The Walk of Life
The Walk of Life was an expedition from Londoes. It was organized and led by me. There were five members of the team. Three walked; Brian to Khartoum in the Sudan that began on 5th December 1985 on the South Bank, London and was completed on 22 April 1986 in Khartoum, Sudan. The distance covered was 2,500 miln Seymour, Andrew Stuart and I, while Alan Munro and Peter Lawton drove the back-up vehicle. Their involvement was to organize publicity and fundraising on-route, to seek out free accommodation, support the walkers and to prepare camp when we were crossing the desert. As far as I know this was the first attempt of walking from the UK to the Sudan. For this we received significant advice and assistance from the Royal Geographical Society in London and Raleigh International, then known as Operation Raleigh. None of the team had any previous experience of organizing an expedition, although Brian Seymour and I had both served in the army.
Purpose of the walk
Nearly 8 million people were suffering from famine during the drought of 1984, and over 1 million had died. A BBC news crew was the first to document the famine. The report shocked Britain, motivating ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Suddenly people were cycling around the world, climbing the Himalayas. I even heard of some guy walking backwards across Britain and everyone was raising money. Finally with the number one song “Do they know it’s Christmas” and the Live Aid Concert, I decided to walk to Africa. Why walk? I was asked. “Why not go by bike?”… Good question, walking was something I did with my dog in Richmond Park! But my point was a serious one. It wasn’t until 1985 that the first airdrops in any number were being carried out by the international community, months after the famine had been reported and Ethiopia was only hours away by plane. This frustration in the bureaucracy and time lapse that was undoubtedly costing lives every day, spurred me on to make the point that if we could walk to Africa taking 5 months and raising whatever we could, how much more could be done in just a few hours. It was an incredibly frustrating period. The solution seemed so obvious and yet so many obstacles were being put in the way of a mass internaternational response. NGOs did what they could but they were simply overwhelmed and unfortunately in some cases utterly disorganised. The whole world was acting like we had never seen a famine before. It was tragic.
I chose two leading charities, Christian Aid and War on Want. George Galloway, then Chief Executive of War on Want came to the start of the walk in London. Other notable supporters included Bob Geldof who sent me a note hoping I had "a comfy pair of shoes" and rock group Dire Straits who donated Brother in Arms Gold Disc as the walk was the same name as the hit single Walk of Life (Dire Straits song). Money was raised by the general public and from schools, across the UK, Europe and in Egypt. The walk was sponsored by major companies including: British Airways, DHL, Hitachi, Novetel, Hilton, and gained support from the Belgium Government, and authorities in Italy and Egypt.
I chose two leading charities, Christian Aid and War on Want. George Galloway, then Chief Executive of War on Want came to the start of the walk in London. Other notable supporters included Bob Geldof who sent me a note hoping I had "a comfy pair of shoes" and rock group Dire Straits who donated Brother in Arms Gold Disc as the walk was the same name as the hit single Walk of Life (Dire Straits song). Money was raised by the general public and from schools, across the UK, Europe and in Egypt. The walk was sponsored by major companies including: British Airways, DHL, Hitachi, Novetel, Hilton, and gained support from the Belgium Government, and authorities in Italy and Egypt.
Most notable experiences (Europe)
Brian forced to take a lift
While walking along a stretch of highway in France we were stopped by the police. They did not understand why we were walking on the highway. (I’m not sure we did). Trying to explain that we were walking to Africa only made us look even more ridiculous. Our hair was matted and we hadn't shaved for days which made matters worse. No French of course. We were English lads and a Scot oh! and Alan of course, the Ozy. We were driven back 10 kilometers from where we had started that morning. We had no choice but to thank them for the kind lift, and begin again, this time keeping an eye out for the police and holding a note written by a local explaining what we were doing. 5 kilometers into the walk the Police stopped us again, the same police car. They read the note and insisted they helped out by giving us a lift! We had no choice but to get into the police car and were driven to the next destination. On arrival we thanked them again, and hitch hiked back. (We had no idea where our back-up team had gone with our lovely land rover).
