The Walk

Not wanting to eat at the Station Hotel again, with their microwaved food, I thought I’d venture out last night to try and see if I could find somewhere nicer to dine out. I must admit, my stroll round town earlier hadn’t highlighted anywhere but I was hopeful that there had to be at least one restaurant worth going to in Gloucester. After walking the entire length of the high street and almost out of town I came across an Italian restaurant that looked as though I wouldn’t die from food poisoning the moment I stepped through the door. This being the best the place obviously had to offer I went in and had a very nice meal as it goes.

Two things seem to be running through most daily updates so far: the state of my feet and the fact that I don’t seem to be able to sleep. So, it won’t surprise you that I didn’t sleep too well again last night. To be honest, I’m surprised that I can keep on going by just about managing to get five hours sleep a night! Last night wasn’t any different and I went to bed tired and I woke up this morning tired. Not a good start with seventeen miles ahead of me. After the technology breakdown last night, which meant me not speaking with the girls, I had a lovely call from them this morning as I was getting myself ready, most unexpected. It was lovely to speak to them and they certainly put me in a good mood.

Another day, another walk, and to be honest I wasn’t looking forward to this one. I’ve not enjoyed the Severn Way that much over the last couple of days and the thought of having a similar walk today was not a pleasant one. One saving grace I guess was the fact that it wasn’t supposed to rain, but on the flip side of that it was going to get hot during the afternoon. I got up early in an effort to try and get on the road sooner rather than later and went down for breakfast, eventually hitting the trail around 8:40am, a whole ten minutes earlier than yesterday. I don’t know why it seems to be taking me so long to get ready in the morning these days?

After posting yesterday’s blog update, while watching trash TV, I remembered something from yesterday that I’d omitted from the update that is worthy of mention. Halfway through the final few miles to Bewdley I was walking along, listen to my iPod, when for some unknown reason I just said out loud “This is crazy!” and started to laugh, not able to stop myself. I just laughed and laughed and laughed, and if anyone had been around I think they might have thought I was a complete nut-job!?
I guess the sun might have gotten to me yesterday or something but looking back on it it is quite funny.

What an absolutely great night I had last night! Okay I’ll admit it, I was slightly worse for wear because of it this morning but…face…bovered?! It felt like it’d been so long since I sat and had more than just a pint or two and knowing that I wasn’t walking today, well, that was all the excuse I needed after yesterday’s marathon walk to seriously kick back for the evening. After checking in to the Britannia Hotel and sorting myself out I had the best of intentions of going out, finding somewhere to get a decent bite to eat and then maybe hop in to a pub for a couple of well deserved pints. As it goes, that’s not quite how it went, best laid plans and all that?

Sorting out the new route to Penkridge last night I didn’t really spend a lot of time looking for an interesting or scenic route, just a simple, no hassle, straight forward walk, especially seeing as the temperature was supposed to be getting a little on the hot side. So that’s what I did, a simple route using roads/lanes all the way and a short(?) thirteen miles. Route plotted and stored on my GPS I went to bed, getting to sleep a little earlier than normal for a change, which was nice. Well, that was until I woke up at 5am. I managed to drift off again and finally started getting myself sorted out at about 6:45am. I wanted to get on the road a little earlier if possible so that I could get a few more miles done in the cooler temperature of the morning.

I had an unexpected late, but extremely pleasant, night last night. Ann, who I’d given a pack of maps to before leaving, drove up to meet me in Penkridge so that we could swap the maps I had with the ones for the coming couple of weeks. She’d been away in Germany for the week with the Birmingham Sinfonia so this was the first chance we’d had to meet. She didn’t get to Penkridge until almost 11pm after only having gotten back that evening, and not wanting to waste an opportunity we sat at the hotel bar for a couple of hours having a good natter about her time away and how the walk had been going over the last week. It was a lovely surprise after being on my own since Bath.

The place I stayed at last night – Marsh Farm B & B, thanks to Ann – was a very nice place, even if their website doesn’t really give you that impression; 1990 anyone?! The room was lovely and the breakfast was pretty good too. I think the only thing I can fault is the fact that in the room there was one window, in the roof – the room was in a converted barn and up in the eaves – but the blind that covered it didn’t really do a great job when the sun came up. Still, for £32 for the night I wasn’t complaining.

Everything seems to be conspiring against me at the moment. I guess my luck has finally run out and from here on in it’s going to be a struggle to get anything sorted or completed on this walk of mine? After the day from hell yesterday the evening did quite a lot to raise my spirits; good food, good beer, good conversation – what more could you ask for?
Even though I knew I wasn’t walking today I still didn’t want to get to bed too late so I went up to my room around 10:30pm and sat on my bed to start writing up the day’s events. About an hour in I was completely shattered and hadn’t really covered that much of the day. God knows what I was doing to make it take so long to write up. I gave up though, shut the netbook down and tried to get to sleep.

It was a bit of a foggy start this morning. Not the weather, my head. I think I drank a little too much last night with Ian and Frances – if I’m honest I knew at the time I was but I was having such a great time I didn’t care. Fortunately, all the banging around and loud TV from the night before wasn’t repeated so after saying goodbye to Ian and Frances, and writing up the day’s events, I passed out pretty quickly. I woke up at the usual 5am and lied there, quietly suffering, for another couple of hours before trying to get myself ready. Knowing that I didn’t have the longest walk ahead of me I didn’t rush around. By the time I’d sorted my stuff out, had breakfast – which I struggled to eat – and checked out, it was 9am already.

H]aving only nine miles to walk today I didn’t make too much of an effort to rush up out of bed. I’ll be honest, my legs are beginning to ache – even with the day off in Ashbourne – and I could have quite happily just stayed there all morning. That mentality  certainly wouldn’t get me to the finish line any time soon so I slowly got myself sorted and went for breakfast, which was very nice indeed. Fed and gear on I settled up and started my walk to the Waterloo Inn, near Taddington. As I said, this was only a short day so I was hoping to be there by lunch and have a nice easy afternoon.

I had a bit of a bad night’s sleep last night. The mattress wasn’t the most comfortable and every time anyone in the other rooms went to the loo the saniflow systems made the most horrendous racket. So it was with no surprise that I woke up this morning feeling pretty weary already. Not good. Slowly I got myself together, putting some strapping on my right foot as it played up a little bit yesterday, and then went down for breakfast, which was huge! It was so big I couldn’t actually eat it all, much like last night’s dinner. Stuffed to the eyeballs I grabbed my gear, checked out and hit the road. The weather was looking better so I was hopeful of a good day’s walking ahead.