THURSDAY: Walker’s Headlines!
By
LFO News Team
Outdoor headlines
28 August 2008 10:31
A grandma runs the world, Bonington goes Olympian on Scafell Pike, and Leo Houlding gets a TV show!
THE GRANDMA WHO WALKED THE WORLD
Think you’ve had some epic trips? Well, meet Rosie Swale Pope.
The inspirational 61-year-old grandma has just completed a five-year walk round the world and returned, weary and stress-fractured but triumphant, to her home town of Tenby, South Wales.
After walking more than 20,000 miles around the world, Rosie was greeted by 1,000 well-wishers who lined the streets of Tenby and applauded her as she came home.
During her trip, she was confronted by an axeman in the forests of Siberia, run over by a bus in Russia, came face to face with a bear and was stalked by a pack of wolves.
She almost lost a foot to frostbite in Alaska, suffered double pneumonia and a breast cancer scare, learned how to light fires in the rain courtesy of two convicted murderers, and endured temperatures of -62C in barren Arctic wastelands.
Behind her she pulled a specially fitted-out trailer for supplies and accommodation.
Freezing and starving
“I’ve nearly starved to death, frozen to death, been swept downstream by raging rivers, but none of that compares to one day in the life of a nurse or teacher. Life is the real marathon,” she said on her return.
“There were many, many times I thought I wouldn’t make it, though I never wanted to give up.”
After the death of her second husband, Clive, from prostate cancer, Rosie began her epic journey from Tenby on October 2, 2003, her 57th birthday.
Her first footfall is engraved in the flagstone of her front step, and yesterday she placed her returning footstep next to it.
Her aim was to raise awareness of prostate cancer and champion the cause of orphans cared for by the Kitezh community in Russia.
Wearing out 26 pairs of shoes, she walked through Holland, Germany, Poland, 7,000 miles along the Trans-Siberian railway route, across the Bering Strait, Alaska, the US, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland and England, before returning to her starting and finishing line at Tenby.
Rosie is now set to write a book about her journey.
“I’m so proud to be back," she says.
"I could not believe my welcome. I felt like a star of stars but I’m just an ordinary person.”
We’re not sure about that, Rosie.
BONINGTON’S OLYMPIC DREAM
Legendary climber Sir Chris Bonington believes mountaineering could one day become an Olympic sport.
The climber, 74, played his part in the handover of the Olympics from Beijing to London by raising the Olympic flag at the summit of Scafell Pike, England’s highest mountain.
He was accompanied by another legend of the outdoors, fellrunning record-breaker Jos Naylor.
Sir Chris said: “Competition climbing is surging in popularity. Climbing as a whole is very healthy and it’s great to watch. I know the British Mountaineering Council and the UIAA, the international climbing body, have pushed for competitive climbing. It would be great to see it become an Olympic competition.”
What do you reckon? Tell us in the forum...
LEO GOES TO THE EDGE
Arguably Bonington’s successor as Britain’s Best-Known Climber, young star Leo Houlding fronts a new show for Virgin 1 from this Sunday (Aug 31).
In ‘Take Me to the Edge’, Houlding 'takes five plucky but inexperienced adults away from their ordinary day-to-day lives and goes with them through their own rites of passage on a global adventure to some of the most extreme countries in the world.'
The boy Houlding has TV form – Jeremy Clarkson raced him up a cliff in the Verdon Gorge, France, on ‘Top Gear’. Clarkson had the advantage of an Audi RS4 – but Leo still beat him!
Show starts at 8pm. Here’s a trailer from YouTube. Enjoy!
NEW! Subscribe to our news via email and always be first in the know. Click here to subscribe now.