Day 019: Littlehampton to Climping

Distance: 2.96 miles

Ascent: 99 feet

Weather: Light rain

Accommodation: Church Farmhouse Annex, Climping

I considered not writing this day up, but decided it was as important to detail the hardships of a day like today as well as the good times.

I woke up early as I had intended to leave around 6am, but something was not right. I felt absolutely terrible, and something was seriously wrong with my stomach. I managed to get out of bed and get some water to sip and move to the sofa. Only 10 minutes or so later, my stomach decided to fully empty itself violently (I was prepared and by the toilet) and it didn’t stop once empty as it tried to remove even more. For about 30 minutes after this I felt quite good, so put last few bits into my rucksack, had a couple of bananas and some water. The stomach started to feel worse again, and repeated emptying itself and again I felt mostly better after. I went and chilled on the sofa, and sipped on some water and a little food. 90 minutes later having not felt overly sick again, and feeling mostly normal strength I decided it would be OK to leave, especially as today was not remote.

As I left I noticed the weather was much better than forecast and I felt almost normal whilst walking. But just shy of 3 miles in my body just broke down and suddenly went completely empty of energy. I knew I had to get the backpack off quickly and just sit/lie down. I had overtaken a couple of dog walkers only a couple of minutes previously so knew they would be along soon. As they approached they knew something was up and offered me a lift to a farm shop (Baird’s) a kilometer or so inland. I accepted gratefully and was glad to be in the café around 10ish. I slumped in a sofa explained to the staff my predicament and had some water and dry toast and just relaxed  (threw up a few times in the toilet). My plan was to stay here until I felt normal and then decide what to do.

Around 2 o’clock with no major improvement (though I had stopped throwing up), I decided I would just have to book somewhere and rest until the presumably food poisoning had passed. I was quite out of it so messaged a friend (Jen) to see if she could do this for me, and she kindly offered to do so. It turns out that Climping is quite a popular place even in Winter, but she managed to organise somewhere through Airbnb that was only 10 minutes away. There is no way that I could have walked with the bag, and the owner of the café kindly drove me around.

I got to the place about 4pm and almost immediately fell asleep, I am feeling quite a lot better but will assess how I feel in the morning. The host is being very kind, providing anything I need.

So, all in all a terrible day, and hopefully this will be the shortest/worst day of the walk. I may have been stupid to leave this morning but at the time I felt OK. Tomorrow unless I feel 100% I will not set of on the walk.