Day 21 - Estanston to Grindley Brook

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Day 21 - Saturday 29th July

Mum rang me last night with the fantastic news that she would come and meet me this afternoon and then I could go home with her to spend my day off tomorrow at the farm rather than a B&B in Whitchurch! The news put a skip in my step and a song in my heart!

This morning I set off early to ensure I got a good walk in before Mum met me and also because I no longer trust the weatherman. I said goodbye to Des the taxi driver who has been ferrying me to my B&B in Wem for the last few days. He kindly bought some raffle tickets and also told me about his Mother and best mate who have cancer. It is amazing how wide spread this disease is.

To all those walkers out there let me tell you I am not particularly impressed with the Shropshire Way. The footpaths and the signs are the most poorly maintained of any of the National Trials I have walked on. What this meant to me this morning was a multitude of nettle stings, thorn scratches, insect bites and having to clamber under numerous electric fences put up seemingly randomly across the footpath. In the midst of scrambling through the cow pats under an electric fence my mother rang with the great news that both her and my Dad where coming early and going to walk with me for a bit. The smell of the cow dung faded from my memory and I was happy again!

I made it to the Llangolan canal just at the same time as Mum and Dad started walking along it from Grindley Brook. Two and a half miles later and I saw them coming along the footpath towards me. Dad carried my rucksack all the way back, Hoorah for Dads! Me and Mum walked along together chatting (Hoorah for Mums) whilst Dad strided ahead. We just about made it back to the car as it had been a long walk for all of us. So we felt we deserved the pub lunch before heading back to Aughton.

So I will start walking again on Monday and I am hoping to reach home by next Saturday or Sunday. Nev (Sonia’s husband, Jennifer’s Father and my brother-in-law) is going to come and walk with me for a day next week as well so you can look forward to another guest blog!


Todays Stats
Start Time - 6:40am
End Time - 11:45pm
Miles today - 8.78 miles
Miles Cumulative - 190.26 miles
Steps Today - 15,182
Steps Cumulative - 385,480
Blisters - 3
Chocolate/Granary Bars - 1
Rain - None
Temp @ Noon - 25c

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Photos

Me, Mum and Dad
They are both Great!

Dad!
Dad walking towards me along the bank... you can see Mum sitting down behind him. Dad met me, hugged me then carried on walking past to have a look at the combine round the corner :-)

Mum!
We sat down and waited for Dad to come back from seeing the combine!

Mum & Dad
From the front

Mum & Dad
From the back