We are still following the Heart of England Way, and the terrain was very similar to yesterday, but no mud! We made a detour before we started, to buy snacks at the local co-op, as once again there would be no pubs en route. As the weather is getting warmer, we find we benefit from more frequent stops! Our room for the night was at Lea Marston Golf Club hotel!

Our route north has been by no means a linear one, partly because we are following National Trails, but also due to available accommodation. We came prepared with lists of B & Bs on our route, but find that many of them no longer exist, have become self-catering or will not accept guests for only one night! Thankfully we have the internet (not always reliable) and have so far been able to book a few days in advance. Next week is another bank holiday and of course half term, so will no doubt prove more difficult!

A Backward Glance

“I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I have been” (Winnie the Pooh). Today we will have walked up past the geographical centre of England, so from here on most of our walk across England will be behind us. Just before we left our lodgings today a crow banged it’s beak repeatedly against the large full height window of our bedroom from a rail outside on which it was perched. It looked for all the world like it was trying to tell us something. It turned out to be another sunny day’s walking, nearly all flat and on good hard baked paths across and around fields, interspersed with short sections along country lanes between high hedgerows. Found a four leafed clover (shamrock), and I wasn’t even looking for one. The odds are about 10,000 to 1 of finding them, which translates as over 27 years if one goes out every day looking! This was becoming a peculiar day indeed, when all of a sudden we met a small pig on it’s own in a country lane we were walking along. The pig followed us until we had to climb over a stile into an adjacent field, where it sadly watched our departure into a wood as we disappeared into head height cow parsley. An enjoyable and unusual day, but the temperature got up in the afternoon, making our trek along a two mile road to the golf club, where we were staying, feel like an eternity.