Their story, in their words…
Our hike consisted of 5 days and 4 nights completing almost 100km in the peak district. Starting in Hope Valley in Sheffield and finishing in Rochester.
We all thoroughly enjoyed our walk (as challenging as it was!) and we have all come a long way in pushing ourselves, as well as plenty of stories along the way!
Our 1st day was minimal walking as we got a 4 hour coach from London Victoria to Sheffield where we then got a train to hope valley, finishing of the day with a short 5km walk to the campsite. Our 1st issue we faced was being unable to properly cook the food we had brought with us and the chicken that kept following us around the campsite.
On day 2 we were met with almost a solid day of torrential rain (Later realised we were in a yellow weather warning!). Our campsite had flooded so we had to walk an extra 2 miles to a local B&B where we attempted to dry kit and ourselves! In total we walked 30km.
Day 3 we had our initial confrontation with a herd of cows which started following us causing us all to quickly walk back and out of the field. This was also the 1st day we had found a small village with a shop to buy some food as ours had run out the day before. We walked in total 25km this day.
Day 4 was our worst day by far, we walked a total of 35km and had been chased by cows multiple times. Our worst experience was starting in the water-logged field and realising that some cows were beginning to move in our direction. We began to pick up the pace slightly but to our surprise the cows started charging at us.
We are started running for the style and in doing so, one of us lost our shoe in the mud, she then had to go back to grab it and continue to run in her sock! After practically diving over style we re-gathered ourselves just as a cow began to try jump over the style, so we got up again in shock and started quickly moving away from the field.
Day 5 was the most exciting day of all where we could finally go home to rest and sleep. We covered 5km and then got on the coach to go home. Back at Morden tube station we were met by our family and a McDonalds trip!
We all enjoyed our trip and wanted to say a big thank you to MEF for giving us the opportunity to do such an amazing trip!
