Bath

A s it goes, I didn’t sleep too badly on the make-shift bed last night, certainly not any worse than any night so far on this walk. Yes, I woke up early but a lot of the aches and pains had gone by the time I started to potter around. My feet still hurt a bit but I didn’t have anything planned so a day without the boots on was looking good. Besides, I had yesterday’s blog post to sort out seeing as it didn’t get done yesterday.

I struggled most of the morning battling my tiredness, trying to write up yesterday’s walk. I couldn’t believe how tired I felt. I got it written and posted eventually though which is the main thing I suppose?

Ryan, Stu’s brother, popped round with the pump so hopefully I’ll have the air bed to sleep on tonight. I was on the phone to Val at the time; she was worried after hearing about my bad day on Saturday. She was pleased I was taking a bit of a break – she does worry bless her.

Since finishing yesterday’s blog post I’ve pretty much done nothing except watch dodgy daytime telly again. I still feel tired even now, ho hum. I’m sure I’ll catch up with myself somewhere along the line.

As I never made it out today I’ll be taking a walk round Bath tomorrow to try and replace the walking pole and maybe investigate another pair of boots. My feet have really suffered in the heat of the last few days and, let’s be honest, have suffered quite badly most days. When I bought the boots I’ve been using I got them a size bigger than normal so that I could wear thicker socks and to leave room for my feet to swell during the day. I’m wondering now if that was enough and maybe I should have gone a little bigger? I’ll have a look round tomorrow and make a call then.

Having an Internet connection at Stu’s place I had a lovely video call with the girls tonight. It’s great to see them face to face – they crack me up with their funny faces! They showed me some of their latest artwork and Elisa proudly showed me some of her writing too. It always makes my day to speak to them but it’s so much more special when I get to see them. I hope they didn’t notice how tired I look? If they did, they never said anything…phew!

By some small miracle I’ve now managed to complete a fifth of the overall distance, this with only two day’s rest, so taking a bit of a break is definitely a sensible thing to do considering the conditions I’ve been walking in these past three days. If the weather reports are anything to go by it looks like it’s going to be cooling down again – not good for everyone else but a welcome change for me that’s for sure!

I’m so proud that I’ve managed to make it this far but I think a slightly more sensible approach is needed from now on. If that means it takes me longer to get to the finish line then it takes me longer.

I’ve clearly pushed myself to breaking point these past few days and if I’m not careful I could put the whole adventure in jeopardy if I really do make myself seriously ill because I was a little bit stupid.