So as you know from the previous blog I was off on a little adventure doing a recce of some of the Monarchs Way. As you may be aware I was a little unwell and did not get the whole planned recce done. But I covered a decent distance and it was good training with a heavy pack on.
Anyway on with the post….
So I got the train up to Stourbridge Junction which is pretty much on the route give or take a few hundred metres or so. So I cracked on out of the station and started my watch and got myself onto the route proper. I would be using the excellent guide book for navigation and double checking with the gps file. In reality the guidebook was good enough on its own. The point where I joined the route proper had a pub on the corner which in hindsight must have been some sort of an omen!
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| The Labour in Vain pub |
The pack was heavy but comfortable and all through the walk it never really bothered me, easily the best and most comfy large pack I have worn. I will do a kit review at some point in the next week or two now that I have used it a few times and can give some honest opinions about it.
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| Osprey 68lt Kestrel Pack |
Most of the first days walking was alongside the Stourbridge canal, I don’t know what it is but I really like walking/running beside water. I find the sights and sounds interesting and all the boats fascinating with their distinctive artwork and names. This one is interesting, who would have thought a whole company for carrying cats!
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| My Friend Richard Fish loves cats! |
The trail was nice and firm and navigation easy. Towards the end of the day I travelled along an old disused railway line which looked exactly like the flitch and had been disused as part of Beeching’s reforms (unlike the Flitch). It still had old stations and halts too.
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| Identical to the Flitch Way |
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| Disused station now a house |
After I had done around 15 miles I decided to start to look for somewhere to kip for the night, Then it started to chuck it down! All around me where open fields and farmland so it took another mile or so to find a small wood that I could hide in and stay out of sight. The rain had died down a bit and I set up for the night. Just my old Army bivvy bag with my rucksack as a pillow with its waterproof cover on it. I munched on some snacks I had and tried to get comfy. The temperature was dropping and I got out my montane prism down jacket and climbed back into the bivvy bag but still felt chilly so got out my sleeping bag and climbed in that too. Unusual for me to get cold easily but I soo found out by morning I was clearly not 100%. I woke up a few times with a rumbly tummy and shivers but slept well mostly.
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| Bed for the night |
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| Day 1 about 16.3 miles |
A soon as I woke though I felt ill and in urgent need for a loo break! I popped of to the nearest tree and sorted that out then as the sun was just starting to come up and it was 5:30am I got up and started to walk on again. The intention was to cover a leisurely 25 miles today by nightfall and make it around the most of the Boscobel loop. This would leave me 2 more days of around 20 miles and a final 10 miles or so on the last bit to Longbridge to get the train back again.
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| Sunrise as I started walking again |
I felt ok just a bit Bleurghhhh and had a delicate tummy so was happy to try and walk it off so I plodded along. The Navigation required a bit more attention on this section as it was more in and out of and across farmers fields with a few ankle deep bogs to deal with as well. It was mostly dry with the odd light shower so was still shorts weather with my long waterproof coat on. My legs were in good shape and although a little under the weather al was good. My feet however were starting to feel it as the day went on, a combination I think of a long distance walking with a heavy pack combined with a lack of walking in my training meant my feet were soft. I was also wearing my trusty Nike Drymax sock. I generally swear by these but I now think multiple days with a pack on and they become to abrasive and I had a couple of tiny heel blisters but mostly I had battered undersides on the balls. I think I will switch to a softer sock for walking, when running in trainers I love the Drymax but they don’t seem to work well in my boots with a heavy pack. I stopped at one point to swap my socks and found both of them had holes in the heels. Clearly they don’t work in the boots, maybe the two different fabrics clash! Who know but as I only had more pairs of the same types of socks I had to simply put on a newer pair which meant the feet would have to suffer . Not Ideal but my mistake to learn the hard way.
As the day progressed the feet took more abuse and the iffy tummy did not improve and I started to think about binning it, but as we were so remote and its so time consuming to travel up this far to the route I decided to crack and get the 25miles for the day done and see how I felt after another night out.
I was about 19 miles in when it started to rain heavily again and I felt chilly which Is unusual for me and after another mile or so I came out into a small town and passed a bus stop. I looked at the information and realised I could get a bus to the nearest train station town and easily get a train back home If I needed to.
I sat and thought about it and decided that what I would do as I had stopped having fun and was not shaking off whatever it was that was making my tummy queasy and was likely to hobble another few miles and then have a bad nights sleep and a shitty day again tomorrow. I checked the timetable then got on the next bus to Telford and made the short walk from the Bus Station to the train station and headed home. I was a little disappointed with myself for giving in but it probably was the sensible thing to do. The next section of the route was going to be further away from public transport links if I felt worse and harder to extract myself from.
I got back home after a 4 hour journey and basically chilled out and felt sorry for myself for a few days.
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| Route of second day |
So not a great weekend but I am feeling better now eventually (Tuesday) and will go back up to that point in the next few weeks and continue from there. A few lesson learnt and a few things to fix.
Lindley