Week 7 - 500 Miles and The Shire

Week seven has seen a couple of milestones come and go, foremost of which was the passing of the 500 mile mark on Sunday afternoon., the second was racking up 1,000,000 paces. I’m not convinced about the step count but 500 miles is a bit special so this seems a good point at which to take stock of the walk.

 So, 500 Miles – WOW! This is the biggest milestone since the first hundred mile marker fell all those weeks ago.

 Over the week, as I’ve progressed from 400 to 500 miles I’ve noticed that my perception of time and distance has changed.  I’m unconstrained by time, although during the planning phase we had to pre-book campsites months into the future so need to be at specific places on specific dates, the passage of time on a day to day basis isn’t relevant; it simply slides by as I walk along.  My perception of distance has also changed, early on in the walk I realised I wasn’t walking 1200 miles; I was walking 12 miles a day for four months.  It seemed likely I would finish the walk but I had no scale on which to judge progress.

Despite previous walks I didn’t have a mental picture of what one or two hundred miles meant, let alone 1200.  I‘ve now got a grasp of what I’ve done and what the future will bring.  I can look towards John O’Groats and set that goal against what I’ve achieved so far and know what’s required, so baring unforeseen accidents or boredom, mid July will see me arrive at John O’Groats.

So I’ve come to terms with the distances, what I’ve managed and what’s in store, so what about everything else?

Physically everything is fine, I started the walk a bit over weight and seem to have lost about a stone, despite Sandra’s best effort to keep me fed and my conviction that beer is a staple food stuff that can and should be consumed at every possible opportunity.  I don’t have any blisters, no bad muscle pains and the knees and toes are all holding up remarkable well all things considered.

 I do have a touch of plantar fasciitis in one heel, this is a condition best described as a pain in the bottom of the heel of the foot.  Weirdly while occurring about 75% of the time in my right foot, then randomly moves over to the left.  It doesn’t seem serious and as it’s been therefore at least 400 miles doesn’t seem likely to impede progress.

 Sandra and Arthur, the Support Team continue to do sterling work in keeping me going; this trip would have been much harder and slower without San’s willingness to do all the driving, most of the cooking and general stuff.  Arthur seems to have got over his dodgy paw and as long as we give him the occasional easy day to rest and catch up on his snoozing seems to be enjoying the trip.

Support Team plus pizza

 Nigel, the camper van, our home from home for the duration of the expedition is however taking a bit of punishment, we’ve had the van nearly 13 years, but he was at least that old when we bought him and although we’ve kept on top of issues he’s starting to get a bit warn around the edges.  On this trip alone we’ve replaced the exhaust system, the fuel filter and when Sandra returns to Lancaster in early July he’s going to have both CV joints replaced.  We’ve also broken the rock and roll bed (not as exciting as it sounds) and pulled a cupboard door off its hinges (now replaced); finally the strips along the edges of the laminate doors have all disintegrated, he needs quite a bit of TLC but still the happy go lucky van he was all those years ago.

On the subject of campsites Sandra will be posting her own blog quite soon, but suffice to say that our van is almost always the oldest and most battered on any site. But it’s still great.

You know it’s a posh campsite when they have peacocks!

The weather continues to both puzzle and amaze, we set off from Land’s End on the 16th of March, since then it has been unseasonably cold but amazingly dry.  Over something like 48 days since the start of this expedition it has rained 3 times!  Britain in the Spring time and only three bits of half hearted rain!  Eventually the weather must break and I’ll end up walking for weeks in soaking wet misery (it will undoubtedly rain in Yorkshire) but at the moment I’m keeping well wrapped up and enjoying the dry weather.

 Speaking of Yorkshire (my mother once flew from London to Glasgow and said the best way to see Yorkshire was at 600 mph and 30,000 feet!) we have been steadily ticking off counties, Cornwall, Devon and Somerset seemed to take a long time to cross, but once past the Severn Bridge, Monmouthshire, Powys, Herefordshire all passed quickly.  Since leaving Offa’s Dyke at Knighton it’s been steady progress across Shropshire (spiritual home of all hobbits, although I’m drawn more to the Misty Mountains) and Staffordshire (home of all potters), with Derbyshire in all it’s limestone glory excitingly hovering to the north.

