The sunshine this week was a welcome boost to the last week of this journey that I embarked on 10 weeks ago, and even more so as I was heading off to the Larmer Tree Festival in Dorset to volunteer for the children's workshops and make yet more carnival outfits! I've become a bit addicted to getting my 10,000 steps fix for the day, and I was a bit concerned that I wouldn't clock up too many steps at the festival - as there is lots of sitting on the grass and drinking beer and not much walking. However I discovered that dancing soon stacks up the steps, so whenever I heard some jumping around type tunes I headed off to that stage and jumped about a bit! I managed to do a daily average of 11,500 steps this week! My friends were quite intrigued by the challenge, they'd been following my blog on the JourneyOn website, and by the end of the weekend quite a few of them were talking about getting a pedometer.

As the Sunday evening drew near I was feeling a little sad about the end of the challenge - it's been a great experience and has certainly helped me focus on getting slimmer for the wedding - plus I've saved some money in bus and taxi fares. I've lost a couple of kilos (or about 5 lbs in old money) and I feel much healthier and also calmer (a 20 min walk helps me get my thoughts in order!) Jonny and I are also going to keep our after walk working club going, as we've had lots friends say they are interested, and we've even planned a country walk for the day after our wedding with all our guests! Walking has really become a way of life for us and we've even started talking about a long term plan to walk the entire coastal pathways of Great Britain over our lifetimes . . . JourneyOn team - just look what you've started!

What a week! It certainly didn't feel like summer - with all the torrential rain and high winds! The only ones benefiting from the weather were my window boxes and the kite surfers! Still it didn't stop me walking (much), three times this week I donned my waterproofs and set off on my 20 mins walk to work - only once did I relent and jump on the bus. However, I think I've broken the hand dryer at work, as I had to spend 10 minutes drying myself off each morning. One positive side effect to all this rain was that it forced me back into the gym to get some wedding workouts in!

It was my weekend where I clocked up the most steps this week, which is unusual, as I normally do less walking. On Friday I nipped down to Hove Town Hall to give a pint of red stuff to the National Blood Service and before heading off dance about (in a light headed manner) to the foot stomping sounds of the The Curst Sons. On Saturday my old Uni friend Sarah came to visit with her lovely little boy Ben - and it's true that children keep you active - we ran around on the beach, on Hove Lawns playing football and all around the playground in Queens Park, before joining in a game of rounders for my friend Lindsay's birthday.

On Sunday we both were roped into taking part in the Brighton Carnival for BBC Southern Counties Radio - and at last on cue the sun came out! Despite looking slightly foolish in blue 'wave' hats and face paint, it was an amazingly colourful event and all the samba dancing and jumping around was great for my step count! Average daily steps is 12,238.

I've had some fab messages of support from friends and family, from as far afield as Australia, Spain and Holland - thanks everyone!! Just one more week to go!!

A walk shared is a problem halved .. okay well that's not the actual saying - but this week I've discovered that a walking with friends is great for helping get something of your chest and having a good chat. On Tuesday I rose at 6.30am to meet up for an early morning walk with Audrey (a fellow 10,000 stepper). It was a fabulous summer morning and we strolled down to the seafront and had a lovely cup of tea, before I had to head into work - it was a great way to start the day and Audrey is wonderful company and a great listener. As a grandmother and great grandmother she has had plenty of good advice on life and despite being twice my age is a very brisk walker!

On Thursday evening Jonny and I managed to persuade eight of our friends to come on a walk from Lewes to Kingston - with a promise of a pub dinner! We jumped on a bus from Churchill Square and 30 minutes later we were striding across the South Downs on a lovely sunny evening. It's amazing how much you find out about someone on a walk, for example I've been working with Karl for probably 2 years now - but never get much of a chance to chat. So it wasn't until our walk that I got a chance to talk to him and what an interesting chap he is! Our pub dinner was followed by a few too many ales and the walk back was a little harder, but we walked the equivalent of 22 Eiffel Towers - and everyone had a great evening so I think a few more after work pub strolls might be in order.

