Mud glorious mud!!

The pace was upped this week on the Moonwalk training and it's amazing how much difference an extra two miles makes. That's not the whole story though........

The last training walk was mainly on pavement and on the flat so as well as increasing the miles, it was time to introduce some hills and rougher terrain. Although the Moonwalk itself is pavement, I firmly believe that variety is important and as a good day was forecast I choose to take the girls on one of my favourite walks through Epping Forest.

I bless the fact that I live so close to this forest on a regular basis, it's just such a wonderful place to walk. It's also where much of the training for the Breakthrough Walk took place that I know it really well.

We started at 9.30 from Leytonstone Tube Station and headed off towards the Flats. Here they are still wrapped up but striding out on the first leg of the walk. As we walked, Teresa was texting from her home base, sad to be caught up in a conference. We exchanged some fun comments with me reading them out as we walked.

Just look at that blue sky.

The theme of the day was mud and the photos really tell the stories without much need for explanation from me. Our first taste was near here and then it was everywhere. Got to say though it didn't deter us in the least!!

There are many bridleways in the forest and numerous people mountain bike there too so the ground gets well churned up. Sometimes, as in this picture the mud was right across the path and once you choose your route you just had to keep going.

Below, Gill has to use her arms for balance to keep her upright - what a laugh we all had.

....and more mud.....

There were signs of spring around too. Here Cajsa's holding up the branch to show the numerous buds.

We also saw Pussy Willows and the temperature reached about 13 degrees with a blue sky overhead most of the time.

The girls had to work hard - here they are in the mid part of the walk where the forest is very undulating and where what goes down, must go up again.

Great for the buttocks as I kept reminding them. I can see a few smiles there.

And now very near the end, only about a mile to go and a very handy tree to hug or lean against.

We made it to Epping at 3.00 where we treated ourselves to a well earned lunch and pastry!!