“Wouldn’t it have been fun if someone had started the same walk from Oxford to Cambridge to see who would have reached their rival university city first? My money would have been on Geoff.”

You may be interested to hear of a group of walkers who fulfilled your exact challenge with uncanny precision.

The Cambridge University Rambling Club organise a virtually non-stop walk between Oxford and Cambridge every June. According to an email from the organiser at the time, the 2008 Varsity March was completed in just under 39 hours by 8 people, starting at St Mary’s Church, Oxford at 10.30 on 21st June (which your message implies was also Geoff’s starting day) and arriving at Great St Mary’s, Cambridge at 01.15 on Monday 23rd June. Other walkers also joined them for sections of varying lengths.

Clearly as the group were not having any overnight stop, they didn’t have to carry any camping equipment as Geoff had to. That said, last year one of the walkers carried with him two bottles of champagne and a carton of orange juice all the way from Oxford, just so that when the group arrived in Cambridge he could share it to celebrate his tenth successful completion of the walk. Also last year, the organiser completed the entire walk in a ball gown, as he had pledged to do if £1000 was raised for homelessness charities.

Although I can’t speak for the organiser, I think it’s a fair guess that if you or your rambling friends are interested in joining and/or sponsoring any future Varsity March events then the organiser would be happy to hear from you.

Regards,
Alan

I thought exactly what you said when I started to read your piece. These things are always more exciting if there is a competitive element – although I think someone would def have had an advantage this time given the strenght of the wind although I’m not sure in which direction it has been blowing.

We were at a ski race in Ipswich on Sunday and the wooden race hut took off from the ground with the commentator still in it!!!