On Friday I was really getting into the swing of walking with friends, and I twisted my friend Mark's arm to go on a lunchtime walk down the seafront. It was a glorious day and we walked for 20 min to the Meeting House Cafe, stopped for a cold drink and some sea views and then reluctantly headed back to the office. It was only an hour's lunch break - but it felt like a mini holiday and left me in much better spirits for the afternoon - and had done a few extra steps too. My average daily step count went up a bit to 10,600 steps this week :)

I had my first wedding dress fitting on Thursday and so I set out determined to up my step-count this week - so I've been walking at lunchtime, taking the stairs and I haven't caught a bus in ages. I had Monday off work to blitz lots of wedding bits - there's only 9 weeks to go and my 'To Do' list is getting longer and longer! We've got about 140 guests coming to the wedding at a lovely house in Exmoor in Somerset, but we're trying to keep the costs down and so we're doing a picnic, barn dance and BBQ with the help of friends and family. By the end of the day I had ticked lots off my list - but I'd hardly done any steps! So I walked to my netball practice on Hove seafront rather than cycling, and then after the session I jogged back trying to keep up with Mandy and Tracy on their bikes - who were cycling as slowly as they could without falling off! On Tuesday I had a netball match and a busy day so manage to rack up 15,780 steps.

On Wednesday Jonny and I had our photo taken by the Argus on Ditchling Beacon where we got engaged, so we went for little walk in our favourite spot. Later on that evening I met up with some friends on the beach for a BBQ - but it was so windy on the seafront that we ended up walking quite a way (good for my steps - 12,932!) until the large groyne near Peace Statue. It looked like most of Brighton had ended up in the same place - with lots of little groups gathered round BBQs sheltering them against the wind to get sausages cooked - you gotta love that British spirit!

On Thursday I woke up feeling terrible - I don't know if it was wind over-exposure or a summer bug, but my throat was swollen and sore and I felt rotten. Unfortunately it's no rest for the wicked, I had so much work to catch up on after Cornwall, so I got through the day with lots of cups of hot tea and strepsils! My wedding dress fitting, however, cheered me up at the end of the day - I hadn't tried the dress on since last October and it definitely felt looser - hurray!! Plus I managed to do 10,758 steps despite feeling rubbish! The rest of the week I felt better and managed to fit in lots of walking - so my weekly average was a satisfying 10,643 a day.

We've postponed our mini challenge of an evening pub walk with friends to next week . . .

Our last day in Cornwall was spent in the Eden Project - which was absolutely fantastic! We got a £4 discount for walking there from our campsite - so walking really does save you money (although we did spend that on huge slice of carrot cake instead!) Coming back from Cornwall was a bit of a shock to the senses; my body couldn't get used to the fact that I wasn't doing 25,000+ steps a day and I struggled to sleep on the first couple of nights back. On the plus side I got quite a few comments from friends about looking healthier and slimmer - so all that walking is obviously paying off!

Back in the real world of work though it is harder to keep the step count up. I was in London for a few days this week and I struggled to find a way to get up to 10,000 steps, although taking the stairs rather than the escalator for the tube does notch up quite a few! I also had my friends walking round the local park in Greenwich with me 3 times - it's quite a small park and a group of lads sitting on the park bench obviously thought we were a bit mad. It was great to catch up with my fellow 10,000 steppers on Friday after work - it's amazing how everyone is now thinking in steps! We all swopped stories and tips and I arranged to meet Audrey for an early bird walk and hot drink at the Meeting House in a couple of weeks.

For our mini challenge, Jonny and I are planning to drag all our friends on a walk from Lewes to Kingston next week - we hope that the promise of a pub dinner will encourage our more relucant friends to join in!

Our week in Cornwall around St Ives and Penzanze has been just what we needed to inject some real meat into our walking, half way through the challenge! On Monday our steps were down - as we spent most of the day on the train getting across the South Coast of England via the cheapest route available! However we soon made up for it over the following days. Our first couple of nights we camped near the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno (fantastic outdoor theatre carved into rock face!) walking the coastal paths and racking up around 24,000 steps a day! The scenery was awesome, with amazing azure seas and white sandy beaches, we found it hard to believe we were really in England!

On Wednesday we packed up our tent and caught the bus to the beautiful little village of Zennor. Once there we discovered the place we planned to camp was completely full of media students from Truro and there was no room at the inn! We were at a bit of a lost, as we'd planned to pitch our tent, and then spend the day walking. As luck would have it we bumped into a local farmer who was happy for us to use a corner of his field to pop up our tent. So with our bed of the night all sorted we set off to explore the coast from Zennor to Pendeen - which was a pretty tough walk - not helped by the fact that we didn't pack enough water for what turned out to be a blooming hot day! This was our best days walking yet though - a whopping 29,721 - maybe we can start a Steps Bank and take next week off!!

We had fantastic weather for the rest of the week and settled into a routine of leisurely breakfasts, local bus rides along the coast and great walks, followed by an evening in the local pub - The Tinners Arms - which gets 10/10 for food, beer and atmosphere. The great thing about doing all those extra steps is that we could enjoy the beers and tasty chocolate desserts without the guilt!

