Team work, makes the dream work.

The trek started, for most of us, on Friday morning in the de Feyter's farm yard, where we loaded our luggage onto the stock trailer and Will and Andy's mum sent us of on our way with a bacon roll. A taxi and Tom's micra, later to be known as the big M, ferried us to Brittania Pier, Great Yarmouth.

The weather on the Friday morning was glorious, perfect for the event, a light breeze kept us cool and the sunshine lifted our spirits. Yarmouth was glorious in the sun, a photo was taken at the pier, Jack Papworth, Ellie Maris and Harry Gillingwater wandered off to get a Mc'breakfast and then we set off. The first day was beach and dune walking all the way - by the end of the day we were to hit the wall- but on Friday morning we quite quickly reached Newport Gap for our first break and then Sea Palling for lunch. The Sea Palling arcade served up a great selection of donuts, slushies and hot dogs to keep us going. The stretch between Sea Palling and Great Yarmouth was a particularly pleasant stretch of coast, easy to walk and quite scenic.

After lunch, life got tougher. We hit the dunes, walked past the reefs and eventually reached Happisburgh where we spotted a SAM sprayer on the cliff top, which seemed quite apt as they are one of our sponsors. The stretch between Happisburgh and our stop off point at Trimingham seemed bleak. The high cliffs meant that we had no sense of how far we had traveled and the weather turned to a dragging drizzle. When we eventually arrived at Woodlands Caravan Park, what a welcome sight it was, the Harrison family kindly allowed us to set up camp in a corner of the site. An evening meal followed- it was a bit of a daze- and then most people retired to their tents in pain. The rain and wind tested how well people set their tents. In the morning Tom Saunders and the big M, came into their own with an expertly crafted bacon roll and cup of coffee, spirits were lifted and we were ready to hit day two.

Walking along the clifftops and through the towns of Cromer and Sheringham was a  nice change from the previous day. However, when you stand on the top of Beeston bump and realize that the sprout of trees in the misty distance is where you have to be by the end of the day it is a sobering thought. The ever PC Mr Will de Feyter decided to go into Budgens of Cromer and buy our chairman John a copy of a certain tabloid newspaper to lift his spirits; it was a great success. Another great morale lifter was the presence of Shauna Ellis and Whispa. We met Shauna and the support team, which included James Youngman and Mark Williams, at the car park at Weybourne for lunch. Shauna had left her husband Tom at home with a salad and created us a great walkers pack lunch which set us up to tackle the shingle bank between Weybourne and Cley. Having conquered the bank and wandered into Cley we progressed past Wiveton Fruit farm and Blakeney, had a sing along walking the bank to Morston and then eventually reached Stiffkey, where we camped for the night.

The final day started a little earlier - John was keen to get on- and we soon walked across the salt marsh, through Wells and then hit Holkham Hall. We strolled through the park, where we were pursued by Tom in his Micra- he eventually found us- and then we walked across country to Brancaster Staithe. Another one of Shauna's lunches awaited us. After lunch the end was in sight. Ella Drake found her feet and set the pace, apparently the trick was not to stop - probably true- but not everyone saw it that way! The last bit of walking was an enjoyable end to the trek, the route was pleasant and as we stopped to look at the life boat and then the lighthouse came into view I was almost sad that it had come to an end. Dan Brown, a man of wise words summed it up, " team work, makes the dream work". This is true and a great strength of North Walsham Young Farmers, we have raised a great deal of money for a worthy charity, but at the same time learnt a lot about ourselves, learnt about other members of the group and built a stronger team to lead North Walsham YFC forward into the future. Lets see what they come up with next.

The schedule is unveiled.

The schedule is unveiled, it's going to be tough but hopefully fun and profitable. I'm tired already. 

Unveiling of the trek banner with less than one week to go.

22 Days Pre Walk: Plans, Enthusiasm, Twitter and the Drive to Finish.

The practice walk is nearly upon us, we should be setting of on the morning of the twenty sixth of April,  with the aim of walking twenty miles along the beach, on what is hopefully a beautiful spring day. We met recently for a fish and chips, and cheese and biscuit meeting, to discuss the latest plans. The TESCO Stilton was undoubtedly our favourite cheese.

As more people become involved in the event, enthusiasm is mounting. Mr Will de Feyter, has recently been instrumental in securing a number of new sponsors, who I am sure will be announced on the Twitter feed very soon. Well done, Will.

