Since the 2016 Manx Telecom Parish Walk another attempt at the Ramsey Bakery End to End in September went well with a clear winner in Richard Gerrard with Sam Fletcher 2nd and Adam Killip 3rd a future winner of the longer events like the End to End, Fireman's Charity Walk and indeed the Parish Walk. Karen Chiarello was the first Female home in 4th adding another impressive finish and overall title to her Parish win back in June. I finished the event in 5th one place better than last year.
During October I travelled to South Africa to compete in the Inaugural South African Centurion Walk held on Robben Island. Myself and Christine arrived on the Sunday before the event, being held the following weekend, so had plenty of time to take in some of the sights that South Africa had to offer, these included a colony of Penguins at Boulders Beach near Simons Town, Table Mountain via cable car, and a wine tasting tour. It was after this tour and several local beers too many back in Camps Bay with Richard Gerrard and his wife Kyley, who had also travelled over the same weekend, that I allegedly said I would be willing to write a blog for the 2017 Parish Walk.
The day of the event started with a boat trip over to Robben Island leaving from the Nelson Mandela Gateway in Cape Town. This started well but soon turned bad when the sea conditions worsened and made a few of the competitors and support crew succumb to sea sickness, this of course was funny at first but the more people that fell ill brought on the realisation that it could quite easily be myself or more likely Christine next. Eventually we arrived at the small port and disembarked onto the quayside. From here the group split into two with one group heading to the official support station to start setting up and the 2nd group taking in a tour of the Prison where of course Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of the 27 years he was incarcerated . The tour guide himself had also been incarcerated on Robben Island so the tour not only took in the cells, grounds, toilet blocks and sleeping areas but was described through the eyes of a man that had seen and heard all that went on during his time spent imprisoned on the Island along with Mandela. The last High Security political prisoner's to leave Robben Island made the boat journey back in 1991, Mandela himself had been transferred some years earlier to Pollsmoor Prison on 31 March 1982. The medium security prison remained open until 1996. While many confined there were charged with bogus crimes, others were charged with no crime at all. During the 19th century people suffering from mental illness and leprosy were also isolated on Robben Island, because the climate was considered healthful and because here they could be kept far removed from society at large. Lepers were confined to a community on the island as late as 1931.
Once the shortened tour was completed, shortened due to the race starting at midday and the Ferry not arriving at the island until 10:00hrs, we made are way to where the support station had been set up to prepare for the event itself. The start of the race left from the main entrance near to the prison and began with the longest lap of the race at 6.8 miles. The remaining 21 laps after this were around 4.4 miles. The weather had now improved from a wet start in Cape Town to an almost unbearable dry heat when out of the shade once on the Island. we had been told about the wildlife on Robben Island and within the first couple of Miles had been guided around a snake by the lap Marshall, we had also seen Springbok, Tortoise crossing in front of us, Penguins (Noisy Buggers) and some amazing views of Table Mountain. Once the first of the shorter laps was completed the lap Marshall left us to it. As the sun set the temperature also dropped and as the night progressed the wind became more evident and seemed to be in my face which ever direction I was walking. Around 60 miles into the race I started to feel that the remaining 40 mile could not be achieved, the hot then cold and the road conditions, the road surface was a mixture of chipped and smooth Tar and Block Paving, had mentally started to take their toll. I mentioned this to Christine who had with Richard and Dave's wives for the last 12 hours supported not only us on every lap but Vinny Lynch and Chris Cale who had also made the journey from the Isle of Man to compete. Christine had suggested I carry on until it at least got light, this sounded OK but the light that came with sunrise was still 6 hours away! The race itself was spent equally as much in the dark with around 11 hours of darkness as it was in daylight. The reward for continuing was the spectacular sunrise, however immediately with the sunrise came the heat once again.
Sunrise from Robben Island, taken by Anthony Long who was supporting Pete Miller on the event.
one of the many spectators on the event........
The African Penguin also known as the Jackass Penguin and Black-Footed Penguin confined to southern African waters. It is also widely known as the "Jackass" penguin for its Donky-like bray
I finished the race in a time of 21hrs 36mins but more importantly became a centurion for the 2nd time. It was a brilliant performance by all the Manx finishers, taking 6 of the top ten places. Richard Gerrard became the first South African Centurion winning the honour of receiving the first Centurion badge Number 1. The badge numbers ascend with the amount of finishers so a single digit number was the target for me and 5th overall meant I was awarded badge number 5.
Team Manx
From Left - Pete Miller, Suzannah Corkill, Robbie Callister, Janette Morgan, James Quirk, Dave Walker, Vinny Lynch, Richard Gerrard. Colin Townsend is pictured far Right, missing from the picture are Phillip Vermeulen and Chris Cale.
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