Dentaid’s 2007 Sinai trek training weekend Friday 31st – 2nd September in the New Forest.

Eleven trekkers from as far afield as Somerset and Yorkshire, accompanied by Dentaid’s Luke Wordley and Nicky Triance, gathered in Lyndhurst for the Dentaid training weekend. It was designed to let the trekkers get to know each other a bit better, to find out some more about the trip and to have some fun in the process. 

                The eleven trekkers with Luke Wordley

On the Friday night there was a very informal meet and greet session at the hotel. This gave everyone the chance to get to know the faces of some of the people that we would all shortly be sharing some memorable days, and a tent in the desert, with.

Saturday was an early start as the trekkers were driven by mini bus, through the New Forest, to the Dentaid offices in Landford. Here we met one of the local trekkers who was attending for the day. There was a tour of the workshop and offices followed by a presentation about Dentaid from Luke. This was designed to help everyone to better understand what all their fundraising efforts were really for and where the funds would be going.

Luke emphasised the huge importance that the money raised by annual treks plays to Dentaid’s work. The money raised from this 2007 trek will be crucial to the ambitious oral health promotion schemes and advocacy work that Dentaid plans to carry out over the next twelve months.

As one trekker said ‘ It was really brilliant to see and hear more of what Dentaid is about at the coal face.’

Following this there was a presentation about the trek from Julian, a Classic Tours representative. He was able to answer the many, many questions that were directed at him. As an old hand at the Sinai Trek he was well placed to answer anything from the best way to train beforehand, (swimming and long walks), to how best to cover your head in the desert, (an authentic Kafia), to how to avoid a tummy bug (lots of alcohol gel). The trek looked fantastic and we were all even more fired up to get out into the forest and test our fitness.

We then drove a short way from Landford into the Forest to start the walk. Luke was the leader of the expedition and we all set off towards Lyndhurst. It was a great walk with some gentle climbing, some stunning scenery and occasionally a little woodland navigation. It was roughly a 12 mile walk that took us about four hours, not a bad pace. The levels of fitness seemed pretty good, evidence that training had not been in vain. Never the less by the time we reached Lyndurst we were all feeling in need of hot showers and looking forward to dinner.

After a very quick wash and brush up we all headed up to an Italian restaurant in Lyndhurst for well earned plates of spaghetti or pizza, a glass of wine and one of the legendary desserts. The atmosphere was fantastic and it was great to see how well everyone had gelled together. It bodes very well for the actual trek.

The weekend was a huge success and it has inspired us all to up our training and push on with the fundraising. Three months will pass very quickly and there is a lot to achieve before we go. However if the ten trekkers who attended the weekend are anything to go by the 2007 Dentaid challenge promises to raise more much needed funds and inspire more people than any so far.