What a difference a week makes hey? Last week, blue skies and sunshine, this week, grey and damp. This is where I started this week's walk, just up past these two white buildings and then on up the side of the cliff.
When you get to the top, it looks a bit like this....that's what I like about coast path walking, it's a real pat on the back to look back and see how far you've come. At this stage of the walk I was full of enthusiasm and energy..........
One sticky-outy (Yes, Marigold, there I go again) bit further on
Through some woods.........thinking to myself....this really is lovely, peaceful, I'm getting fitter and I have some thinking time.........
It wasn't long after this bit when I came across a bit of the path which hadn't been cut, so I plough on in, thinking, 'ah well, nothing else for it' Waist high grass and bracken, holding all the rainwater from yesterdays downpours.....jaw clenched....head down.....marching....Chester leaping up while he walked to see above the long grass.
I was beginning to think I had made an awful mistake...no visible path, close to the cliff edge. Then I hear the distant rumbling of a lawnmower and there in the distance are two men from the council cutting the grass....Stopping to talk to them, they tell me that its the only part of the 133 mile path that hasn't been cut....just this part, about a mile...how I wish I'd known! As I headed on (on the newly cut, clear path) I can hear my feet squelching (as if someone has emptied a glass of water in each boot) I wondered if the council men were smirking at the sight of me, soaked through (even to my underwear) with squelchy feet!
So things started looking remarkably brighter....but I had a impending dread starting to formulate in my head....
You see my socks...my long worked on, two at a time, toe-up socks....had been sitting in my drawer waiting for their first outing.....can you see where this is going?
So with every step and every squelch I am thinking about my socks....I'm thinking about the lovely colours, the stitch definition.....
Edge of the cliff....and rocks out to sea, but look a bit closer.......
Doesn't the tail end of it look like a sea monster?
So this is where I decided enough was enough...oh that was after a tripped over a large stone in the path and landed like a sack of spuds in a star-fish pose.....the people who were only about 15 metres ahead must have been deep in conversation, as they didn't turn when I hit the deck and made a large grunt....maybe it was a good thing, as I struggled back up covered in mud, and felt a little sorry for myself.
Looking on, I could see there was still a good way to go, so I did the sensible thing and phoned home, arranged a pick up time and place and stepped up the pace.
By the time I got to the car, I was hot and bothered and a little disappointed that I hadn't completed my intended walk...but hey.......ten miles done....
My socks........felted........
