Canals, cows and country lanes

Bathpool to Street – Thursday 10 May

Today’s walk was a long one, but just about all level. Along the way we got to experience a variety of paths. And we also discovered an interesting game, which we’ll call Cows & Stiles.

After a sound sleep and great breakfast at our B&B, Aginhills Farmhouse, we set off in a cool but fine morning. The promised overnight rain hadn’t amounted to anything, so we looked forward to ideal walking conditions – sun and 14 degrees. Best of all, we’d arranged again to have our packs transported to tonight’s accommodation. It’s not something we’ll do often (and in fact won’t be available much) but with another very long day of 34km in front of us, we needed to ‘lighten the load’.

We resumed walking along the path alongside the Taunton& Bridgewater Canal, feeling remarkably good and with a spring in our step. A lovely morning, deliciously cool air, sunshine, swans and moorhens in the river, dragonflies zooming around… a great way to start.

All too soon we had to leave the canal path at Charlton and follow the embankment along the River Tone. Now we were into the plains of the Somerset Levels, notorious for regular floods. The embankments/levees along both sides may have been built as part of the flood defence system, but they provided superb walking: slightly elevated and with great views out across the countryside, flat as a pancake under vast blue skies.

We left the river and followed a quiet road through the villages of Curload and Athelney, stretched out along the River Tone, just one house wide but two kilometres long. After a refreshing coffee (for Peter) at Burrowbridge we had a choice of routes to the next village of Othery: the direct route along the A361, a moderately busy road, or a longer, more circuitous but much quieter route along an embankment and farmland footpaths.

Time to introduce you to our new game, Cows & Stiles. Think of it as a bit like Snakes & Ladders. The following is based on the next part of today but has other elements, all of which have happened along the way:

You have two kilometres of country footpaths to traverse. It may or may not be marked well. You have no idea how many stiles there may be. There may be mud. There may be cowpats. There may be cows, or maybe not. There may be sheep. There may even be bulls. Let’s roll those dice!

1. Yes! No cows in this field. Advance 10 spaces to the next stile.
2. No! There are cows. Hmmm.. but these ones look friendly, and they’re off to one side. There’s a bull! Wait.. he’s eating grass. Watch cautiously for five minutes. Cross the field carefully. Advance 3 places to the next gate.
3. Oh no! More cows, right by the path. Will they move? We get closer. Yes they turn away – then turn back and start to follow us. We walk briskly (relative term here!) to the next gate. The cows are behind us, getting closer. We’re sure we can feel their hot, steamy breaths on the backs of our necks. “Don’t open the gate” exclaims Val in a strangled voice. We scale the gate like escapees from Colditz.
4. But at the end of the field you step into a big gloopy fresh cow pat. Go back two places.
5. Next stile and over. Yes – empty field! Stride out confidentially. Go forward five spaces.
6. Approach the next gate. But what’s in the next field? Cows. Hmmm again – cautiously open the gate and walk forward. Only this time the cows don’t scatter, the herd of twenty or so young and frisky cows moves towards us, eyeing us with interest like a dog would eye an interesting new toy. We scuttle past them and scurry to the next gate, about three years older… Go back 6 spaces.
7. Ah, a field of sheep. Yay! At last something that’s shorter than us. Go forward 8 spaces.
8. Is this the last field? Is that a road we can see at the end? Ah, it’s an A road, complete with speeding cars and trucks. Oh bliss, oh joy!

Now, many of you will scoff at all this. Cows are friendly, you say. Perhaps… but we are humble city folk, and when a herd of lumbering beasts, each of which weighs a good couple of hundred kilos, comes to investigate, it is a wee bit offputting.

The rest of our day was uneventful, walking arrow-straight country lanes across the Levels, then up and over some low hills to our destination today of Street. We arrive, feeling in remarkably good form despite the distance, get reunited with our packs, settle in and enjoy a great meal where we’re staying.

Distance today: 34km