DAY 1: HIGHLIGHTS

Managed to complete the 27 miles of Day 1 of the Walk with out too many problems--although caught too much of the sun--a phrase you don't often here in England.

It was great to meet up again with the Tomorrow's People team at the start--Fiona Greg has done most of the organisation for the Walk this year and it shows because it is so well organised and everything runs to time.

Gillian Atkinson did a great job in getting us kitted out with T shirts which have the clever advantage of having fluorsant letters on the back--clever innovation.

Shaun Philippson, one of Tomorrow's People from last year who helped film the walk and became a good friend is working with the Dene Films crew who are doing a documentary on the walk this year. Was hooked up to a wireless mike for most of the Walk which scares some politicians a bit, but managed to avoid calling anyone a "biggot"!

Geoffrey Bush was one of the founders of Tomorrow's People back in the 1980s' and it was great to have his company for the first day of the Walk this year--he was a social entrepreneur a decade before the term was invented and has done so many great things in th charitable sector he should be a poster boy for the 'Big Society'.

The Duchess of Northumberland kindly allowed us to start the Walk from the wonderful Alnwick Gardens and even turned on the fountains to give us a good send off. What an inspirational lady she is and a brilliant entrepreneur too--Alnwick Gardens which she created is now the top visitor attraction in the north of England with over 800,000 visitors. the impact on the local and regional economy has been huge--40 new businesses started, visitors contributing £50 million to the local economy and 200 people directly employed. As we walked around the Gardens before the start the Duchess was full of ideas and plans as to how it was going to be improved still further in the future and given what she has already achieved no-one would doubt that it will happen.

Ended the day at the Premier Inn in Ashington--very well looked after and great food. Completed first day without any blisters thanks to the wonder tip given by a store assistant in Cotswolds in Durham, namely use a pollyester lining sock and a pure wool over sock--simple but totally effective!