7 April 2013: 42km. Started 08:30. Arrived 18:30.
This was indeed a very long day, so it was positive to be able to have such an early start thanks to the hard working staff of the pub where I was staying.
The Heart of England Way, despite not having National Trail status, turned out to be well signed and easy to follow so I conveniently spent most of the day following it. The downside was that it was mainly over relatively flat farmland with large uniform fields and little scenery of note.
I walked through the town of Alcester and eventually Henley-on-Arden where I walked down a very long and straight main street with multiple pubs and a single café and ice cream shop. Post lunch coffee and cake there gave me a welcome break and it was extremely good value (especially compared with The Cotswolds).
It was up hill from the town and I met two ladies walking – one told me of her plan to walk the entire UK coastline starting when she retires (nine months from then) carrying a tent. That plan makes my trip look like a stroll in the park.
There followed a couple of interesting miles on a canal tow path – at that time a novel experience. I saw a few canal boats – mainly in the locks as I guess that is where the bottlenecks happen on canals. I also saw the incongruous sight of a man playing a Swiss Alphorn – a Swiss man of course!
My destination was a Premier Inn. Impressively a footpath across fields came out more or less at the right spot on the road. When I booked in I definitely had the impression that they don’t get many walkers visiting. However it was conveniently right on my route and breakfast served from 06:30 was good news.
Where's Kathryn? 