| Weather: Cloudy with strong westerley |
| Distance covered today: 19.4km (12.0mi) |
| Last night's B&B: Shirley Heights (£25) |
| Cumulative distance: 656.7km (408.1mi)/ % Complete: 37.3% |
| GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 34 (click!) |
Short post today; I need to book additional B&Bs beyond the Penine Way and I have an excellent connection here. Also, I have a date at the pub later this evening, so time is short!
But the good news is that my leg performed really well today. The elderly fellow I met yesterday obviously knew what he was talking about when he told me things would be much better this morning. How right he was! What’s more, I had a stroke of really good fortune. Yesterday, my pack contents had been forwarded by taxi to the Mellington B&B, Shirley Heights, by the kind agreement of all concerned, accompanying the suitcases of fellow walkers, Bob and Phyllis. It turned out last evening that Rob and Phyllis were also, quite by chance, staying in tonight’s B&B, Buttington House, and since their baggage was being forwarded, mine could hitch a ride. So contrary to my expectation I had yet another day with a minimal pack, allowing my much abused limbs an extra day of recovery. Now I find that their stuff is being forwarded tomorrow to yet another B&B not far from my own, so I have cadged yet another ride! I have asked Rob and Phyllis whether they would like to continue all the way to John O’Groats, but regrettably, they will soon return to Canada!
It’s been really interesting meeting Rob and Phyllis. They are experienced walkers here in the UK, having previously walked the Coast-to-coast path, the West Highland Way, the Cotswolds Way and the Cumbrian Way, amongst others. Their view is the same as mine: there are few finer places to walk in the world, especially as a result of the rights of way through farmland, etc., the attractive landscape, the clement weather (we hope) and the presence of lots of conveniently placed B&Bs. Hence coming to the UK for walks is one of their favoured holidays. They do the whole thing through a tour company which books the B&Bs, organises their baggage forwarding and sends them a simple itinerary. It makes my clumsy approach of trying to do it all myself look a bit pedestrian. Anyway, I’ll know for next time (don’t tell Veronica!). We’ll compare notes further tonight in the pub just down the road.
My other precaution this morning was to select a B-road that avoided the one serious hill on my route. That meant that I was walking essentially on the flat today, through the lovely rural landscape of the Montgomery plain, partly in Wales and partly in Shropshire. My leg felt just fine. Even the drivers on the B-road seemed especially courteous and the margins were mostly quite acceptable; a very long way from those homicidal Devonian drivers! The result of all this was that my body this morning was pain-free for the first time since I did my ankle on Dartmoor! It is very interesting that these aches and pains can come and go so quickly. It must partly be my age, but also it must have something to do with the repetitive call on the same body bits. I worked out a couple of days ago that I would be walking about 2.5 million steps by the time I reach JOG.
I think that is enough to test any machine, let alone my old one!
Now they really are trying to confuse me! Am I in Ireland?
Kerbside pumps from an earlier age
The welcome Montgomery Plains
The conical dolerite cone of Corndon Hill
These ladies were particularly curious and had to be urged to leave me be by a very determined stamping of feet and waving of all available arms!
The verdant Shropshire agricultural landscape
The ruins of Montgomery Castle in silhouette
Just about time for a post-prandial afternoon nap. These guys have all the luck. They and about a thousand others live at Leighton Hall, a very elegant looking establishment on my route to Buttington. There is so much grass per horse that there is no need to be greedy!
The entrance to Leighton Hall. I could just see the church in the background, and I'm sure there is a grand house in there, just not visible
Oak Art
Honeysuckle
More NIMBYism of the pylon variety, but connected to the Welsh windfarms, described as "highly detrimental". Sooner or later, someone will have to listen!
4 comments:
So suddenly your blog is happy with me, even recognises me! If this continues, I'll approve of it!! Bob and Phyllis aside, there'll be a big fat bill waiting for you on your return... Oh, and well done on the honeysuckle, but I'm sure Richard will have something to say about conical cones!!
we all have our own itches to scratch and mine is..... i strongly approve doing things for ourselves. this northern fixation of forever handing over our lives to "professionals" just makes us more unidimensional. there are of course situations when we are incapable of doing it for ourselves or we really don't enjoy a specific task -- and then the professional comes in handy - but in the meantime its part of the story to make our own ham-fisted arrangements.. does it really matter if you miss JOG and end up in Lapland? as we agree, its the walking that counts..
by the way - i really appreciate the relatively easy spam filter -- sometimes these filters are so distorted that not even a mugabe could decipher them...
My Darling, I have no doubt I'll be paying for years to come!
Richard,
Indeed, DYI is also supposedly cheaper, but I want to tell you, it is hard work doing it on the run! When one has an internet signal, there is no mobile signal and mostly, there is neither! Still, so far so good!
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