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I'm back in Tring area on the canal bank, near Anita and Nick's houseboat where I will sleep tonight and for the next few days. I spent last night in Wallingford, which I reached after a 15k walk from Goring along the river. Most of my walk preparations back in Australia were in order to prevent sciatica. It turns out that this has worked fine, but another problem emerged late on Monday - sore feet and ankles, tired calves, and blisters. I've bought this on myself by my consistent habit of adding an extra 8 to 10k on my my daily walk, though detours, and, time spent in the evening wandering around the small towns I'm passing through. Yesterday was a case in point. I followed the Thames path from Goring north to Wallingford - not originally planned as a challenging day. I could actually see the Ridgeway path on the other side for most of the way, but elected to take the Thames Path on the western side, because it seemed to have less detours around large estates where some smug landed gentry git has decided to fence off the river from public access. I made it to Wallingford by about 3, had a bath in the hotel, and was out the door within half an hour to check out the town, the ruined Norman castle, and nearby nature reserves. Then, I jumped on a bus to the town of Nettlebed, where I saw a rather excellent folk band featuring members of Steeleye Span and Spiers and Boden, two of my favourite English folk bands. It was the 50th anniversary of the Nettlebed Folk Club and I was very lucky the gig happened to be on within striking range of my accomodation that night. Obviously I had to have a good look around Nettelbed, too. My feet were badly cramping by the time I got into bed at midnight. Today's walk would have gone from Wallingford to Nettlebed and then beyond, bordered for much of the way by an ancient earthwork called Grim's Ditch, which was the border between two Iron Age tribes. But instead I spent the day on county busses and in market towns (Henley on Thames, High Wycombe and Aylesbury), making my way back to a place near Nick's foundry so he could pick me up by 3pm after he finished for the day. I didn't see much today other than coffee shops, op shops, and rural scenery from the bus window. It is Nick's birthday today and the infamous Whisky Club is on this evening. I have contributed a bottle of Penderyn, a Welsh whisky which is apparently very good. Now I'm going to check my camera card for good shots, rest my feet, and rest up for more Ridgeway action tomorrow. Comments are closed.
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