We finally got back to where we had started. Waited for night fall. (This was on the suggestion of our SAS man Brian. Yes Brian was in the 23 SAS TA reserves) and began again for the third time. We did look at alternatives, but it would have taken us on a site seeing tour of eastern France and guess what, the map was in the back-up vehicle. Could it get worse!
Walking across the Alps in the middle of winter, temperatures would drop to -20c. My first job in the morning was to de-frost my contact lenses by putting them under my arm pit or down my pants. Both options worked well. Walking for up to 10-12 hours a day resulted in icicles constantly forming on our eyelashes, making the eyes feel really heavy. As an experiment I once let the icicles form to see how bad it would get. After an hour I couldn’t open my left eye. This may seem an odd way to pass the time, but after three or four hours walking in the middle of the alps and knowing there were seven hours to go, it was amazing how easy it was to retreat into your own little world. I mean how many mountains can you look at!
The cold was nothing to the boredom that we had to endure. At night we would remove our boots and examine each others feet to see how much white skin was left like jelly in our socks. Mine were always worse, as I insisted on wearing trainers. I had to, I was being sponsored. Alan and Pete of course had been driving all day. "Damn it was tough in that heated land rover today" Pete would remark. Brian usually shut him up by demanding his supper, he was irritatingly practical at all times, but without this young Scot I’m not sure I would have continued.
Dinner big deal; bread, cheese, and sausage. We were lucky to get that sometimes. Occasionally we wouldn’t see them for hours after we had finished for the day. Sitting by the roadside surrounded by Swiss hamlets or monstrously huge mountains and temperatures dropping well below freezing we would huddle together like solders on the Eastern Front. It was a scene out of Stalingrad. Why, because they had managed to get lost, and of course in those days no mobiles. We had some interesting discussions when they finally turned up....
With the Alps behind us and while travelling through Verona, we met a group of women that invited us back to their house. With nowhere to stay and still bitterly cold we gladly accepted (as if we needed persuading). When we arrived at their house all we wanted to do was crash out. Well have a few drinks and crash out, maybe.... Then it started. It was Brian that noticed something peculiar about one of the women. Their hands were mighty big and actually a little hairy, and their necks quite thick. Alarm bells began to ring as Andy was almost on the verge of kissing one of the other "women" (He was chatting girls up everywhere)"Christ they are men" Brian shouted. One of the "girls" turned round to me and said "You want kissy kissy as well".
I'm sure they were completely harmless, but we got out of there like someone had stuck a red hot poker up our backsides. As I was the team leader, it was my duty to ensure they were out of the house first. (Actually they got out before I had even left the sofa). I walked backwards, smiling and apologising until I was clear. The land rover had already been started and like a military retreat, we piled in and sped off, driving sideways with a front wheel lock, due to the icy road, my legs dangling from the rear door as I was being hauled in by my comrades.
Looking back we were so naive. I’m sure we could have stayed there quite happily, but the herd instinct got the better of us. We had to smile in the morning after a freezing night in the tent, as the night before we had stayed with Benedictine monks in a remote mountain monastery where they obeyed an absolute order of silence. Every day we had a mini adventure.
We finally got back to where we had started. Waited for night fall. (This was on the suggestion of our SAS man Brian. Yes Brian was in the 23 SAS TA reserves) and began again for the third time. We did look at alternatives, but it would have taken us on a site seeing tour of eastern France and guess what, the map was in the back-up vehicle. Could it get worse!
Walking across the Alps in the middle of winter, temperatures would drop to -20c. My first job in the morning was to de-frost my contact lenses by putting them under my arm pit or down my pants. Both options worked well. Walking for up to 10-12 hours a day resulted in icicles constantly forming on our eyelashes, making the eyes feel really heavy. As an experiment I once let the icicles form to see how bad it would get. After an hour I couldn’t open my left eye. This may seem an odd way to pass the time, but after three or four hours walking in the middle of the alps and knowing there were seven hours to go, it was amazing how easy it was to retreat into your own little world. I mean how many mountains can you look at!
