This would be the second year of doing a longer hike and
raising money for charity, and was originally planned for the last Saturday in
April (as last year) but the weather forecast got progressively worse as the
wee went on. The decision had to be made on the Friday to cancel, and it was
the right decision as it rain for most of the night and on the Saturday, also
the route was in cloud, not only would it have been uncomfortable but downright
dangerous. The hike was rescheduled for the following Saturday and the forecast
was for fine dry and warm weather, which turned out to be spot on.
The unfortunate consequence of having to change the date
was that people already had other arrangements and in fact we lost 9 walkers
due to the change. Last year was our first attempt and we saw where
improvements could be made and this year we ended up with 19 walkers against
the 15 the previous year. Last year we managed to raise €2400 for S.O.S.
Animals and I really wanted to equal or better that figure this year. Instead
of donating to only one charity I decided to spread it over 4 animal charities
and hopefully hit more peoples interest.
The four charities selected were;
S.O.S Animals
A.I.D. Animals in Distress
ARCH Andalucian Rescue Charity for Horses
CHAIN Charity for Animals In Need
The route for the hike was to be almost the same as last
year except that it would follow the marked route out of the Barranco Blanco
valley instead of the very steep concrete road that we took last year. This
made the incline a lot easier but added a couple of kilometres onto the total
making it 22 km. The downside to this year, was that due to my health I would
not be able to take part in the actual Hike.
The hikers met at the starting point, outside of the Sports Ground
in Los Llanos, Coin and there to see them off, apart from myself, were some volunteers
from S.O.S. Charity along with Rupert a gorgeous German Shepherd that needs a
hip replacement and the money donated to this particular charity was to be used
toward this operation which was €1000.
The hikers set off lead by Mr John Milborrow, who had the
experienced back marker of Alan Kenah, who happened to be over on holiday and
joined the hike.
In difference to last year we had a picnic organised to take
place after the hike and two of our group members , Chris Milborrow and June
Staton had offered to act as ‘caterers, and organised the food and drink and
the other helpers. The hike took around 6 hours, and went without incident, and
a good amount of supports turned to greet the hikers at the finish and to take
part in the picnic. In addition to the food and drink sales there were a number
of items donated for the raffle, the first prize of which was a Coffee and
Walnut Cake made by John Staton and this was won by one of the hikers, Jay, who
said that he only bought a raffle ticket to win the cake, and he did.
A supporter of A.I.D. donated an hand painted coat rack
decorated with dogs, and this was auctioned off and raised €15 and a 7.5 litre
bottle of Red Wine in a presentation box was donated by Keith Train and this
was auctioned and raised €75.
All in all I was very pleased with how the day had gone, but
of course there are always improvements to be made and tweaks to be had for
next year.
I stated that my aim was to at least equal last year’s
figure but preferably to better it and as it happens the final figure from this
years Sponsored Hike for Charity was fantastic. All down to the effort of the
hikers, the generosity of their sponsors, the hard work of the ‘caterers’ and
the incredibly generous donations made by many kind and charitable people.
The Total Raised was €3700
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