onemorestone: 05/29/12

Day one was an easy walking day, about 14 miles and flat, with beautiful coastal views in the beginning. We spent the second night in Walton (pronounced "Watton"), another very cold night. My "snuggle pack" helped but the blanket kept sliding off my sleeping bag which was annoying. We stayed at a farm called Sandysike, a working farm and the home of Richard and Margaret who were "landed gentry". Gary had warned us that they were a bit eccentric but we found them to be perfectly sweet and lovely. Once we got organised, Richard came to the tent site which was situated on what was once the tennis courts, and took our drinks order. We all signed up to dine in their formal dining room, complete with family portraits from the 1600's! They cooked and served us graciously and it was one of the most enjoyable evenings of the week. For dessert there was a fruit crumble and you had a choice between cream or custard. I was the only person to ask for custard and it turned out that Margaret couldnt get it ready in time. I didnt mind, but ate my crumble naked. A few minutes later, she showed up with a small pitcher of custard and i felt bad so i ate it anyway. Thankfully, Henry helped me out!

During the evening I asked Richard if he had a cow that needed milking (it's always been something I'd like to try) and he said "well, yes, there's Emma isn't there?" he told me to meet him at 7:30am and he would take me to her. My friend Gen also had this wish so together we headed into the barn and each took a turn. Emma was very tolerant of our fumbling attemps - I kept thinking i was hurting her! What an experience! We even tasted the milk, which was warm and a little gamey...It was just so interesting to listen to Richard talk about the history of his family and he was quite intriged when I told him about our family farm house dating back to the 1500's. I was having such I great time I hated to leave, especially since there was a cow that was due to give birth at any moment!

We packed up and headed out for day 2. We were all beginning to bond and there was great cameraderie amongst the ten of us. There were four men walking together: two brothers, Bill and David and their sons Mark and Henry. They were from opposite ends of the country and decided to do this as a sort of family reunion. Lovely guys. Then there was Richard from the midlands, Janine from London, and the two Canadians I mentioned earlier. Lindy is a doctor and Gen is a teacher who has taken a year off to travel, a kindred spirit... The six of us sort of walked together and broke off into little groups but keeping an eye on each other. Janine was a keen historian and left us to look at the museums along the way. One of the best things we encountered were the "honesty boxes", little canteens left by the locals with bottles of water, juice, sodas, chocolate, granola bars and other snacks. Each item had a price and if you took one, you just left the money in a little box! I was intrigued by the concept..... and the trust.

The path is pretty well way marked with an acorn symbol and a yellow arrow. We got lost a couple of times however, which made the day longer but we had some adventures! Mostly, we just had such a lovely time together. The scenery in the English countryside is unparalleled. The Canadians kept exclaiming "it's just SO beautiful!", and it made Foxy appreciate her country even more to see it through the eyes of the traveller. For me, I just couldn't get enough of the sheep and lambs. I even came across one that had literally just given birth only minutes before. The mama was licking her baby and gently, but firmly pushing it with her nose to get it to stand up. I just stood there in awe.

Day three dawned and we braced ourselves for what was meant to be the hardest day. We actually found that, although long, it was quite manageable until we bumped into Gary at Burdoswold where he was entertaining private clients from the USA. He seemed to have a different outfit every time we saw him, each one perfectly suited for the moment. This one was a hiking outfit with woollen jumper, short trousers with knee socks and a little beanie hat with a pompon! He looked auspiciously at his watch saying "you're going to have to get going if you want your dinner tonight!" He then kindly showed us a shortcut, in which we found ourselves lost in a matter of an hour and it took us just as long as it would have had we stuck to the original path! It was raining, dark, and we ended up walking along the highway to get to the pub at Twice Brewed (yeah, that's the name of the place) just in time to order a meal. There we were, looking pretty daggy and draping our clothing over the radiators to try and dry it out before going back to the tents where we knew it wouldn't dry. Just then, Gary popped up again looking splendid in his country gentleman outfit. Foxy couldn't help herself and told him he looked gorgeous. He beamed and blushed. It turned out we joined a quiz night and didn't get to the campsite until it was well dark. We stumbled through the pitch dark to the campsite, laughing and trying to figure out where the loo was. We gave up, found a spot near the tent, then wriggled ourselves into our sleeping bags. Amen for the "snuggle pack"!