Desert.  Am I ready?  Well to answer my own question – I don’t really know.  All the hill walking and gym stuff has made me fitter, but how this will relate to walking in 31 degrees of constant sun?  I’ll find out soon enough.

I guess the only way I could prepare for the heat would be to drag a treadmill into the sauna and go for a jog. I can’t think why, but when I mentioned this to the guys at Esporta they were not too keen…

But as I look around at the three inches of snow outside the window, more coming down and sub-zero temperatures, I don’t care whether I am ready or not – I just want to see some sunshine!  I was out walking the other day, crunching through the snow, thinking  how different it was going to be.

Money continues to come into the fund, I’m confident of topping the £5000 mark before too long, and this is without the proceeds of the rugby match I wrote about previously.

I received a great gift from legendary All Black rugby player Ian ‘Kamo’ Jones recently – signed Blacks shirt that he had worn in the 1999 Tri-Nations series (see the picture above).  For those that don’t know Ian is still the second highest capped All Blacks player, and holds the record for test appearances by a second row.  He is also a thoroughly good bloke.  The shirt is up for sale on the Kiwi equivalent of E- Bay, it’s here if you want to bid on it.  Big thanks to James Forrester too, who has given me a number of signed prints of his No 8 cartoon to auction.

There is also a fund raising quiz evening taking part at the Deans Walk pub in Gloucester on 26^th Feb – be nice to see you if you want to join in.

I’ve almost had all my injections now, a couple more to go next week and then I’m done.  I reckon that there is not an illness known to man that can get me now.   Famous last words, perhaps…

If you haven’t found the just giving site, and would like to make a donation, here’s the link: http://www.justgiving.com/bobswalkinthedesert

Cheers for now