Two for the price of one

 Firstly, and very importantly, there's something I need to mention which has been a little overlooked during my last posts.

One. The fundraising for CAUK is going brilliantly, and even though Amy's dad has bottled had to pull out of the walk, he has still managed to raise a massive amount of money so yay to him. But this is a team effort, which brings me to my second point. I am just one of a team of people (three others if you recall) who are mad enough to do this ridiculously long walk and the others are doing so well, both with fundraising and with training, it's just fabulous. Never let it be said that team brAmyac isn't blowing many raspberries to Cavernomas. So, thank you to the team, who will make the pain and suffering at the end of May a far more enjoyable experience!

Now, you may have realised, I'm a little behind schedule with my training so for the last couple of days I've been out walking.  Here is a summary of those two days and I have to admit, I'm a bit chuffed with myself.

Day 1 - Tuesday

I have a friend (don't laugh, I really do) called Ian who lives here in the village. He had offered to come walking with me when we could find a mutually good time. However, that was proving to be the tricky bit, until Monday, when Ian texted me and asked if I was free for a walk on Tuesday. Imagine my joy! I had already planned to go walking on Tuesday and the thought of not doing it on my own was a very exciting prospect.

We arranged to meet at 9am and decided to try a 23 mile route which I had plotted on Komoot and Ian assured me was fine. Ian has lived in these parts since he was born so I knew I could rely on his local knowledge, which turned out to be just as well because if he hadn't been there, I would have been completely lost on more than a few occasions.  He did say there was a little alternative to the route which he thought would be nicer so I went with it, not having a clue what he was talking about or where, but again, he seemed to know his stuff.

So, off we trotted at 9am. You will notice a distinct lack of pictures from this walk, mainly because we were too busy chatting. Suffice to say, I now know about different species of birds, I know about winter wheat (as opposed to Spring wheat - yeah, I didn't know that either), that if crows nest high in the trees and not lower down we are in for a good summer, and orange tipped butterflies are not only beautiful, they love nettles. 

Do I know where we went? Er, no, not really. The great thing about Komoot is that it guides you all the way from your start point to your destination. What it doesn't tell you is where you are at any given point, though for most of our travels, Ian knew where we were so that was ok.

We passed a lot of sheep, loads of cows (I love cows by the way) and a few bulls as well, luckily we weren't wearing red. The hares were out playing and the birds were singing, and best of all, the sun was shining.

We walked around 13 miles before we stopped for lunch, figuring having 10 left to do didn't sound too bad and we picked a beautiful spot by the River Trent, watching the cows munch grass and wander down to the river for a slurp. It was just idyllic but we didn't want to get too comfortable, we still had a long way to go.

After lunch it was hard getting the momentum going again and we were walking along a high ridge that was unlevel underfoot, as well as the sheep surrounding us and lots of long grass, so definitely not the easiest of parts of the walk. 

We did think about stopping for a quick swifty at one point but the pubs on the route were still closed, they probably saw us coming. So we trudged on, past bits of history and beauty, before we ended up just over a mile from home. And then Ian said that his little detour had probably cost us a mile so we should add it on. I mean, if he'd said it hours earlier I would have been prepared, but blinking heck! Still, we added the mile which actually felt better than being short, and arrived back ready for a very hot shower and an evening of dozing on the sofa. Ian texted me to tell me he had a sunburned face but otherwise he was fine. Phew.

So here's a few pics of the first day:

Gainsborough Bridge

A panaramic view of beauty which doesn't do it justice!

Day 2

And so, I had an appointment at 2:20pm this afternoon so couldn't be out all day. I think that was a very good excuse ;). 

I woke up slightly late, expecting not to be able to get out of bed but low and behold, nothing really hurt which was a massive relief.

I left home around 9.30am, and planned to do 10 miles. Why is it whatever I plan always ends up being more?! Today I was familiar with most of the route, as it was a fairly small circuit in the local area. When I say small, I mean 11 miles (as it turned out) so not titchy but not yesterday.

I was actually impressed with myself as I got going quite quickly but tried very hard to hold back, not wanting to push so hard I'd burn out. So I steadied my pace and started walking...in the wrong direction. Where is Ian when you need him?!

Getting back on track I walked past the strawberries (here comes Summer!) and then onwards, towards Clayworth. There's a fab pub in Clayworth that does wonderful home cooking. But that wasn't the destination today unfortunately. 

I was very excited to walk through a field of Winter wheat and to be able to identify it (thanks Ian).

And then I struck a problem. Not a new problem, yesterday we had encountered nettles, but today I didn't have Ian with me to smash them down before I walked through. Someone tell me why I insist on wearing cropped leggings when I'm out walking! Ouch. Stung to blazes and finding dock leaves as quickly as I could. I know it's only a temporary inconvenience but there were a lot of nettles. I do try not to be a wuss about these things though and put on my very brave face as I soldiered on ;).

And eventually I came to the canal. I love the barges at Clayworth, it's such a peaceful scene. This is just a few but there are loads of them, all lined up and parked near the bridge. It's gorgeous. I do wonder why they never seem to visit the pub though. Did I mention the pub? ;)

You know that scene in Taxi Driver...'You lookin' at me?'...once this sheep started staring at me it was all i could think of. 

Anyone seen Moses?

I seem to be very good at taking pictures that don't do the scenery justice but this is very near home and to the naked eye it looked gorgeous. Hey ho.

Anyway, 11 miles done, plus 23.4 yesterday and now I feel I'm back on track a bit. Not where I should be at this stage but it's good to know I can keep going when I need to.

Onwards and upwards.