Across the week our average steps per day was 21,800 (Elfie) and 23,300 (Jonny - who ran around and took lots of photos!) and we both feel great, slightly sunburnt and with only the hint of blisters between us!

If you're looking for a holiday with a bit of a difference, then we'd definitely recommend a walking holiday in Cornwall, or anywhere in England for that matter. You get to see things you wouldn't spot in car (grey seals, a cuckoo, chit chats, 4 foxes to name but a few), you feel really connected to the landscape, there's a low enviromental impact and you get to see some of the most beautiful parts of England which you can't reach any other way. So go on dig out your walking boots and get to it!

This week has been incredibly hectic as I have been helping to organise two big Springwatch events coming up this weekend - one is a S.W.A.T project in Hastings and the other is the Springwatch Festival in Stanmer Park. I've been working 9-10 hours a day and am exhausted - however the upside is that I have achieved 10,000 steps nearly every day this week so far! My average is about 10,500 - hurray!!

I have been carrying on walking my long way to work and am now also using the stairs a lot more at work - so sneaking in a few extra steps that way as well - I'm definitely starting to feel fitter and more toned which is great!

Next week I am heading off to Cornwall with Jonny for a week of walking and camping along the Coastal path between Penzance and St Ives - a much needed holiday! We're hoping to spot some basking sharks as this is the time of year they come to feed near the shore - as long as the sun shines! I'm hoping that, with all that beautiful scenary to enjoy while walking, the 10,000 steps should be easy to do - however finding an internet cafe on the Cornish coast to submit our weekly blog could be a bit more of a problem!

For my mini-challenge I've managed to get quite a few family and friends to read my blog (I'll pay you all later!!)

With the wedding just over 3 months away I decided to take some serious action and to walk a different route to work along the seafront this week. This increased my journey by approx 1,000 steps and only took an extra 5 minutes (plus the view is a lot nicer than Western Road as well!) My plan was take this route home as well - but on Tuesday I bumped into an old friend who had returned from travelling and we HAD to catch up over a pint - total 8,845 steps. Then on Wednesday a work colleague was having final farewell drinks before heading off to Sudan to run a radio station, but I did manage to take the long route home via St Anne's Wells, so racked up a respectible 9,386. On Thursday took the seafront route both to AND from work and BINGO - 10,004 steps!! On Friday I had a busy day so took my normal route to work - but compensated for this later in the day by going for an evening stroll down to the beach - where I sat and contemplated how lovely Brighton was and how lucky I am to live here - soppy I know - total steps 10,092!

On Saturday I woke up full of beans and as it was such a great morning decided - GASP - to go for a walk / run down the seafront! I'm not a big fan of running - my face turns red and blotchy, and legs really do feel like lead - but it is a cheap form of exercise and I've got a wedding to save up for and a dress to get into so it kills two birds with one stone. However after 5 minutes of huffing I decided to walk for 5 mins and get my breath back (plus some guy had foolishly beached his sailing boat near the King Alfred centre and I want to have a good nosy!) I continued in this cycle - run 5 mins / walk 5 mins all the way to Hove Lagoon and back to Adelaide Crescent - and clocked up a fab 7,500 steps (5km). My total on Saturday was a satisfying 11,989.

On Sunday I had to spend the day at home making bunting for the upcoming Springwatch Festival in Stanmer Park - the things I do for work! I did manage to squeeze in 7,410 steps when I dashed into town and back on foot for more material supplies, but it wasn't quite enough to bring my weekly average up any higher than 8,609 average. I blame deary Bank Holidays and Sex in the City!! However I'm going to stick to my new route to work and find other ways to build up my steps next week.

Fourteen days in and I've developed a strange side effect to wearing a pedometer - I've started stomping to get the pedometer to register my steps!!  It all started after a trip to Eastbourne and Lewes on Saturday, we did lots of walking along the seafront and yet at the end of our identical day of walking together my pedometer was hovering just over 7,000 steps and Jonny's was on a whopping 15,000!!  It seems like my light footnesses is failing to register half my steps - so hence the stomping!
 
On Wednesday my friend Jo invited me over for dinner - she lives by Hove train station and I work by Brighton train station, so normally I would have hopped on the train.  Instead I used the JourneyOn website to work out how many calories I would burn off by walking there (answer 133 cal).  The 30 min walk was very relaxing and it meant I could enjoy a larger portion of desert!!