 Mentioning limestone leads me nicely, or rather contrivedly, into mentioning the geology of the areas we’ve passed through.  Cornwall was granite, Devon means ancient sandstone, Somerset soggy bogs with carboniferous limestone islands rearing out of the levels.  Monmouth and the Welsh borders brought more limestone along the Wye Valley which gave way to the a more complex geological sequence, or at least one I’m not qualified to delve too deeply into the details.  It seemed like mostly red sandstone (judging by the churches and grave stones) with areas of less fertile soil (forested) on what looked like shales and mud stone.  Shropshire saw a return to red sandstone, although I think it’s new red sandstone which is much younger than the old red sandstone of Devon; this was mixed with by ancient Silurian limestones (fossilized coral reefs) around Wenlock.  Before undertaking this trip I’d been aware that there were different types of limestone but hadn’t studied them much.  The limestone around Lancaster is carboniferous, it’s hard, grey, very solid, makes for good rock climbing and is about 325 to 363 million years old.  The Wenock limestone is a pale yellow-cream colour, brittle and friable, looks very dodgy for climbing and is up to 400 million years old.  After leaving the Wenlock area and its Silurian rocks it’s been hard to see the underlying rocks due to a lack of quarries and outcrops, but the soils seem to indicate more sandstone, albeit a particularly red and soft type as typified by the cliffs above the Severn at Bridgnorth.

It says much about “The Shire” when the most interesting geology I could find was this old quarry. It’s a 425 million year old coral reef and is no where nearly as exciting as that description makes it sound.

The Bridgnorth cliff railway, cut through the red sandstone cliffs which line the River Severn, at £2.00 return, dogs free.

As the counties passed, so did the paths, without an official route any walk from Land’s End to john O’Groats follows an old path that’s going in the right direction.  So far I’ve used the Cornish, Devon and Somerset sections of the South West Coast Path, The Coleridge Way, the England Coast Path, The Severn Way, the Limestone Link, the Spaniorum Skyway (I’ve not idea what this one was about but we followed it for a few miles near Bristol) the Welsh Coast Path, Offa’s Dyke, the Shropshire Way, the Shropshire Way (Main Route), Staffordshire Way, the Cross Britain Way and the Monarch’s Way and of course a bewildering array of farm tracks and local foot paths.  Route finding can be a bit confusing at times but I always end up where I need to be at the end of the day.  Coming up I’ve got the Limestone Way (not to be confused with Somerset’s Limestone Link), the Pennine Way and occasional forays onto the Pennine Bridleway.

Marker for the Monarch’s Way, a 615 mile celebrating King Charles II’s defeat at Worcester.

Definitely not on my list of potential post LEJOG waks!

 If 500 miles is a long way to walk then it represents a huge commitment from Sandra.  Someone said it sounds like a nice holiday; it’s not a holiday, it’s an expedition and Sandra is the powerhouse that keeps it moving forward.

 Although I ticked off the 500 mile mark, this week’s walking has been particularly pastoral; out of the Welsh marches and across Shropshire and Staffordshire, through Tolkien’s “Shire” in all its Arcadian idyll, it’s been farms, farms and more farms.  Farms with cows, farms with sheep, farms with crops, not to mention farms with cows, sheep and crops; all interspersed with woods, charming but after a week and following on from Offa’s Dyke it’s been a bit on the rural side.

Farm with crops, mentally substitute cows and/or sheep for the full “Shire Experience”

The Trent and Mersey Canal, the route followed its tow path for several miles across Staffordshire

But it’s all change soon, next week sees us heading due north, hills, moors and mountains beckon; first the White Peak of the Derbyshire Dales and then into the Dark Peak and the Pennines.  That means moors and mountain and almost certainly rain.

 Weekly totals are

Total for week:-                75.25 Miles         3,559 Feet of Ascent,      157,546Paces,                31.5 Hours of Walking.

Walk Total to date:-        518 Miles            55,666 Feet of Ascent,   1,140,452 Paces,              231.75 Hours of Walking.

Land’s End to John O’Groats walk 41% completed.