COUCH TO 5000K

ABOUT ME

It would be fair to say that life has been a bit rubbish (major understatement to avoid using bad language) for quite some time now. A few years ago my life was rocked when my then wife and I lost our baby before it was born. After subsequent years of depression on both our parts our marriage broke down and I was forced to leave an area where I had previously felt very settled due to the bad memories that the area now held. On a mission to start a new life in the village where I grew up I tried and failed to buy three different houses and also didn’t quite get on with my new job as I had hoped I would. I felt myself on a continued downward trend which I wanted desperately to get out of. 
Cue Christmas Eve, which I was spending alone on a Welsh mountainside, trying to avoid inflicting my misery on the rest of my family. I had come to Wales as I love walking. I always have loved walking but discovered over the last few years that it is one of the things I can do when I am getting really stressed, anxious or upset. It calms me and (usually) allows me time to think about what is getting me down and how I should go about dealing with it. And here I was, wondering what on earth life was trying to tell me as I couldn’t buy a house, couldn’t settle in a new job and had lost everything that I thought my life would be.
It was at this point that something really surprised me. Despite all of the stuff that had been getting me down, at that moment I was happy. It was raining, blowing a gale, I was ever so slightly lost, I had soaking wet feet and I was miles away from my hotel - and I was happy. I was on a mini adventure. And I suddenly thought, I should just go on a big adventure. A stupid idea, surely? This is a dream that I have had loads of time throughout my life but I have always not had the money, have needed to work to pay the bills as I was the main earner in our marriage, not had the time as I have needed to work and I always had someone with me who, understandably, hasn’t wanted to go traipsing off into the unknown.
But wait a moment. I couldn’t seem to buy a house no matter how hard I tried… I had some money from the sale of my old home… I was struggling at work due to my mental health and the job not quite being right for me… and, if I wasn’t working, I had time. So what was stopping me? 
This idea genuinely stopped me in my tracks. Within a minute I had made up my mind. Within two minutes I had decided I should do this in my beloved France where I was lucky enough to have done lots of walking with my family as a child. By that evening I had discovered that France actually has a network of long distance footpaths called ‘Grand Randonees’ which seemed to go through all of the best bits of France. And two days later, after bouncing the idea off of my parents who practically insisted I go ahead with it, I quit my job and started planning. 
Two months later, I have my visa, a load of shiny new walking equipment, my first two nights accommodation are booked, I have a vague idea of where I might go and I have just got onto stage two French on the Duolingo app! What could possibly go wrong?
Lots of my lovely friends and family who have been encouraging me to go ahead with this plan have requested that I keep them up to date. I thought writing a blog would be the best way to do this as it will also hopefully encourage other people to do the same and go on an adventure at some point in their busy lives. A special thanks to Dad who came up with the name ‘Couch to 5000k’. We don’t know if that is actually achievable in this time frame or not but we will see. Either way I hope the walk will be long!