8 April 2013: 40km. Started 08:00. Arrived 17:30
This was another long day so I was pleased that the Premier Inn, catering for business travellers, served breakfast from 06:30. Actually I was their first customer – “the rest are families who will be later”.
I crossed the main “A” road where the Premier Inn was situated and immediately left the road and was walking along country lanes. There followed a large number of large ploughed fields without clear paths.
Early on, I walked past a man with three dogs all rushing round and barking (viciously) accompanied by a man who appeared to be more interested in his phone than his dogs. However the next dog owner I saw as I walked through a small village, through the churchyard and on to a path through a field was a complete contrast. She had her obedient looking border collie on a lead – “I’m responsible for my dog and don’t let him soil anywhere either”. Clearly it was a day for dogs as after managing to negotiate a field containing frisky horses, there was a loose dog. It was frightening as the dog seemed to be guarding and chased after me until I was off the piece of land. I was relieved to survive without injury!
More was to come, but not dogs. I encountered three groups of young people with rucksacks. Next I was in a pleasant looking grassy field and saw a fallen tree trunk – a good spot for lunch. However at that point I noticed a large specimen of West Highland cattle with enormous horns in the field. I was certainly not going to hang around in that field any longer than necessary. The exit gate was near the large animal – I did not want to take chances so I managed to get over the barbed wire fence at a low point.
I regained the path and sat near the gate to eat lunch. In the meantime, one of the groups of boys had arrived at the point where the animal could be seen. They climbed over the fence at the same point as I had done, with the exception of one brave lad who walked up to the gate staying near the fence. From their safe vantage point within earshot of me they photographed the animal before looking at the map. They were not planning to eat lunch until 4pm – “when we’re really hungry”. They were convinced that they were in the wrong place – “Can’t believe we get sent over a ploughed field with no path and through a field with a bull”. I could sympathise! After much discussion, two of them came to ask me where they were – it seemed that this required almost as much courage as walking near a bull. In fact they were “spot-on” with their map reading and they explained to me that they were doing their bronze Duke of Edinburgh practice expedition.
The scenery changed later in the day. I arrived at Kingsbury Water Park, where I took advantage of the café to enjoy coffee and cake. The walk from here was easy to navigate along the canal towpath almost to Tamworth and then a good mainly off road route past the castle and through the town centre. In fact I would be returning along some of this route the next day as Tamworth was a detour off the Heart of England Way, which I had continued to follow. However, I had some clean clothes in Tamworth, that had been left with my mother-in-law. Hence this was an overnight stay with free food and accommodation.
Where's Kathryn? 