Sarah Ellero is the brains behind the Twitter feed from an initial point of being unfamiliar with the workings of this form of social media, she is, I am sure you would agree, very proficient at tweeting, retweeting and hash tagging. It would be great to increase our Twitter followers so please do, retweet and favourite our story. Sarah, as I already mentioned in a previous blog, is a trainee solicitor for Leathes Prior, who have very generously become our principal sponsor. I know from talking to Sarah, that Leathes Prior do a tremendous amount for charity, it is great that they could support this effort.

As  we are, 22 days before the walk the enormity of the trek is beginning to dawn upon me. Walking along the beach for what is going to be at least eight hours a day is no easy task and to then to get up and do it again the next day and the day after that will be difficult. There is, however, enormous satisfaction to be had in the knowledge that you can do it, and that you have the strength of mind to drive yourself on to reach the end; this is certainly how I and I know many others felt about the three peaks trek which we did in 2012. I hope that the younger members of North Walsham YFC get as much out of this trek.

38 Days Pre-Walk: The Idea and Who's Who

North Walsham Young Farmers have form with charity events, in 2012 a number of the members took part in the Three Peaks Charity Expedition, Rob Norman and Rob Hirst, with a number of others, organised this event. Since then it has often been mentioned that we would like to do something else.

So, pre-Christmas 2014 a group convened at Sarah Ellero's new house and whilst her parents were laying the upstairs carpet we floated a few ideas. The team at these initial meetings was:

• Ella Drake; NWYFC Charity Officer, employee of Grainseeds and recent HAU graduate.
• Sarah Ellero; NWYFC secretary, a member of the Three Peaks organising team, and trainee solicitor at Leathes Prior.
• Harry Jones; NWYFC Vice-Chair, self employed chimney sweep trading as 'Jones the Sweep' and part of his family farm Jones of Antingham.
• Emily Page; NWYFC Program secretary, experienced charity expedition attendee and employee of NIAB TAG.
• Andrew Spinks; NWYFC Hockey Secretary and employee of B&C Farming Ltd.
• John Withers; NWYFC Chairman and part of his family farm J.H Withers and Son.  

None of these ideas from the initial meeting proved fruitful, the best bit of the meeting was Sarah's cooking and the carol singing with Taverham brass band in the Brewery Tap pub afterwards. But the intention to do something was there. The idea of doing a walk took a little while to surface,

45 Days Pre Walk: Support from Anglia Farmers and Future Biogas

Two of the biggest and most influential names in Norfolk agriculture have agreed to support this fundraising effort. It is a pleasure to announce that Anglia Farmers and Future Biogas are supporting the beach trek.

Future Biogas specialise in the construction and operation of biogas plants for the UK. Their plants operate on a range of locally sourced biomass feedstocks, generating clean, renewable and reliable energy. Using an experienced team, which has unique and in-depth knowledge of biogas production, their efficient technology provides an ideal solution to meet specific UK needs. Their biogas plants provide stable and reliable renewable energy, helping to meet the UK Government’s 20% renewable energy target by 2020, whilst providing a number of farming benefits. Lots of farmers in the North Walsham area supply one of the Future Biogas plants and many of the members have links to their activity in the local area. It is with great pleasure that we announce them to be sponsors for the beach trek.

Anglia Farmers is the largest agricultural purchasing group in the UK, they purchase almost 1/10th of the UK's key farm inputs. Having given great assistance to The 2012 Three Peaks Challenge, another charity event which North Walsham YFC members were involved in, it is great having Anglia Farmers back to support us again, not only on the farm but now in our charity effort as well. We are very grateful.

 

52 Days Pre Walk: Exciting Prospects.

As the days pass,  -I note that we now have 52 days until the coast walk- I am pleased to say that we have began to get a number of companies agreeing to support North Walsham Young Farmers 2015 Beach Trek. Once the details of the sponsorship arrangements have been finalised, announcements will be made on this, our Blogger page, and via our Twitter channel.

Preparations at this stage are centering around efforts to get sponsorship and organising the practicalities of the walk. The route is fairly straightforward -the hint is in the title- if we don't stray too far from the beach then in theory we can't go too far wrong. However, once we get past Blakeney that, maybe, is no longer the case. The coast past Blakeney becomes complicated by saltmarsh and big expanses of sandy beaches; with this in mind we are planning to do a practice section on this section of the walk. This will give us an opportunity to make most of our mistakes before the main event, test out our safety procedures and see who is not very good at getting up in the morning. The prospects are exciting, and as I said earlier the days are ticking by, keep an eye on this page for updates, if you can please do give us your support.