Well what a fantastically epic weekend of walking we had!! 3 days of fun, laughter, reflection,   companionship, pain, celebration and more pain. Sorry for the delay in the blog post but things have been crazy over the past week.
Friday morning started with a potential hiccup when two members of the Rabble turned up late. Not to mention anyone in particular....you know who you are Ally and Paul! The weather in Chilton was wet and windy but luckily when we got to Overton it was slightly better. After a warm up, some photos and a team talk off we went on our way with all 87 miles of the Ridgeway in front of us. 
Day one turned out to be an easy day of walking. We enjoyed some great views across Wiltshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire taking in land marks such as Barbury Castle, Uffington White Horse and Castle, Dragon Hill, Segsbury Castle Fort and Waylands Smithy. Night one was spent at Courthill Youth Hostel which as it turned out was only occupied by the Rabble. So we had the run of the place for the night. A wild party was had of scoffing lasagne followed by whiskey and master chef on the box! Rock and roll.
Day two started well with the prospect of 30 miles to be completed by the end of the day. This leg saw the Rabble take in some familiar routes on the Ridgeway as this section passed by Chilton. Our lunch stop in Goring was a big surprise for all the Rabble. Secretly friends and family had arranged to join us for our lunch stop so we were greeted by loads of people on Goring bridge with banners and flags cheering us on. This was a real lift for the Rabble. After a great lunch and some feet repair work we were back off towards Wallingford. Dan and Adam joined us for the afternoon to drive on the Rabble. It turned out that Wallingford was the point we had to call the medic due to a man down situation. Glen had bravely been battling with his heavily blistered feet but things had turned very nasty so wisely he stopped his hike at this point. He did try to continue but when one of the blisters popped that was game over for Glen. The afternoon of day two was difficult for the Rabble having lost a man the morale dipped a bit plus the terrain turned very nasty with steep inclines along the section with Grims Ditch. Nevertheless we battled on and finished day two to be greeted by Claire, Graham, Ian and Adrian who had set up our camp site for us and had hot drinks on the go. A shower, freshen up, more feet repairs, pain killers and fish and chips proved a good pick me up for the evening. 
Day three began with all of us suffering various ills. These included some awesome blisters of various quantities and size, sore knees, shin splints, sore feet from the impact, bad backs, a requirement for several hip replacements and strapped up ankles. So day three was due to be a very interesting day. Predictably this day turned out to be our slowest day of the weekend although we still managed to maintain a 2.9mph walking pace but had more frequent and longer stops. Claire, Graham, Ian, Adrian and Ali did a brilliant job of supporting the crew through out the whole day. We met for lunch at Whiteleaf Country Park and at this point Chris came along to help the Rabble get to Wendover. It was great that Chris managed to join the Rabble and get us through the next 5 miles. The terrain continued to be varied with the Rabble going through lovely woodlands, country parks and travelling along some great footpaths and byways. If only we could enjoy it over the pain! The support crew met us almost every 2 miles towards the end to encourage us along and provide food and drink. The day was coming to a close and at Wigginton we got our first glimpse of Ivinghoe Beacon. With the clock approaching 9:30pm and the wind and rain lashing down the Beacon was finally reached and the journey for Noah was over. 
It was a fantastic team effort and there was plenty of smiles and laughter even at the end. All of our thanks goes to the great support crew who did a sterling job for us. With out them we would not have been able to do this challenge. Also our thanks goes to all who have supported us including Screamingfrog, South East Work Wear, Project People, Courthill and White Mark Farm and all our sponsors who helped us raise a brilliant total.
At the time of writing we have successfully managed to raise over £6300 for the Reading and District Stillbirth fund in memory of Noah Thomas.
So where next Rabble?!....................................................      

I love receiving parcels and this one was no exception. Thanks to Rich at Cotswold Outdoors we have enough energy gels, bars and sweets to potentially get us to Scotland! Although I think we'll stick to the task in hand and remain on the Ridgeway. A big thank you to Rich and Cotswold Outdoors for their generous supply.
It's less than 48 hours to go now until we head out to our starting point at Overton in Wiltshire. Things have come together really well over the last week. We have also managed to reach the £5000 mark and not only that but we've exceed this and at the time of writing we are closer to £5300. Once again a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us and given so generously.
Here's to Friday morning and the start of our challenge.
Cheers
Dave 

It was grand national day so what better way to spend it that practising our jumping skills!! Training has come along way in 4 months! I don't suspect many of us would have had the energy to perform such stunts when we first started training. It was our first practise hike in really good dry conditions. Up until that weekend the going had been; what do they call it "good to soft. Heavy in places"!! It was great to walk along and not feel like your feet were going to give way at any moment. Or perhaps that's just me. We were having so much fun that Glen broke out his cool photo app at lunch time and we tried a few arty shots.
Lets hope for decent weather come the hike weekend
Cheers
Dave

With just over 1 week until the the main event the Rabble have managed to pull in over £4000 in sponsor money doubling our original target. This is great news and a fantastic effort. I'm sure Helen and Chris will be extremely grateful for everything the team has done so far. Noah's name will be proudly worn on our shirts next weekend so he'll be with us from start to finish. Hopefully this sponsorship can go some way to help and comfort those that may need the brilliant people at the Reading and District Stillbirth fund.
So with one week to go lets keep the momentum going.
Thanks to everyone for your very kind and generous support.
Cheers
Dave 

