It snowed ... and snowed ... and snowed.  Some one from Wilts asked if it went ahead and responded with 'Wow, respect'.  Go Bristol and West.

Biggest thanks to Rob and Jill (South Wales) who supported throughout with (frozen) smiles, and Hazel and Terry (Cornwall and Devon) who were magnificent, and Bruce (Bristol and West) whose cheery face (words of a walker) at Parkend (short straw) in the early hours of Sunday morning, in the snow, inspired walkers to keep going.

I can now say with complete accuracy, 13 walkers started, 4 retired, 9 finished, and everyone got home safely. Were we silly to run it? No. We are all grownups (nearly) and responsible (nearly). OK, many walks and challenges were cancelled; but we are the LDWA.  We do these silly things. And I made a point at the start of saying everyone had to walk with someone (some ignored me) and that if I pulled the walk that was final (I didn’t).

The walkers were cheerful, the marshals tried to be cheerful. The walk was run from backs of cars; no indoor check points, nor hot food on route; the most anyone got was hot cup a soup. Day time temperature did not get above freezing; night time temperature was somewhat lower. Walkers did not even get to sit in a car; cars were full of bags, boxes of food, water containers.

Best buy: last minute I bought a 3 litre pump action flask; without that we might have had a lot more frozen retirees.

And looking forward to excellent weather for the main event 14 – 15 April 2018