EXHAUSTED but triumphant, the Coastal Trek team returned to Chigwell 106 days after setting off to cover the entire mainland coastline of the United Kingdom. And after clocking up 3,130 miles, who could blame them for arriving back at the Winged Fellowship's holiday centre over half-an-hour late!

A crowd of well-wishers -staff, family, Friends and invited guests were at the Jubilee Lodge complex to welcome home the weary travellers. Among the team was John Hayward, a friend of Jubilee Lodge for many years, who had already been on a sponsored walk from Land's End to John O'Groats. His electric wheelchair carried him day after day on what was his longest journey yet. But with just a few miles to go, the chair gave up leaving John to make the final trip from Loughton to Chigwell in the passenger seat of the backup car.

For a month he was accompanied by wheelchair trekker Ceri Ager (79) after John Guppy, who started off with the team, pulled out early on through ill health. John Hayward said: "It's good to be back. We enjoyed our time away but quite honestly it's a very, very long time to be doing the same thing day in, day out. "It really is nice to get back and go and have a beer!"

The barren land of the Highlands of Scotland sticks in his mind as the highlight of the three-month journey. "It was just wonderful," he said. "There was nobody there. We could travel all day and there would be absolutely nobody near us, only half a dozen sheep and a few cars every hour.

A yellow ribbon, cut by Epping Forest Council chairman Joan Davis, marked the end of the trek as the team arrived back with two Loughton fire engines as escorts. Earlier on their last day, the team was joined by Loughton's double Commonwealth Games gold medallist Annika Reeder as they made their way through London.The 'walkers' stopped off at Roding Valley High School, Loughton, and the fire station before heading for Chigwell via the offices of their main sponsor Higgins.

Support

Fire-fighters had backed the expedition wherever it went, providing accommodation for the team, cooking for them, and washing the support car and double-decker bus. The Coastal Trekkers gave numerous media interviews as they headed up the east coast into Scotland, and then down the western side of the country.

Jubilee Lodge care assistant Ginni White, who drove the back-up car was 'road manager' and always on hand to "meet and greet" the many dignitaries. Sometimes three or four mayors a day would meet the team which continually went about shaking collection buckets. A massive £30,000 was raised in the buckets alone. Ginni told the Guardian-Gazette: "We're really pleased it's over. We're all very tired now but we haven't had any illnesses. "I'm pretty sure that if it had been one month longer, we would have started to get the flu' and colds."

Numerous football clubs backed the effort and presented shirts and other souvenirs to the trek team. All the items will be auctioned to boost the final total. Among the lots' will be snooker tuition from Steve Davis, signed footballs, pennants, and cricket bats signed by the Essex and Hampshire sides. All the proceeds from the marathon mission are going to the Jubilee Lodge Elm appeal to rebuild and extend the Chigwell centre which first opened in 1977.

Record

On the last day through London £1,400 was collected, a record amount for any one day. The team was also presented with a £500 cheque from Loughton's Halifax Building Society.With the challenge - which left the Metropolitan Police Sports Ground on June 1 - now finished, the money is still coming in with the total already over £130,000. And John Hayward - who suffers from a congenital skeletal deformity - is at least one member of the team who would be willing to go through it all again! "I know that if the challenge was thrown down again, yes I would. I'm daft like that. I'd do anything like this," he said.