RNLI fundraisers ‘feel like we’ve achieved something’ after completing 40 mile walk
TWO FISHERMEN are broken, sunburnt and sore after walking 40 miles on Tuesday – but say it was worth it to help raise much-needed funds for the RNLI.
Campbell Hunter and Ross Jamieson set off from Scalloway just after 6am, walking all the way down to Sandwick and then back up to Hamnavoe in Burra.
They finished the walk more than 13 hours after starting it, ending up back in Scalloway just before 8pm.
Not even sunburn, shin splints or blisters could derail their charitable mission, with the pair looking to raise money for a charity which could come to their aid at any time.
Hunter, 23, told Shetland News that it had been a long slog in more unexpectedly hot Shetland temperatures on Tuesday.
“The weather was fine when we set off, because it was misty and cold in the morning,” he said.
“But it got far too hot. Both of us got sunburnt.
“The backs of my legs, my face and the back of my neck are all burnt.”
The pair have undertaken one big walk a year for the last three years, deciding this year to add a charitable element to it.
Hunter said earlier this month they had picked the RNLI because “we might be blyde of the lifeboat sometime”, with the money raised to stay with the local branch.
He is a member of the crew on the Tranquility LK63 and was previously on the Guiding Light, while 25-year old Jamieson is on the Courageous LK470 having fished on the Angelina before that.
Jamieson actually returned from 65 days off at sea the day before setting off on the 40 mile long walk, with no time to prepare for what he was getting himself in for.
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“He’s no had the chance to prepare much or practice, so after about 25-28 miles he was in a lot of pain with blisters and that,” Hunter said, adding: “Fair play to him”.
The pair had to slow down even further when Hunter got shin splits after the 30 mile mark.
“We just had to persevere,” he said.
“We really slowed down, I think we ended up down to about two miles an hour”.
There was plenty of support for the pair along the route, with “tonnes of cars going by and beeping their horns and waving at wis”, Hunter said.A lot of those were people that they did not recognise, he added.
And they even had an unexpected run-in with a pod of killer whales between Sandwick and Cunningsburgh.
As well as the cetaceous support, Hunter said his mam brought them ice cream at the halfway stage of the journey – and his dad came to give them each a bottle of “cold and refreshing” cider as they reached the last mile.
With over £2,500 raised so far, with their initial target just £750, Hunter said he felt “pretty good” about the money they had been able to raise for the RNLI.
“I feel like we’ve achieved something,” he added.
Already he has his eyes set on topping their walking milestone next year, aiming to do 50 miles in 2026.
And he said they would “definitely” be doing it for charity again, adding: “There’s no point in us just doing it for the wye of it”.
The money raised from the fundraiser will stay in the isles, supporting the Shetland lifeboat crews.
People can donate to the fundraiser here.
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