The cold was nothing to the boredom that we had to endure. At night we would remove our boots and examine each others feet to see how much white skin was left like jelly in our socks. Mine were always worse, as I insisted on wearing trainers. I had to, I was being sponsored. Alan and Pete of course had been driving all day. "Damn it was tough in that heated land rover today" Pete would remark. Brian usually shut him up by demanding his supper, he was irritatingly practical at all times, but without this young Scot I’m not sure I would have continued.
Dinner big deal; bread, cheese, and sausage. We were lucky to get that sometimes. Occasionally we wouldn’t see them for hours after we had finished for the day. Sitting by the roadside surrounded by Swiss hamlets or monstrously huge mountains and temperatures dropping well below freezing we would huddle together like solders on the Eastern Front. It was a scene out of Stalingrad. Why, because they had managed to get lost, and of course in those days no mobiles. We had some interesting discussions when they finally turned up....
With the Alps behind us and while travelling through Verona, we met a group of women that invited us back to their house. With nowhere to stay and still bitterly cold we gladly accepted (as if we needed persuading). When we arrived at their house all we wanted to do was crash out. Well have a few drinks and crash out, maybe.... Then it started. It was Brian that noticed something peculiar about one of the women. Their hands were mighty big and actually a little hairy, and their necks quite thick. Alarm bells began to ring as Andy was almost on the verge of kissing one of the other "women" (He was chatting girls up everywhere)"Christ they are men" Brian shouted. One of the "girls" turned round to me and said "You want kissy kissy as well".
I'm sure they were completely harmless, but we got out of there like someone had stuck a red hot poker up our backsides. As I was the team leader, it was my duty to ensure they were out of the house first. (Actually they got out before I had even left the sofa). I walked backwards, smiling and apologising until I was clear. The land rover had already been started and like a military retreat, we piled in and sped off, driving sideways with a front wheel lock, due to the icy road, my legs dangling from the rear door as I was being hauled in by my comrades.
Looking back we were so naive. I’m sure we could have stayed there quite happily, but the herd instinct got the better of us. We had to smile in the morning after a freezing night in the tent, as the night before we had stayed with Benedictine monks in a remote mountain monastery where they obeyed an absolute order of silence. Every day we had a mini adventure.
Africa adventure highlights
On arriving in Cairo we were led through the streets by police motorbike outriders, the manager of a smart hotel that gave us free accommodation, and local dignitaries, a band was playing "when Johnny comes marching"! We were followed by hundreds of children, media and men with camels. Leaving Cairo and the real adventure began. In the desert we were held up at gun point and asked to hand over all our money. Gave them the charity letter explaining what we were doing in Arabic, and ended up receiving money from the robbers!
Suffering from terrible stomach problems due to our food, heat and bad water, Brian the most pragmatic of all of us used the pages from Bob Geldof's book "Is that it?" Luckily he had finished reading it! Children constantly stoned us as we walked through villages in Upper Egypt. Not just a few but 20 or 30 children. We will never know why, but sometimes with the heat and pain of walking 25 miles a day, we threw a few back at them. I'm not sure what Christian Aid would have thought of that.
Andrew, Brian and myself somewhere in Upper Egypt
The shortest route is normally a straight line, is it not. This meant crossing vast expanses of desert where no back-up vehicle could go. On one occasion we walked for two days across open desert only to find a 1,000 foot gorge separating us from our destination. Brian was keen to give it a go! Luckily I took the executive decision and turned us round. We had to survive for a further two days with very little water and no food. When you feel so light you could drift away forever and not care; then you know you are severely dehydrated, at that point no water and shade means certain death, and we were close, really close.
A brief reflection of so long ago. More to come...
A brief reflection of so long ago. More to come...