Oh what a night...our eighth and penultimate test!

With exactly two weeks to go, we decided that our final test should replicate the night-time section of the Trailwalker Challenge.

In sport, 'visualisation' is seen as a key element. Being able to "see" what success looks like, before actually achieving it. Our preparations to date have been aimed at replicating set elements of the walk; whether it's walking within the overall 30-hour duration; covering every section of the walk...at least twice, or, as was the case last night competing the night-time section of the walk at the time that we hope to be walking it on the 16th/17th July.

One problem with this approach however, is that 'visualisation' is very difficult at night, where you can't see or 'visualise' very much at all.

Nevertheless, just before 10:30pm last night we set off from Devil's Dyke to complete stages to 8 through 11 to the finish.

We last did these stages in daylight in March and took just over six and a quarter hours.

This time we would see how much longer it would take in the dark, and suffering from the effects of sleep deprivation, purposefully having not slept at all during the day to ensure that, whilst not having already walker 40 miles, we would at least be mentally tired at the start of the walk.

As we set off, head torches blazing, we had been walking for no more than 5 minutes when we couldn't find the path. Whilst it didn't take us too long to find it again, it highlighted (although sadly not literally) the difficulties of walking in the dark and the limited range of the head torch.

It really was quite dark!!

We pressed on. Initial, questions as to why we were doing this, or why we were planning to walk so far, started to disappear as we collectively "got into our stride".

As we headed up Saddlescombe Hill, a second factor of night walking emerged. And when I say "emerged", I mean it in the manner of a Stephen King novel, where the creature "emerged" out of the darkness. What form this creature took, we never discovered. All that we say in the darkness was it's eyes reflecting the light from our torches. Fox? Sheep? Panther? Who knows? But it would be the first animal that we would come across during the night.

We walked on, making good time. We arrived at Checkpoint 8, the Jack and Jill windmills (which many will not see, as we did not, due to the darkness) in a time of 1 hour 20 minutes - just over 18 hour pace.

The next, and longest stage, saw further encounters with animals. There is a lot of similarity between the word "bullock" and "hillock", and in the dark an even greater similarity between their two forms.

We came across a number of large (some, very large!) shapes blocking our path. Hillocks, or bullocks? Given that hillocks don't "moo", they were obviously the latter. They caused us no problems, although it was a little disconcerting to weave our way through this large herd in the middle of the night.

If one of the upsides of night-time walking is not being able to see just how far there is still to walk which, can make the time and distance appear less; one of the downsides of night-time walking is losing one's way, which we did again on this section.

The instructions, had we read them, tell you "...after 75m take right fork to electricity pylon...". In the dark, you can see neither fork nor pylon.

Consequently, we "forked" too late. "Fork!" we shouted. Fortunately, knowing the route enabled us to take corrective action and we were soon back on (literal) track, and after just under 3 hours we reached Checkpoint 9. Our pace for this section was slower, at around 24 hour pace, but given the fact that we had stopped for something to eat; circumnavigated a herd of cows, and got slightly off track, maybe that wasn't too bad.

Only two more stages. Stage 10 can be summarised as; steep hill; difficult downhill section; more (very large) cows/bulls; daybreak; an incredible 55 minutes and 12 hour pace!

The first sign of light of dawn at about 3:30am

The final stage - my least enjoyable - goes on far longer than it should. Mile after mile of uneven track, with the sight of the the end promising to appear around every bend, but not doing so until you almost give hope.

Just before the end - just after 4:30am - a police car approached us, and the PC driving wound down his window and said to Matt in a slightly accusatory tone - "You guys are out early this morning?", to which Matt replied, quite accurately "No, we're out very late!".

At this point I realised that if you are a criminal and want to avoid capture, put on a pair of hiking points and carry a couple of walking poles! (Although, if this is ALL you do you will still get arrested....for indecent exposure!)

And then at about 4:45am we arrived at the finish. 1 hour 10 minutes, and 20 hour pace for the Stage.

Just over 6 hours 15 minutes in total - just over 20 hour pace.

The impact of darkness, cows, police & sleep deprivation on our time, in comparison to our efforts in March? Very little, as we completed the walk in virtually the same time.

Enough of the training now...now for the real thing in two weeks time!

Back at the car - Sunrise over Devil's Dyke