My (Tim) last day today, the department made a cake (of me outside a tent), maybe a photo later. One thing I did this morning was to formally measure my height 177cm (I seem to have lost 1cm somewhere, probably my lumbar discs) and weight 80.3kg  BMI 25.6 (Oh Dear! that makes me just overweight). But I was also connected to a bio impedance machine that claims to measure my fat proportion my lean body mass and my body water. I post these results with the intention of repeating them when I return. Alright so the physiology is not up to Mike Stroud and Ranulf Fiennes, but then neither is the physical challenge. Still I hope that the constant exercise and use of more calories than usual for me may result in a better shaped Digger.  Fat 14.6kg  Lean65.5kg   Water49.4 litres   Extracellular water20.7 litres  Intracellular water27.7 litres   Basal Metabolic Rate 1903kcals. I really don't know what assumptions this machine makes in calculating these numbers but any changes when I return may be interesting.

We shall see, I start on the long road tomorrow and we must cross the channel with the help of friends on the weekend of the 17-18th May, I hope the River Severn is better behaved than last year as I plan on travelling down its banks to the Wild Fowl Trust at Slimbridge.

Further updates will probably (by me wait until 10th May)

I have been continually adding and subtracting kit overe the last few weeks, 5 months is a long time (there is a box of reserve items to be brought out 3 times during wifely visits), but I do have to carry it all.

I am nearly 55 and am taking early retirement from my job as an NHS consultant in intensive care and anaesthetics, I need a complete break from everything that has gone before in order to stop doing what I have been doing for the last 25 years.

I have been a keen walker, climber, canoeist and diver and want to do something truly memorable. So to set off from home in Stourbridge West Midlands to walk to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, North Spain as was done in medieval times by many thousands of pilgrims and to travel without any use of modern transport (including crossing the channel) seemed to be a way of punctuating my life.

Yesterday I attended a farewell in the department at Russells Hall Hospital where I have been since it opened and was overwhelmed by the number of people who had come to say that they would miss me, to all those there and those who would have wished to be there, thankyou. Those wishes mean much more than the very generous gifts that I was also presented with. The socks especially will be very useful!!!

Thanks to Jane Head of Medical Photography for the picture. All others will be the fault of myself or Tony Dyson.

While the planning for such a journey cannot be too detailed some preparations have been made not least practice with the rucksack , walking from home on those days that work has permitted, via the canals of Dudley has I hope provided the necessary additional fitness for the journey.

I hope to return to work before the year is out in a less intense fashion and possibly I may not shout at anyone ever again.

Thankyou to all my collegues at Russells Hall Hospital. Especially for the cake.

For many years a group of us has been walking and scrambling on the Isle of Skye, usually from the Camp site on the foreshore at Glen Brittle. Unfortunately we will miss the annual gathering this year, but several members have promised to join us for more or less of the walk.

Macleods Maidens with the Cullin in the far distance. One of the finest coastal walks in Britain.

About 16 miles along fairly rugged coastline. Sheep farming has intensified on the beginning part of the walk recently.

A well earned pint after a hard day on the hills.

Blaven from the base of the Inaccessible Pinnacle.