Total miles: 19.3
Elevation gain: 2,436 ft
Time walking: 11am – 9pm
Miles to date: 295.9
Another long day today and my feet are feeling it now! I’m getting used to the longer days now and whilst I know I can’t keep doing days this long, I’m finding that my body is adjusting and I can cover 14-15 miles fairly comfortably before my feet and legs start to complain. Having said that, the first 5 miles today seemed to be painfully slow. I wasn’t walking particularly slowly, but early on I dropped below a 2mph average which was pretty frustrating! It turned out that it was going to be one of those days where lots of little things kept happening to slow me down and test me, and there were tears at a few points! I knew that I’d probably find today hard having stayed with good friends last night and seeing Eunice for the first time in three weeks, and I missed them after just a couple of miles. I love meeting new people but it hit home how much I miss the friends I usually see very often, and I miss their hugs!
Still, I set off in the beautiful sunshine trying to focus on enjoying the walk, which was quite lovely to begin with. I was following the Monarch’s Way for the first part of the day and my route initially took me through meadows of beautiful flowers and butterflies gradually climbing out of the Chew Valley. There was one section of path that was fairly overgrown and I picked up my first nettle stings of the day early on, on both the legs and the hands. Ouch! I always feel that nettle stings should hurt less as you get older, but they really don’t!
With a couple of my fingers tingling angrily I soon realised today was going to be the day for scratches and struggles, in particular wading through waist-high grass and trying to squeeze through small prickly gaps without getting stuck or snagging my bag. Sometimes it was gates or stiles that were overgrown with brambles or blackthorn, another time it was climbing through a barbed wire fence to avoid a particularly overgrown section of path, another was along a tiny winding path between gorse, wild roses and hawthorn, and once it was squeezing through a gap in the fence to avoid a long diversion where the footbridge I needed was closed for repair. Oh and there was the continuation of yesterday’s theme of kissing gates that are too narrow. Picture a fairly snug kissing gate. Picture trying to get through it with a pack on your back that at least doubles your ‘depth’. Now imagine brambles and nettles growing close around it…. sometimes I can just about make it through by hitting the right angle and breathing in just enough to squeeze the gate past, wedging my pack into the fence. Often, I have to climb up on the lower rungs of the fence and kind of straddle/hover over the gate as it opens, semi mission-impossible-style. It involves a lot of effort! And my speed is inversely proportional to the number of such obstacles encountered….
Cows, particularly young bulls, seem to be the order of the week. I passed through a couple of fields where they barely looked at me, then one field where the whole herd clocked me the moment I walked into the field and I had to make my way slowly across the field, turning every couple of steps to shoo the curious/indignant creatures away. I’m getting better at it, and more confident, but it’s slow and tedious – every time you turn your back they start to gain confidence and if you go more than a few paces they start to try to run at you! I wasn’t even wearing my red coat at this point..!
Talking of the red coat, the weather was supposed to be awful today so I kept my waterproofs handy. The moment it started to rain they were out of the bag and on. And then the rain would stop. A while after I’d stop, remove the jacket and carry it for a while. Then I’d stop and attach it to my bag as carrying it is a pain. Then it would threaten rain again, and I’d repeat the process. after all of that it didn’t rain properly the whole day! I know I should be glad about that, but the waterproof dance is tiresome when you are trying to cover some distance!
