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Published: June 26th 2006
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Start of Day
I was still just about smiling here... OK so this is not going to be the stroll in the park I thought it was going to be. Today was one of the hardest days of my life... not the worst, just the hardest physically and emotionally. Today I discovered that walking by yourself is not easy... you have only yourself there to motivate you and only you there to ask "What do you think about this?", only you... only you.
I got to where I planned to have lunch today and there were the picnic tables, as the map had indicated, but they were in the sun with no shade, no good at all to a very tired, sore walker. So I decided to ring home then, since I am calling in every lunch time to let them know I am OK. Dad said "don't cry" and so of course I did, mainly triggered by the picnic tables not having any shade but also because my feet where hurting a lot and the walk ahead of me seemed like a mammoth task and I was wondering how I had got myself into this position. I got myself together and carried on walking and decided to ring back
home and talked to Mum (and Sonia and Jennifer - she is very advanced for a 4 month old) and then I found a bench in the shade which felt like I had been rescued at sea!
Apparently Uncle John says it is the emotional side of walking on your own that is hard and I have to agree even though my blisters really hurt as well! Normally in life you are doing something; watching TV, on the phone, reading a book/newspaper, at work, driving, cooking, cleaning, out with friends/family, in the bath/shower, sleeping, getting dressed... loads of different things... when you walk that's all you can do, walk, and think. It's like 8 hours of meditation a day. Maybe I should have become a Buddhist monk instead of doing this walk, it would have been less meditation, I think, plus you get to wear cool orange robes. Then as I am writing this now I can't remember what I was thinking about during all that time - this sucks!
The afternoon didn't get any better with new blisters forming, old ones bleeding and footpaths that were grown over with 5ft high nettles and really uneven ground which
The view
Despite it being a hard day it was still beautiful countryside to walk through... is hellish on blisters. Then there were the herds of bulls, or young cows as it turned out after consultation with my Father, that I had to walk through. They are very strange creatures and quite scary as well since they are so big and very interested in you walking into their field. Also I can reliable inform you that, for such bulky animals, they can't half move quick when they want to! In the first field I managed to get half way round before they spotted me and then I hid in a hedge behind an electric fence until they moved off and I was able to make my escape. In the second field of cows there was no chance of an easy escape, since the first sound of opening the metal gate attracted the cow’s attention, at a gallop, and no amount of shouting, throwing sticks and stones would stop them staring at me from over the fence. So I rang my Dad (he's great!) and he talked me through how to walk through a field of cows confidently and apparently the worse they will do is lick you. Luckily none of them licked me but the whole
THE COWS!!!!
They can gallop as fast as horses you know... I don't know why we don't race them at the Grand National as well... herd followed me hobbling all the way across their field!
The last 2 miles were hard physically because of my feet, so much so that I had a fat lip from biting it with the pain. But by this time I had resigned myself to the fact that there was no chance I could carry on walking tomorrow and had to make other plans to let my feet heal and thus my original plan of finishing the walk in time to go with my family to Centre Parks was out of the window. That was really disappointing for me but God obviously wants me to learn some lessons that a quick march home would not have given me! Then it just became a challenge to finish the day and after 2 hours of hobbling the last 2 miles I arrived at the B & B.
The evening ended on a high with Zita and Phil arriving at the B&B and taking me out for a drink and dinner. Luckily no pubs or restaurants serve food on a Sunday night this far out in the country and so we ended up at MacDonald’s... as you can see from the
picture this made me very happy.
My plan is to spend the next 3-4 days letting my blisters heal (you can see the picture below of some of them if you have the stomach for it) and then setting off again from where I stopped. I have realised it will probably take me a lot longer to complete the walk than I had originally planned but be assured I will do it.
Todays Stats Miles today - 10.84 miles
Miles Cumulative - 35.53 miles
Steps Cumulative - 82,753
Start Time - 07.30
End Time - 18.45
Blisters - 15
Chocolate Bars - 0
Rain - None
Temp @ Noon - 25c and very humid
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rosemary
non-member comment
stay put
You need to see a doctor! Those blisters look in need of professional attention. Try some arnica cream when they have dried off. I'm really enjoying your blog. love mumx