Anything but 'a walk in the park'

On June 19, Francis's team from Venture Photography, one of 26 teams who signed up for the walk in the Mournes to raise money for Action Medical Research were ready to go, but they did not anticipate the twists and turns in front of them.

Francis, art director at Venture, said: “We did a few practice walks and on the night we thought it was going to be easier than it was. We thought the adrenaline would get us through. We were wrong.”

It soon became evident that the six-person team should have polished their map-reading skills beforehand, as after several hours walking they realised they had taken a wrong turn.

Francis said: “After an orienteering challenge in the pitch-black in Tollymore Forest Park, we had to make our way to various checkpoints on the trail. We eventually got to one, but it turned out we missed out an entire section of the walk and found the checkpoint too early.

“We were gutted, as it looked at first like we were the first to get there. Organisers at the checkpoint said they had people out looking for us because they thought we were lost.”

Northern Ireland manager for Venture and team member, Julie McBride, said: “In hindsight, this was possibly the funniest moment, although at the time all that could be felt was sheer disappointment after five hours of walking without sleep and panic at the thought of being kicked off the iPlod or having to start over.”

Their support driver took them back onto the track and after breakfast they got back on track. However, lightning struck twice and they took another wrong turn.

Francis said: “We realised sooner this time, after only half an hour, and were soon back on track.”

After this, they completed the walk without any further detours, raising 1,700 and getting only four blisters between them. Despite the wrong turn, they managed to complete the 50 kilometres, albeit on a slightly different route.

Francis added: “In the end the challenge was the map reading, not the walking.”

The experience did not leave him too worse for wear, however, as he said: “I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was an amazing experience and I would encourage anyone to take part.”