Wonderful food, a warm welcome and a beautiful location.

Mud, Mud Glorious Mud

Funny how many times I found myself singing this to myself today as I squished and squelched along a very wet Coast Path from Bideford to Hartland Point (almost). The sky remained stubbornly grey, the rain came in waves though mostly gentle and the wind this morning had me walking crablike at times. Despite all of that a very pleasant day’s walking and good mileage of 26 miles. Awesome sights even in the rain including this fabulous stunted oak forest

It’s far too early to start thinking proportions covered; the fraction remaining would only depress me.  However, it is definitely worth mentioning that today I passed the 100 mile mark. Other milestones include the highest point on the walk (Great Hangman), the most miles I’m likely to walk in any one day (31) and probably the most ascent in any one day (8500).  not bad for 4 days walking.

Today was my first day walking alone. Greg, my brother, left yesterday having joined me for the first three days. Just as well as he’d struggled bravely along with blisters having done very little walking for months following an operation on his ankle. Rex also had a day off today to run round the beach with Poppy. Tomorrow Rex is back along with my training partner from Kingswear, Kit Noble and his labrador. It’s forecast wet again and will be muddy but after getting to Bude we’re going to stay with Roger and Sally at Red Dog Bakery so looking forward to another good feast and catch up with them.

In the meantime, here’s a photo of the mud –

Mud