Well, that was pretty epic! Little did we know as we stood back in that layby what lay ahead – and that Julian’s choice of shorts was to prove particularly unwise……It was a tale of perseverance in the face of unbelievable obstacles, of not giving in to temptation and of keeping on keeping on until we finally did make it to Bromyard (spoiler!).
It all started very well – beautiful morning again, we were on time setting off, on time when we perched a top a stone slab protecting the grave of George, a local farmer, who had opted to be buried in the middle of the woods opposite a venerable old oak. We even managed to make it through the dodgy route finding part of the day, and came upon a lovely cheery farmer as he cleared a path through his wonderful crop of potatoes for walkers to follow.
And then, gentle reader, we arrived at the Three Choirs Way, to quote Julian, the most poorly maintained footpath he has ever had the displeasure to travel along. Finding a Three Choirs Waymark was an event, finding our way along paths blocked by nettles, brambles and very long grass with waymarks hidden deep in hedges was a challenge. But we kept on going, even when the phone battery failed and I couldn’t get the charger to work (even though I actually had but I didn’t know it) we kept on going with Julian valiantly navigating via the trusty paper map – you can rely on paper!!! I think the zenith of the experience came when we literally had to fight our way through undergrowth taller than I am, over a stile, into a cornfield which had no margin for walkers at all – so I channelled Teresa May and we marched, rather than ran, up the field.
The hours ticked by and we were way behind schedule, but then blessedly, blissfully we left the terrible Three Choirs Way behind us and came to the rather lovely – and waymarked, and mowed – Herefordshire Trail – hoorah! This was more like it, hop fields and orchards and all manner of loveliness.
Then, arriving on a narrow lane, within sight of Bromyard, what did we espy but a familiar looking Skoda – Mike, being the hero that he is and I think a little concerned that we’d now been walking for about 7 hours, had come to give us the option of finishing the day early because of all the problems we’d faced.
However, neither Julian nor I wanted to quit with the end in sight. So we trogged on – why miss the good walking when we’d made it through the atrocious walking! Mind you I might have regretted that a bit as I huffed and puffed my way up the last hill into Bromyard…But we made it. It took us the best part of 8 hours, but we kept going, and in the end as the photo below shows, we made it to Bromyard – day two done!
Glad it’s going well.
I do so love getting out onto the Malvern Hills when we stay with you.
Well done for sticking at it – sounds epic!