Advertisement
Published: August 22nd 2012
Edit Blog Post
Duh
at the time we didn't know the overpass in the distance was the one we should have been on Walk Day 1 Wednesday, August-22-12
It only took an hour to get lost but 2 hours before we found out. We left Giffard House at 8:45 and made our way out of town doing a decent speed of just under 3 miles an hour. That meant we would finish the walk early afternoon since it was 12 miles today – but it was actually 14 with our route. We went off uphill and over the M3 (major noise) and along a long, long road that seemed to have features on the wrong side of the road. When Ross wanted to turn down a major highway and walk I told him we must be lost. Well the only thing around was a newly opened place called neptunewinchester.com and they had a café. We went in asking for help and I ordered a flat white (in between a cappuccino and a latte) – excellent coffee but all these new employees had no idea about the area at all. The young, cute guy behind the counter helped by googling every suggestion I came up with. We came up with a plan. After a harrowing walk along a no shoulder highway where
poppies
lots of wonderful wildflowers - I'm sure the farmers must have planted them semis blow past you we found the route we needed. Now we were only an hour and a half behind schedule – but I’d had a great coffee and that made Ross happy. Great vistas all along the way and a slower pace as we checked every possible signpost. Ate lunch on the pathway near Holden Farm. After our stop at 1:30 my legs started letting me know they were ready to quit. We still had hours to go. Then each toe had to let me know exactly how it felt about this walking idea. I had forgotten to put the gel caps on my toes because that usually keeps them quiet. I will not forget tomorrow. Shins were protesting and the soul of the left foot joined in. Besides all this racket my shoes were squeaking, my pants were swishing and my poles were tapping. I thought I was walking beside an irrigation field when I realized it was only me because I stopped to take a photo and the noise stopped too. Finally from a hilltop we could see where we were meant to be – a fantastic looking little village down in the valley. But wait they
cows
first upclose look at the cows have a new route and instead of walking along a narrow car path we go over some fields. We went exactly the way the sign pointed and followed the skinny little path which proved to be a cowpie maze. Then we had to do a major detour as the cows were resting on the path. Ah but when we got to the end of the field there was no way out – many layers of barbed wire blocked our way. So we followed the fence back about 500 meters through some rather nasty nettles and more cowpies until we found a stile. Over we went then through 3 more fields and finally we got to our phoning place. We only had to phone Suzanne to come and get us and take us to the B&B. Ross went to the famous red phone booth and after noticing all the cobwebs around it, he read the notice advising residents they were reviewing whether to keep the phones or not – it was dated June 2008. Guess they decided NOT. He flagged down a teen on a bike who phoned the farm for us since our phone was almost out of juice. We
sheep
not as numerous as northern England on the C2C have now had a good dinner at the Shoe Pub and our room has a big beautiful bath with an luxurious clawfoot tub. Time to go soak. 35,153 steps (that's 24 points for WW!!)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.068s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 15; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0281s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb