Diverse Abilities Dorset 3 peaks challenge

from Dorset Business Focus | August 2021

Dorset Chamber Invests in Audio-Visual Conference Room

Dorset 3 peaks

(with all the peaks in between)

by Louis Pulford | photos by Philip Cox

A moody start to the day set the tone for the arduous task my brother and I had ahead of us. Overcast, grey and gloomy – sounds a bit dour right? Well no, this was exactly what we needed.

We were walking from Pilsden Pen, via Lewesdon to Bulbarrow Hill. Had it been sunny, I think I would have probably quit half way, due to experiencing a training walk with Ben a week earlier in the belting sun. I suffered serious sunburn so the last thing I wanted was hot conditions. We got lucky and what a beautiful day we had ahead of us.

All 12 walkers met in a car park in Dorchester at around 6am and were bundled into a minibus and a van due to social distancing.

The team assembled at the base of Pilsden Pen. We had a safety briefing and meet and greet with the guides from Charity Challenge, Laura, Brendon and Andy. All were highly approachable and overly positive – the sort of people you need on a 12-hour walk up every known hill in the North Dorset area.

So after the brief we embarked on our mammoth journey, high-spirited, raring to go and all smiles as we chatted to other walkers.

The guides were supporting us along the way with checkpoints, water and snacks. I mainly dug into the easy peelers as I love those citrusy little gems of goodness. There were plenty of water top ups too that kept us hydrated.

The route was incredible, ranging from road walking, to navigating up streams, breezing through meadows, going round farmers’ crops, ascending and descending hills offering us incredible views and passing through a Holloway too. The guides had really done a great job of mixing up the terrain and offering us a challenging set of paths, something I find really cool when going on a long walk – the more varied the better. We went through a deer enclosure and saw a herd of white deer, which was up there on the highlight list. We also had a lunch stop where lunch was prepped for our hungry ‘walking’ bellies.

As the day went on, we acquainted ourselves with others in the team and the guides were constantly impressed at our pace. We made the nine-hour mark one hour and 40 minutes early; Andy almost looked shocked when we arrived. With a few injuries in tow and a couple of dropouts at this point, we still had a way to go. Stopping and sitting down for me was not an option.

During the last few hours my knee began locking up when going down steep descents, which posed a problem because I slowed the whole team down, but I wasn’t going to give up so close to the end. Thanks to Sue, for the walking pole, I pushed harder to get to the end.

Approaching Bulbarrow, the final summit, gave me a feeling of relief until I actually started walking up the almost vertical hillside. After 12 hours of trekking my body was exhausted, so the last ascent after the countless hills we had already climbed was daunting, and others felt it too, but we made it. The team was strong and absolutely championed the walk, doing it in record time with this particular organisation, (I am not sure on any other records). Another notable hill was the one with the Cerne Abbas giant on it – that was a beast.

I’d like to give a shout out to Suzy for keeping me company and great conversation, Hilary for being the ultimate power walker, Phillip for being a machine and taking all the photos, Brendon the guide who stuck with me as my knee was locking up, and to my brother, Ben, for finishing first and beating everyone to the top of Bulbarrow Hill. Well done to the rest of the team who took part during the day.

Ben and I raised over £1,000 for Diverse Abilities on this charity challenge and we would like to thank all of you who have generously donated. If you want to add a few more pounds visit www. justgiving.com/fundraising/louis-ben-pulford