Beckington to Alfred’s Tower
17 Miles
The weather is really taking the proverbial.
I have suffered sleet, hail, rain, winds and arctic temperatures. Now there is this big orange thing in a clear blue sky and it has been very hot work.
One mile in to the walk today and there were navigation problems again. My crystal ball was not working. Turn downhill at end of trees I should have obviously realised meant turn downhill after the original line of trees in 2000, not the extra half a mile that the farmer has since grown. Also I should have appreciated that that “descend to clearly visible bridge” required superman vision in order to see through the entire plantation that had sprung up since the book was first compiled. All in all a happy hour of running up, down, up, down etc etc until I was able to cross the River Frome for the last time.
Farmhouse on Bank of River Frome
By the time I got under way again the sweat was pouring off. Never mind, its after 11am and the pub will be open in the next village. Except it had now ceased trading. Damn the recession. The next village, found the pub boarded up. This is getting silly. As I approached the next village 3 miles later and tongue dragging the ground I could clearly see a “Rising Sun” sign displayed from a good distance away. When I finally reached this solar haven I saw that as far as this establishment was concerned the sun had finally set some months ago. Bloody bankers!
Two miles further on and the village of Nunney provided both a pub and a shop. Two bottles of Orange Lucozade never touched the sides!
The rest of the day was a fairly non-descript succession of fields and it was not until I was waiting for the Dearly Beloved to pick me up that I realised that today had been the first day since Spalding that I had not had to wade through a field of rapeseed. Thank Heaven for small mercies!
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