Journal: |
I didn't get up until 7:30am, having stayed up later than
expected catching up on email, etc., and sneaked out of the sleeping
hotel via a fire exit (as asked to do) at 8:15am. It was
drizzling as I walked along a main road out of Bridgwater. The
guide book suggested a circuitous route to avoid doing too much
roadwalking, but after my experience yesterday with seldom used
paths, it was debatable to me whether it was worth the effort.
Generally the scenery was much the same - green fields, fences,
sheep and lambs, whether seen from the road or an overgrown
footpath. I had resolved to be a bit more discriminating in
future. On the edge of Bridgwater, I found an open service
station and bought a sandwich and flavoured milk for breakfast.
Soon afterwards, I took a public footpath across the sodden
fields to intersect with the guide book route. It only took
about 10 metres for my shoes and socks to be sodden. My feet
were already hurting. The farmland round here is mostly
long-reclaimed swamp, drained by a very large network of ditches.
The guide-book route was again a complex chaining of separate
little-used footpaths (or field paths, since they generally stick to
the edges of fields), which crossed the drainage bridges on a range
of pedestrian bridges ranging from grand structures to flimsy
arrangements using a plank. I lost the paths several times
during the morning, one time wasting more than half an hour trying
to find my way off a farm (electric fences and barbed wire
everywhere).
I reached the very pretty village of Blackford soon after 1pm and
went to the pub and ordered the Sunday roast special. It was
very tasty and large, and the patrons were friendly. While
eating lunch, I pored over my maps to see what the guide-book had in
store for me during the afternoon, and determined it was mostly,
once again, a determined effort to keep walkers off the road rather
than an excursion past scenic highlights. I decided to follow
a different route to Cheddar, where I had booked a bed at the Youth
Hostel tonight, using country lanes and back roads. It was dry
underfoot and I passed through more pretty villages and by historic
farms and pubs. If it hadn't been for my very sore feet, it
would have been very enjoyable. I reached the hostel at 4:30pm
with the plan to go to the outdoors store in town tomorrow morning
to buy some different socks and see if that makes a difference.
It's the last thing I can think of. I have never had this much
trouble with sore feet when hiking before, and it's getting very
frustrating. The store doesn't open til 10am so it will be a
late start tomorrow and may put me a little behind schedule.
But, if I can't sort out the feet, I'll need a few days off for
recovery anyway.
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