President's Challenge - photo competition results are in!

The third and final #CIEHPresidentsChallenge is well and truly underway, so well and truly underway in fact that two of the participants have already finished; 750 virtual miles in 3 months is really pushing the pace.

Congratulations to GBBN (that’s Gill, Buster, Ben, and Nouche, the spaniels) and to Debbie Wood, all home and chilling out. The rest of us are straggling our way from London to Urquhart Castle on the top side of Loch Ness, via Stonehenge, Liverpool and all points north.

Photographs of where people are walking continue to be a source of interest and envy. In the last month, there have been photographs of dawn rising over Dunedin in New Zealand, courtesy of Tanya Morrison, and some lovely photos of the beaches in the Dominican Republic where Rick Mason was doing some barefoot miles, and none of us was even the slightest bit envious (!).

As if the walking itself wasn't exciting enough we upped the ante this month with a photography competition. Participants in the Presidents Challenge Facebook Group were invited to submit photographs on the theme of ‘Water’, posted on the page without comment. There was just one prize to be won, a signed copy of Raynor Winn’s new book ‘Landlines’. Raynor Winn is the author of The Salt Path, the story of the walk she did with her terminally ill husband Moth around the South West Coast Path, which was the path we took for the first Presidents Challenge.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to judge the competition. I say fortunately because there were some really great photographs. It turns out that many of the participants on the challenge are as handy with a camera or camera phone as they are with walking boots, and the standard was very high. As ever with these things I entered but was concerned that I shouldn't win. I needn’t have worried; there was never any danger of that. The winner in a blind-all-above-board-judging-by-an-independent-judge was Debbie Wood. Her photograph of the River Itchen flowing through Winchester was judged to be the best. It’s been quite a challenge for Debbie, second home with a t-shirt and a medal in the bag, and now the winner of the photography competition! 

Now that the weather is improving and the nights are getting longer, those of you who haven't joined this year's challenge might like to join up. You have until 30th June to sign up, which gives you 6 months to complete, or to complete twice if you go at the speed Gill and her dog team and Debbie did. Sign up to the Best of British virtual challenge and join in. You have nothing to lose except stress, and you’ll get a medal for your efforts, not to say a warm feeling from planting trees and donating a meal to a hungry person as you go along. It’s unlikely that there will be another photography competition, but as they say, it isn’t about the winning, it’s about the talking part. Unless you win of course Debbie Wood, then it’s all about the winning!