I have been thinking about the walk for over a year and was beginning to get a little frustrated that I had not taken the plunge and got started. I particularly wanted to do it “properly” that is not using Gill or a taxi to ferry me or luggage around, to use hotels and B&B’s even in places I know well like Shrewsbury and to do the whole thing in one go.
Apart from the Everest Base Camp trip a few years ago I have not done anything like this for more than 20 years so I was a little apprehensive about whether I was up to it (we had Sherpas and mules on the Everest trip) and the first few days seemed to confirm my fears, I was very tired and had all sorts of aches and pains but after the fourth day my body either got used to the strain or decided to stop complaining.
So by the time I reached Shrewsbury I was in a routine, I tried to get going as early as possible and found I could easily do 10 miles by lunchtime giving me the afternoon to explore each new location. As I mentioned in a recent blog I found places which either didn’t do breakfast or where it was an optional extra were much better, I tended to wake up at 6am and if the weather was fine I got going soon after 7, on the last day, despite the trials and tribulations of the diversions I had completed the 17 miles by 1pm.
Wearing a rucksack which weighed 16lbs was not a problem in fact my back only hurt after I took it off!
I booked the accommodation via Booking.com or Air BnB a few days in advance, the main criteria being how close it was to the walk, it is not worth a 2 mile diversion to save £10 as it will be another 2 miles next morning to return to the path. Only two places I stayed were disappointing, they were both all right but overpriced for what they offered. The idea was that if the weather forecast was bad or I was struggling I could stay put for a few days. In practice I ended up with almost the same stops that I pencilled in at the start but that was because the weather, despite being April, was kind.
I only had to put waterproofs on twice, the first and sixth mornings, the picture shows me togged up on day 1, the rest of the time it was dry and even on occasions sunny.
Lessons:
Never trust a pub or museum to be open
Churches are almost always closed
The river floods (I might have mentioned this before)
Large scale construction sites never cater for walkers (twice I hit trouble)
The walk itself came up to my expectations, it is a great route going through some interesting towns and although I thought I knew most of them quite well I still managed to find some new places of interest. The scenery of course changed from remote moorland to wide open marsh land and the river got a little bigger but was not too monotonous, it was a very enjoyable walk and….. I DID IT.