THREE intrepid adventurers undertaking to walk the coast part of Great Britain have returned to the Mendips as they complete the first 24 days of their 5,240 miles of UK coast path challenge.
Harvey Ellis, Seamus Mohan, and Thomas Crowther set off on their Winter Mission Britain adventure on October 6 and stayed overnight at Mendip Adventure as they leave behind Wales for the Westcountry.
Both Harvey and Seamus trained on the centre’s first ever Accelerated Outdoor Instructor Training Course back in 2021 and 2022. There, they met and discovered their joint passion for adventure.
Five years later, they have teamed up with Thomas, another keen adventurer, to take on the challenge.
Now the best of mates, they crossed the Severn Bridge on October 30 and received a warm home-coming back to the Mendip business on November 1, which has become a partner to the mission providing financial assistance for the group.
All in their early 20s, the trio are hoping to finish the tour of Great Britain in 180 days and along the way raise as much as £100,000 for their two chosen charities.
The first, R World, is a grassroots foundation established to celebrate and remember the life of Robbie Curtis.
Two of the runners grew up with Robbie, who sadly passed away during an episode of depression during the Covid pandemic. Supporting R World is their way of helping others in his memory through a series of targeted mental health initiatives focused on sport and the outdoors.
The other is Action for Conservation (AFC), a UK charity using new and exciting approaches to inspire and empower young people from diverse backgrounds to become the next generation of environmental leaders.
Once the Winter Mission Britain team has completed its run, it is estimated that Harvey, Seamus and Tom will have each covered a total elevation of 84,000 metres, the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest more than nine times.
Speaking on behalf of the team, Harvey Ellis said: "Winter Mission Britain is an opportunity for us to undertake a seemingly impossible outdoor endurance challenge.
“It helps to expose our vulnerabilities as much as our strengths, while drawing attention to the realities of climate change, inequality and mental health and creating an incredible opportunity to raise funds for two grassroots charities close to our hearts.
“Growing up, each of us was told ‘we couldn’t’ or ‘shouldn’t’ do things such as long distance running and our own mental health issues often created misunderstandings and even barriers between us and those around us.
“However, we all have an incredible passion for outdoor adventure which we have used to create an attitude of endurance and self-belief.
“We hope that Winter Mission Britain will help to raise greater awareness of, as well as funds for, our chosen charities and inspire others to get involved in the fight for their futures by doing their own ‘impossible’.”
So far, the three runners have had their fair share of ups and downs as they navigate their way towards the South West.
From soggy socks to broken running shoes, the lads have literally taken it all in their stride and been blown away by the impact their challenge is having on complete strangers.
Their spokesperson, Tim said: “There's some tough bits, undoubtedly, but what's great is they're just smiling through it all.
“And we've started to have some really lovely kind of interactions with community.
“People just stopping them in the street, people giving them places to stay, taking them for breakfast, you know, all those really nice little things that you want to happen on something like this.”
On average the runners are covering 32.5 miles each day. “They have fared pretty well with the weather,” Tim adds even though the trio had to contend with the first named storm of the season Austen.
“The weather's been pretty kind to them, but there has been some rough weather and I think the highlight for us, more than anything else, is how much people are getting behind them and the connections they're making and the people they're meeting on the way.”
While the trio were running through Wales, they joined wild swimmers from Swansea University for a dip at Caswell Bay.
“There are some blisters. There's cold. There's some achy bones. Nutrition is a big challenge every day for them to make sure that they are getting enough calories, enough carbs, balance, protein, just to make sure that they can sustain the distance.
“But at one month in, they're in remarkably good condition,” Tim added.
The boys will take just three days off at Christmas before they take to the coastal path again in the New Year.
The trio hit a first milestone of £5,000 but with still a long way to go and counting on the generosity of the public to hit their target.