Day 23 of the Walk to the World Cup – JUNE 1st

Adenau to Langenfeld – at last some proper hills

Another grey and dismal morning as we breakfasted at Am Der Nordschliefe in Adenau. It was after 11.30 p.m. when we got back from Cologne with Sandra last night and we had agreed a change of plan. Instead of a full day today and rest day tomorrow, we would walk for two ½ days – 10 miles each day – leaving us with two free afternoons. This will help with radio interviews for the UK and leave plenty of time to take Chris and Tom for their flight back to East Midlands airport tomorrow.

Almost as soon as we set off through Adenau, Talksport rang and a live interview on Alan Brazil’s breakfast show – thanks for the support guys. Out of the town we turned for the climb up to Hohe Act (747 metres). The road climbed up through yet more trees and steepened. Hairpin bend followed hairpin bend and just over one hour later we reached the top. Tom had set a good pace and getting into a rhythm, I had managed to keep with him all the way. Tracey from Dream FM phoned whilst we walked along the top for another live radio update. It had drizzled most of the way up but we had been warm with the climb but now needed to put on extra layers for the inevitable descent.

This took us through Siebenbach and into a secret river valley (only 2 cars passed us) for the 3 miles walk into Acht, another stunningly beautiful walk spoiled only slightly by the weather, although at least it had stopped raining. Sandra was waiting for us in Acht but we decided to press on – Langenfeld was only 2K further on. However, it turned out to be 2K uphill and a steeper ascent than our earlier climb. Nevertheless, with the end in sight we ‘cracked on’ and made another quick climb although my legs had gone by the time we reached the village.

Back at Adenau we had lunch and I’m waiting now for the third radio interview of the day – this one for the Johnnie Walker Show on Radio 2. The sun has emerged rather reluctantly and we are going to have a closer look at the Nurburgring afterwards and probably go for a pizza this evening. Fritz-Peter, my German journalist friend has rung to say his article about the walk will be in the paper tomorrow. He has also very kindly contacted someone he knows at the German FA to try and help to get a ticket for the Paraguay game.

It’s great to have Sandra back. She has already tidied and reorganised the motor home and found a pair of my trousers that I thought were lost or left somewhere. Alex and Smithy, Tim’s two best friends have rung to say that neither of them will be able to fly out to join us for the last days of the walk. It’s such a pity as it would have been great to finish Tim’s walk with them. Dan Reeve is in Riga having driven from Mannheim (all Reeve men are crazy) and he will be in Frankfurt to see us on the 9th.

King of the Mountains - Tom – 110 miles and he has strolled all the way

Distance covered – 10.1 miles. Total covered – 440.0 miles