FOR DUCK’S SAKE! PLUCKY CORPORAL TO DESERT

A Cheetingham man is to cross the Sahara for charity later this month.

Corporal Kevin Baldock, 27, of the Royal Tank Regiment, will attempt to walk solo from the Red Sea to the Atlantic in support of the Armed Response to Special Education Society (ARSES), a charity which promotes educating children at gunpoint. 

This is not the first time that Cpl. Baldock has attempted an unusual feat of endurance. Readers may recall that last May, he swam from Dover to Calais in a suit of armour to raise money for The Donkey Sanctuary.

“The swim was a challenge but it whetted my appetite,” Cpl. Baldock told the Observer from his garrison in Wiltshire, “so this time, I thought I’d go for something on dry land.”

He will, in fact, be dealing with some of the driest land on the planet. Cpl. Baldock aims to set off from Port Sudan on February 10^th and cover the seven and a half thousand kilometres to the Senegalese capital of Dakar in around six weeks. He will be dressed throughout in the Donald Duck costume worn by Elton John during his 1980 concert in Central Park, New York. The costume was donated by the star himself.

Sponsorship will be provided by Froghill dessert manufacturer Priscilla’s Puddings, who have presented Cpl. Baldock with a sash reading: ‘Priscilla’s – Queen of the Desserts’.

Asked how he saw himself coping with the extreme daytime temperatures in the Sahara, the courageous corporal answered: “No big one. I’m going to take a torch and do it all at night.”