A very short while after the field of young bulls I was faced with a long field, up a steep hill, with, of course, more bulls. These ones looked older though, and bigger. There were only five or so in this field but I just couldn’t face it! I checked the map. If I followed the road up I could take a slightly different route which wasn’t much longer. Excellent! Up the road I trudge and initially I take the wrong footpath. Thankfully I realise before I’ve gone too far, but every wrong turn adds to my already long day and I really want to get to Bristol, yet I’ve somehow only managed to cover 5 miles and I’ve been walking for 3 hours already! I find my footpath, through another field of cows, and promptly slip on a massive cow pat and go flying. It’s the first time I’ve fallen on this trip and although I’m not remotely hurt I now have cow pat all over my boots, gaiters and waterproofs and that finished me off for the morning! The tears came, and part of me just wanted to sit down in the middle of the field and cry! It was probably a good thing that it was a field of cows (other than the fact their presence led to the existence of the offending cow pat in the first place) as it encouraged me to keep moving, and then, as I came over the crest of the hill, in front of me was a view that should have lifted my spirits – the whole of Bristol spread out before me, with the Clifton suspension bridge in clear view, both Severn bridges and the Black Mountains beyond. I took the obligatory photo but sadly was too grumpy at that particular moment to fully appreciate the fact that days of walking lay out in front of me. Whilst trying to wipe as much cow pat off as possible (jeez that stuff really smells!) I consoled myself with the fact I’d probably laugh at the incident later (which I did), but also half laughed, half cried about the fact that of all the days I could cover myself in cow poo it would be the day that I was meeting a friend for coffee in fancy Clifton a few hours later…!
A few ripe blackberries cheered me up a little and I stopped for some food under an overpass just in case the rain came (it still didn’t) and that freshened me up a bit. I came up through the village of Long Ashton and cut through the beautiful Ashton Court Estate (although sadly had to skirt around the red deer park as they’d temporarily closed the footpaths), on my way to finally reach Clifton Suspension Bridge, one of the highlights of the day. It is such an iconic bridge and one I’m certainly not a stranger to, so walking over it as part of this journey felt pretty special. Also, I was meeting a friend of a friend, Jonny, and his wife and baby, on the other side for previously mentioned coffee break. They very kindly treated me to a coffee and a bacon roll and didn’t seem to mind too much that I had gotten a little closer to the countryside than even I would have liked. It did feel quite weird, walking through Clifton in my full hiking gear! But at least at this point I deemed it probably safe to finally remove my waterproof trousers, and gosh what a relief!
Despite making it to Bristol I was still barely only halfway to my stop for the night which is up near Cribbs Causeway. I could have cut straight up through the city (although even that would have been about 7 miles!) but as usual my route took me the scenic route, now following the Community Forest Path, which cuts across Clifton Down, Snead Park (very nice looking area!), Sea Mills and then the Blaise Castle Estate. It’s hard to imagine, as you’re walking along the wooded paths and meadows and then along a semi-landscaped river valley, that you are just a stone’s throw away from the bustle of the city! If you haven’t been, I thoroughly recommend you go and explore it! Whilst beautiful, it was getting late and suddenly my body decided to remind me it needed some more calories. I demolished the remainder of the jelly babies, Kendal mint cake and an entire bag of trail mix, which seemed to do the job, at least to tide me over til I arrived for the night. I also had a lovely call from my brother which lifted my spirits. He was telling me about how everyone he knew had been asking about me and wondering how I was getting on, and apparently they are planning some fundraising events in support of my charities! I love how people are all pulling together, so many people are going to benefit from that!
All but the final mile from there was along urban roads and it felt strange again to be walking through the outskirts of the city on a Saturday night in my hiking gear. I certainly stood out from the people who were just headed out for the night!
The last mile was along footpaths through fields, with one remaining cow-infested field to navigate, the aforementioned barbed wire fence and, as a reward, another beautiful sunset!
After 19 miles I was very glad to arrive at Lizzie’s and very happy with the prospect of takeout pizza for dinner. It’s now stupidly late and my eyes are drooping but wanted to get this written before I forget anything!
Tomorrow I’ll pass 300 miles and enter country number 2, whoop! It’s another long day but I’m looking forward to it as I have some company for the bridge crossing and hopefully some friends for the picnic! Now just need to speak very nicely to the weather gods…!
Night night! Xx
That was some challenging day. You have my sympathies as on our recent walks on the Ripon Rowel we have met too inquisitive cows and bulls and encountered overgrown paths/jungles! Hope the days improve soon again.