Why the Gurkhas run Trailwalker UK - EXCLUSIVE!

Anybody who has been reading this blog over the last 6 months may recall the following:

1.  In my post of 7 March 2011 - 'WARNING! The secret dangers of Trailwalker & weight loss!' - I made reference to the fact that up to 60 teams "...fail to finish Trailwalker UK each year, thinking at the time that this was due to intense "weight loss;

2. In my post on 16 May 2011 - 'Our day out with the Queen's Gurkha Signals Regiment - Part 2' - I referred to the amazing athletic prowess of the Gurkhas who tend to "run" the Trailwalker UK route as fast as they can, thinking at the time that this was in order to break previous records; and

3. In my post on Sunday, 3 July 2011 - 'Oh what a night' - I made brief reference to our sighting of something strange on Saddlescombe Hill. 

It appears, having undertaken further research that these three elements may in fact be connected.

What if I had reported, "disappearing hikers", "fleeing Gurkhas" and "big cat sightings" on the South Downs? 

What if what we saw on Saddlescombe hill was in fact a "UFO" (Unidentified Feline Object)?

Was this in fact..."The beast of the South Downs"?

For those Trailwalkers not familiar with the area, such a notion may appear as unlikely as Ed Milliband becoming leader of the Labour Party; or, of our Olympic stadia being completed way ahead of schedule; or of Cheryl & Ashley Cole getting back together. But as you can see stranger things have happened.

Is this yet another spoof posting based on little or no factual evidence? Well consider the following local newspaper article from a few years back....

Big cats roam the South Downs?

Now clearly there will be those that will always be sceptical about anything out of the ordinary. Please see earlier reference to Ed Milliband. (Ed is still nowhere near as famous as his brother...Steve, who in the early Seventies had a Number 2 hit in the UK charts with the song "The Joker", making him as prophetic as his much younger brother was to be pathetic).

But even the doubters need to be listed to. Look at the comment by 'brightonmike' At the end of the above newspaper article, which he made on 16 September 2009.

He says, and I quote "...What do these things eat? If it was real there'd be dead sheep and missing ramblers everywhere"!

So in summary, there have been sightings of big cats on the South Downs. FACT. The Gurkhas always run Trailwalker UK, when it would be easier to walk. FACT. Each year up to 60 teams fail to finish Trailwalker UK, or as our local expert, brightonmike,explains, go "missing") FACT.

Don't say I didn't warn you!