Wednesday 8 January 2014

The Challenge

Over the years I have been getting more and more unfit, the pounds have been piling on and touching my toes has become more difficult. What I needed was some way of getting fit that was a bit more interesting than just doing thirty minutes a day on an exercise bike! 

I bought a rowing machine last year and had hardly used it but decided to get it out again and was trying to think of a way to make using the thing more interesting. I always had in the back of my mind the idea of ‘rowing’ the Atlantic but realised that apart accomplishing a distance it would be as interesting as watching the dust (invariably) gather on the rowing machine itself!

I've always fancied myself as an explorer but motherhood and back packing don't tend to mix. I have had to make do with being an armchair traveller, reading other's adventures on the net, but now is my chance to do some non-armchair exploration. How about virtually rowing around the coast of Britain? My lazy side liked this idea a lot as surely just going around a piddly island like Britain would be so much easier than sculling across the big pond! Upon a quick look at the map the slothful part of me was kicked to touch as it turned out that the shortest distance across the Atlantic is 1600 miles whereas around Britain is around 500 miles more.
My initial idea was to do the whole distance using my rowing machine but I have now decided to try and get as many different methods of man power in as possible so that I can try and incorporate the challenge into my everyday life. Some parts will be done walking, others in the swimming pool and maybe I will even manage to put some unusual methods of transport in. Who knows, I may win a holiday to Australia and put in a few miles by snorkelling through the Great Barrier Reef or by walking up Ayres Rock!

The rules of the challenge are simple, there is no time limit or minimum miles travelled per day, the only hard fast rule is that only miles that are gained by my own steam power count. Skiing, swimming, running, walking, rowing count but driving and flying (unless I am entering a bird man competition) don’t!


I would love it if people would like to join me in my challenge, hopefully I will be blogging about the places I am passing by in my virtual journey and I will be adding virtual short cuts for the less mobile and extra excursions for those who are super fit already and wish to go that extra mile! My next post will be to reveal more about the starting point of the expedition and a plan of the first big leg of the journey.