Keep on walking

The Olive Press is following Andy Cameron’s progress as he makes the arduous walk from Rome to Ronda to raise 50,000 euros to set up a foundation offering support to families with seriously ill children. He writes:

The last two weeks have been amongst the most difficult in my life, walking an average of 50 km every day from Rome to the French border.

I still have to make it through Southern France, and then into Spain, and all the way back to Andalucia.

The trouble is that I’m already exhausted, the small amount of money I started the walk with is rapidly diminishing, and I feel my body starting to reject this kind of activity with daily muscle cramps.

When I started in Rome at the Coliseum I was filled with excitement, and I knew with this being such a good cause that I’d undoubtedly get a lot of help.

I was right, people everywhere are naturally friendly, and I managed to find some lovely people who let me sleep on their sofa, and the local police in Italy really impressed me, they even paid for my accommodation on two of my nights.

My favourite place was definitely Castiglion Fiorentino, the twin city of Ronda, where I was made very welcome.

Surprisingly I didn’t like the Italian Riviera, but hiking over the Cinque Terra was fantastic.

As I write this I’m in France, yesterday I put in a big day walking 82km to Menton so that I could reach France in just 15 days.

I hope now that Easter is over I’ll be able to find youth hostels and monasteries to stay in, sadly my funds have been seriously depleted in Italy.

The foundation aims to support financially strapped families in Andalucia that have a seriously ill child.

My next week will be the most exciting as I head back to Spain, wish me luck the next report will be from the Costa around Barcelona.