Steven Thouless who grew up in Keyworth has just completed a 630 mile walk along the full length of the South West Coastal path.
He set off on 14th May from Minehead and arrived in Poole on 4th July having covered roughly a half marathon a day
He said: “It hasn’t quite sunk in and was an amazing experience. I met lots of interesting people along the way. From a former Vietnam war veteran to a former Buddhist who had some very interesting stories.
In terms of wildlife, Steven was treated to a juvenile peregrine falcon sitting on a post on, a group of Cornish chuffs ( which is an unusual sighting he said ) and also a baby adder.
Steven carrying a 20kg rucksack loaded with water and provisions – and camping overnight.
Occasionally he would treat himself to a hotel or B&B.
The purpose of the walk was to celebrate the life of his late parents who loved this part of the world for holidays and to raise funds for the conditions that they suffered, Steven cared for them during their time.
Wild Things Keyworth, (a not for profit community organisation promoting health and wellbeing whilst looking out for the natural world), covered his weekly updates and followed him along the route.
They sent him off with a hedgehog mascot called Howie which stayed with Steven for much of the journey until with only a week to go, Howie got lost.
Then, one night whilst camping, Steven was awoken by a real life hedgehog who entered the porch of his tent!
And it took over 500 miles of walking before this first and only hedgehog encounter.
Steven said: “It was a really lovely moment and the hedgehog stayed a good 10 minutes with me looking outside from within the tent cover.
Jenni from Wild Things Keyworth said: “We asked Steven to see if he could spot any hedgehogs on such a long journey. Although the toy one was lost, a day or so later a real one came to say hello like a little messenger – how fabulous is that?”
Jenni continued: “We caught up with Steven on his stop off in Keyworth, before he set off again back to Scotland by train this time.”
“We presented him with Howie’s cousin whilst we still try and locate the original toy hedgehog or someone comes forward with it.”
If you would like to support Steven who is raising funds for Alzheimer’s and MND, please go to www.justgiving.com and search Steven Thouless.
