Walk the World 2012
02 April 2012
Log your steps and check progress.
Week 9 - Journey's End!
And our final destination after 60 days was the Island of Boa Vista part of Cape Verde. Just over 5 000 miles from Antarctica off the West Coast of Africa, this Island is renowned for its marine turtles and Ultra Marathons. So anyone feeling fit after the walk is more than welcome to join in, the rest of us will be on the beach looking for turtles.
Our total distance covered this year was 36,098 miles!
A huge thank you to all of you that took part in the challenge and I’m delighted to report that we travelled further per day than we did last year.
In addition I’d like to take the time to thank other people who were involved with the project behind the scenes.
- Myfanwy Cowdy from the HS&E office for providing the translations
- The Sports Centre for the reduction in the price of swimming for participants
- Rob Johnson from I.S. who rewrote the website to allow swims and cycles to be recorded and corrected any inputting errors.
If you want to look back at all the places we visited over the 60 days you can revisit the journey on the HS&E website.
If you need some inspiration to keep your activity levels up, the British Heart Foundation have prepared a poster to inspire you to try and do 30 minutes of exercise a day.
Finally the Walk the World website will remain open and live for the next year so you can continue logging steps, swims and cycles to see how far you can travel around the coast line of the UK.
Week 8
It’s been a lovely week weather wise and we must have been out walking in the sunshine as we have clocked up over 4000 miles this week.
After leaving the Nazca lines we travelled down through South America to the Chubut region of Argentina which is know as Y Wladfa Gymreig. The first 153 Welsh settlers arrived in the region on July 27th in 1865 on the ship Mimosa. Nowadays it is estimated that about 25% of the population speak Welsh as a first language.
After a quick cuppa here, we carried on walking and made our way down the very bottom of South America and Cape Horn. This area is well known to be dangerous with heavy seas, strong waves and currents as well as icebergs.
So we made sure we had good sea conditions before hopping across to Antarctica and dropping in on the IGES research group on James Ross Island.
We have just 5 days of walking left, so make sure you log all your swims, steps and cycles by the end of Friday 30th March so they count towards our final total.
If you need a bit of incentive
- Swimming is still only a £1 a swim, if you show your pedometer.
- With the clocks changing it doesn’t start to get dark till 8pm, so have a walk in the lighter evenings.
Can we get back to Wales???
Week 7
This week we have travelled 3443 miles down through Central America, crossing the Panama Canal at the Bridge of the Americas on the Pacific side. The canal was finished in 1962, making 2012 it’s 50th Birthday.
After crossing the bridge we made our way down the west coast of South America ending this week at the Nazca lines in the Nazca Desert, Southern Peru. There are many different images to see, this one is known as The Dog.
There are many theories as to how these lines came about and as it’s a fragile environment and a UNESCO World Heritage site, we need to tread carefully.
Did you know that an average class at the Sports Centre doing step or aerobics can clock you up about 4000 steps? These classes are either 45 or 60 minutes long and you can find the details on the Sports Centre Website.
Swimming is still only a £1 a swim, if you show your pedometer.
There are only 11 days of the challenge left, so best foot forwards to get us back to Wales!
Week 6
The warmer sunny weather must have helped increase our activity last week as we travelled about 4600 miles. Leaving Hawaii behind we reached mainland USA by passing under the Golden Gate bridge into San Francisco Bay. The Golden Gate bridge was finished in May 1937, making this year it’s 75th Birthday.
Here we picked up Californian State Route 1 and followed this down the pacific Coast line until we turned inland and headed to this week's destination of Mexico City.
Founded in around 1325 by the Aztecs this area was later conquered and redeveloped by the Spanish in 1521. With music, theatres, museums and shopping opportunities, everyone should find something to do, but a trip to one of the permanent amusement parks to ride the historic roller coaster, Montaña Infinitum, shouldn’t be missed!
Still need some reasons to walk? Have a look at the Ramblers association to see what they say about the benefits to health and the local environment.
Want to take part in something in Wales? How about the Big Welsh Coastal Walk, planned to take place on the 5th May as part of the launch of the new coastal route.
The next draw for the insulated mugs will take place today, congratulations to those that received them last week. Will you be one of the lucky ones this week?
Click here for Week 1 to Week 5 updates
Walk the World 2012
Last year the staff at AU walked round the world twice in 80 days travelling 46 334 miles!
This year we will be undertaking a similar challenge, but this time we will be seeing how far we can go in 60 days.
Added extras for this year.
- The Department list has been improved, so if last year you were in the Registry, this year you’ll be able to represent your Department.
- You will be able to log your swims and cycling miles, they will all count towards our weekly destination.
- You will be able to track your own personal journey.
There will still be a weekly update of where we have travelled in the last week to keep us all on track and motivated.
If you want to take part you can register by emailing hew@aber.ac.uk or ringing ext 2169
We’ll send you out a pedometer and log you onto the Walk the World site.
https://walk.aber.ac.uk/walk/login.jsp
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