Just like to add my thanks to Cornwall and Devon Group for an enjoyable tramp across the moors and fields of Devon and Cornwall, well supported by leapfrogging checkpointers.

We passed some interesting places in both prehistory and history. Some snippets: King Arthur’s Hall (just before Brown Willy) is a late Neolithic or early Bronze Age (2100BC) megalithic rectangle, probably used for ceremonies (no link to King Arthur who was 2500 years later.) The hut circles and field systems (on every moor) are Neolithic (4300 – 2100 BC) or Bronze Age (2200 – 1000BC). Twelve Men’s Moor (after North Hill, CP5) records the granting by the Prior of Launceston in 1285 of grazing rights on the moor to twelve local men for 4 shillings per annum.

PS Every group in the LDWA would be very happy to receive the name and details of C&D's weather contact

John, I hope you're not planning any retirements at Princetown. You might want to suggest that anyone who says they want to retire, is sent to the nearby "hotel" to reconsider.

Hope you will only be picking up refreshments at Princetown, Tony. We don't plan on many retirements here

Looking forward to helping on the main event, but you won't want to see much of me. I am going to be in one of the body wagons!

May I just clarify - following the marshall's walk are there any edits pending to the route descriptions - or are the route descriptions and GPX files on the website the final final versions. Thanks.

The weather made the Marshalls Hundred weekend a very memorable one - this was also added to because of walking the majority of the way with David from Cornwall group who was a mine of information about the places we were passing through on the route. Also thanks to Janet Pitt Lewis and the others who i walked with over the course of the weekend for keeping me going. Also thanks to Hannah who I teamed up with at Chudley Knighton and walked the final two sections with over the dreaded stone strewn lanes !
Now I am looking forward to being a Marshall on the main event - at Larcomb Farm with Julian Pursey and family and friends. look forward to seeing you all there and hope the weather is as good for you !
bring plenty of compeeds !

I also have some photos- a rather partial set, from the start, Candra and Chudleigh Knighton, with a few at the finish. I have rather painfully taught myself how to do a hyperlink, and will post them here, if someone would reassure me this won't somehow give the world access to all my 'stuff'. I use Picasa.

Thanks for the techie advice whioch I am sure will come in floods...

Highlights – Brown Willy – deviating from the route to reach the top – the mist clearing from Dartmoor to reveal the ring of tors and the flowers – especially in the woods before Liverton. I think they were better on the Sunday than the Saturday – the sun brought them out.
Best checkpoint – Huccaby Farm. Reason – the excruciating but highly effective treatment from Graham Doke – to whom many thanks. The expression on the face of the farmer who owned the barn as he watched me clutching Graham as he pressed his thumbs deeply into my backside was nearly worth the pain.
Company was great – thank you Dave. Congratulations to Mike on his first Hundred carrying a bag that could have housed a family of 4 containing – amongst other suppplies – a spare pair of boots. The thought of this kept me going for miles – and most of the drive home.
Down side – lots of road walking between the 2 moors – and very stony tracks at the end.
Good luck to everyone on the main event.

Well done everyone. The said Turkey got us on the reccy we did a fortnight ago - he will have a busy weekend on the event. We bumped into the farmer and he was wondering why there were so many walkers using a route that was only used rarely in the past. He didn't seem to know of the event?

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more photos

Thanks to all the helpers on the Marshals walk. Support was superb and I hope we can repay the favour in 3 weeks time. Waiting for hours on end for dawdlers like me can't always be easy but I was treated like a lord. Add to Ken's list a kingfisher, maybe common in Cornwall & Devon but rarely seen on the Pennine moors so a real treat I heard several cuckoo calls as well.. Bodmin Moor was particularly enjoyable and don't miss out summit of Brown Willy for the sake of 25yds.

An aggressive turkey? If it gives me any trouble, I shall remind it about Christmas ...

Very many thanks to Cornwall and Devon Group and everyone involved in organising or checkpointing for the Marshals' 100 over the weekend. An interesting route with wonderful views over Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor as highlights and with a good balance of moorland and farmland walking. The weather could hardly have been better - no rain and not too hot, with pleasant sunshine on Sunday after just a touch of mist at dawn. With the exception of three or four field corners, the ground was dry and generally hard. Parts of the route-finding are easy, along roads and old railways, but some of the moorland stretches need a bit of care. Bluebells, wild garlic and primroses lined many of the paths, and wildlife seen included deer, moorland ponies, buzzards and a slowworm, along with the sound of a cuckoo. The route goes through quite a few farmyards with the inevitable barking of dogs and in one instance some geese and a very aggressive turkey.

Once again, thanks to all concerned for a very enjoyable and memorable weekend - I'm sure that with Cornwall and Devon's highly efficient team the main event will be equally successful. Hopefully the conditions will be equally good and we look forward to helping out then.

A memorable weekend - superb scenery, perfect weather, tougher than expected, but oh, those stony tracks in the second half! Earlier fears of a hundred miles of boggy walking were largely unjustified, in fact the mud has dried rock hard to give a different set of foot problems.
- Low cloud and drizzle on Saturday morning cleared before we started walking to leave near perfect weather for the weekend - clear and sunny by day and mild at night.
- Twelve miles on a disused railway may not be exciting, but it got us off to a speedy start. Nothing to slow us down - The first couple of checkpoints are going to be a bit of a cavalry charge on the main event.
- Lovely views from Bodmin Moor, and pleasant walking on short grass.
- Relatively easy navigation on Saturday night - Pensilva to after breakfast in my case - other than a couple of tricky compass bearings across fields to gates/stiles. Plenty of straightforward road walking.
- Dartmoor prison shrouded in suitable mist at dawn on Sunday, but this soon cleared to give another clear and sunny day.
- Wonderful views above the Dart Valley, although Dr Blackall might have cleared some of the stones from his drive!
- An easy finish after the moors? Not a chance. The Devon hills are not very high, but there are a lot of them and when accompanied by rough rocky tracks are a formidable challenge. Apparently the heavy winter rains have washed out the soil, leaving a surface of rough stones. The approach to the final CP at Larcombe Farm was particularly sadistic. "Like walking on broken glass" was Mick Clayton's heartfelt comment.
- Finished in just under 34 hours, bizarrely the same time to the minute that I recorded on the HOS Marshals Hundred.
- Hard luck story of the walk. Les Hewitt completed 97 miles before becoming lost and being too tired to carry on once he had been found.
- Profuse thanks to all who helped organised the weekend, particularly the check pointers who put in such long hours waiting for only forty walkers or so. When I reached the final CP Susan and Tony had been on duty for over 12 hours and seen only seven walkers. Personal thanks to Graham Doke for his incredibly painful but effective massage work on my neck and leg muscles at Huccaby Farm and to Mike Childs' foot therapy at Chudleigh Knighton.

Roll on the main event.