The heat is on!

Sunday 6 May & Monday 7 May

Some days are full of exciting things to report on, and deserve their own blog. Other days are, well, just days, just us walking through countryside. Yesterday and today fell into that camp, so we have done just the one blog.

The last two days have been great weather-wise, the best weather this time of year England has seen in many years. Today the temperature was expected to get up to 23 degrees in our part of England! Actually, in the absence of any wind, that was too warm for comfortable walking. Ironic, given just last week we were seeking out any sun possible and complaining about the wind!

The first part of yesterday’s walk was beautiful, an easy cruise along a rail trail between Bridestowe and Okehampton, complete with viaducts, bridges and expansive views over the countryside. The less said about the second part of the day the better – once again our attempts at following public footpaths were thwarted by firstly backtracking to regain the road, and then finding an alternative exit from a field with a bull  and cows protecting calves, right next to the stile. We also had the ‘pleasure’ at one point of walking along a busy road, jumping into the surrounding foliage whenever a vehicle came by. We were mightily relieved to get to last night’s accommodation, tired, footsore and weary, and couldn’t even be bothered going down the road to the nearest pub. Shock, horror!

But we are getting good at finding quiet country lanes, and today was spent entirely on them as we walked from Whiddon Downs to the gorgeous little village of Sandford and tonight’s accommodation, the Lamb Inn, a 16^th century posting inn. We got here early afternoon after a relatively short (for us) 20km. It has been lovely to have the time to relax, have a cold drink in the garden, and visit the 11^th century church.

We realised that many of the days would be long but expected to get to our destinations more quickly and have more rest time than we have so far. Today was a bonus in that respect. Also, while the road walking is a lot more straightforward, it is also tougher on our feet. The combination is that we are finding the walk to be physically challenging, particularly in the last three days. Our hope is that we will become more accustomed to it. Much of the total walk is off-road, and we will get back to that once we start the Cotswolds way, but we do have some long days and road walking between now and then.

Val says that at least the hedgerows along the country lanes are still full of spring flowers, birds, butterflies and even today a squirrel. We have also been amazed at finding post boxes in even the quietest little hamlet, and were amused to see that the old red telephone boxes have been repurposed in a couple of places to house the local defibrillator!.

Distances: Sunday 23km, today 20km.