Well there is three weeks to go until the hike begins. It's starting to get very real now. Training is still going well with most people undertaking personal training. This weekend see's a few of us taking to the paths and byways of Oxfordshire to up the training a little. 
However on another note landing in the post box this afternoon was the latest addition of the Round and About Magazine. Our efforts to get a group photo a few weeks back was not in vain as we appear on page 51! Not only that but we also get a mention on page 30 as well! Whoop Whoop. Media darlings indeed. 
Sponsorship update and there is great news. At the time of writing we are nearly at £2800 which is a great effort. Thanks to everyone who has donated to the team. Particular thanks needs to go to the team at Project People who have very kindly sponsored us over £300 through their relationship with Glen. Thank you very much. Your support is greatly apprecaited

A huge well done to our team and a massive thank you to all our sponsors so far. Our target of £2000 has been achieved but lets not stop there. Today marks 6 weeks until our adventure begins. The training continues most weeks (even if it is walk to the pub!) and all of us have been putting in many miles to ensure we can complete this task. If you can sponsor us please take the time to view our fundraising page at JustGiving (click on the picture above) and donate what you can. You'll make a big difference no matter how much you donate. Thanks everyone and well done again.

Well what a great few weeks we have had since our last update. We've had more trial walks including last Saturday walking a 20 miles route previously walked but this time tackled in the opposite direct. We'll try and post report photo's as soon as possible.
On another note was have had a great sponsorship week. First up the good fellows at ScreamingFrog have been very generous to the cause and sponsored us a very handsome sum. A huge thank you to all at ScreamingFrog for your awesome donation.

Next up is the great news from South East Workwear in Abingdon. Adrian at SE Workwear has very kindly offered to provide the Rabble with official walk T-Shirts for the hike. Now we'll look like we are organised! Plus it means that people en-route will be able to see why we are doing this hike. Thanks very much Adrian your assistance with this is greatly appreciated by all.

Lets not forgot why we are doing this hike and putting ourselves through so much pain. The good peeps at Reading and District Stillbirth Fund need your help to continue to provide the great service they do to bereaved parents and families. If you're able to please click on our sponsorship link and help us to support the great work these guys do. 

So we heard last week that the lovely people at Round and About magazine wanted to publish an article on our challenge. Only problem was we didn't really have a suitable picture to use. So Sunday morning those that could gathered for our first team photo of the Ridgeway Rabble. Unfortunately not everyone made it. well it was Sunday morning and some peeps do live a fair distance aware. Anyway here are the efforts.....

Take 1 - You'll notice in this effort that Duncan seems to be rehearsing for Night of the living dead!! Are you ok Duncan?!

Take 20 - The classic school boy bunny ears pose courtesy of Mr Clark. Where would we be with out you Ali?

Take 28 - well its all gone wrong now. What is happening here?!!

Take 35 - that will have to do boys. Finally a good enough shot to send to the press! Although I should point out that Christian is hiding behind Mat (left of photo) and Mat is not a mutant with two adult legs and an additional pair of mini legs.  
Thanks everyone

Training stepped up a gear last weekend with a two day hike featuring 30 miles on day one and 12 miles on day two. Day one started at 8am with me, Kev, Paul, Mat, Joel, Jorge, Glen and new man Rich who was along for the walk. Everyone was in fine fettle looking forward to a days walking. Except perhaps Glen who was perhaps rightly apprehensive having joined us with a new pair of unbroken in boots. He was let down during the week by the shop his actual new boots are coming from. So Glen turned up in a pair of cheap "disposable" boots as he wanted to experience the walk and also wanted to meet up with everyone. This as it turned out was a slightly unwise but noble decision. So off we trekked with a route set by Joel which took us from Chilton to Upton, onto Blewbury, Aston Tirrold and then Moulsford before heading back towards the Ridgeway, down to Compton and then back past Chilton to Upton, picking up the track back to Chilton. This was our first 20 miles which finished at about 3:45pm with 2 men down as Rich had to leave us and Jorge was suffering an injury. After a bit of repair work and some food we set off again from Chilton this time heading south up to the Ridgeway and then turning west towards Wantage. Before we got to Wantage we headed north into East Ginge and then worked our way east again back into Chilton. After 30 miles we we're all suffering from various ill's such as bad hips, bad knees, bad backs and in Glen's case very bad feet.
Day two started with a few men down. Five of us set off for a 10 miles ring which in fact turned out to be a 12 mile ring when we missed a footpath which would have taken us more directly towards East Ilsley. Once at East Ilsley and dodging the vast amounts of water that seemed to be flooding the village we heading to West Ilsley then north up to the Ridgeway before heading back into Chilton. 
All in all a pretty good weekends walking with at least 3 of us completing all 42 miles and all of us learning from the walk. Well done all.
Here's a feast of photos for you...................

A very common theme on our walks recently. Mud, water, mud, more mud and some mud! This is the path out of Aston Tirrold to Moulsford

Yep that theme continues with yes more mud and deep water. They were waiting for me to slip and face plant. 

Now now boys no time for that. Oh your feet please!

These four didn't get to the bench in time! Rich, Jorge, Mat and Kev looking relaxed

oh crikey it's getting worse. Joel is falling asleep!!

This picture really doesn't show how steep this section of the walk was

Yes it's this way to the chin reduction centre!

A nice spot for lunch. I don't think Paul is being sick here but you never know!

Our favourite sport continues here........yes it's the regional finals of mud jumping and here is Paul with a great 5.5 effort.

The setting sun over the Ridgeway. If only the pain in our legs would let us appreciate it more!

Come on boys only 6 miles to go! Here's Joel, Glen and Paul on the Ridgeway heading west

Day two started out very foggy or is that misty!

Paul inspecting the overflowing well at East Ilsley on day two.