Day 3

We left Willowford farm in the morning, weather overcast and damp with threat of brief impending downpoor from my weather app. We had another great breakfast, got our lunches handed over and after a 5 minute delay from me I grabbed my stuff (besides a jumper I accidentally left there which they kindly posted over to me) and caught up with mum and dad on there way towards the village.

We waited at the village bus stop to see dad off and meet him later on at our next stop over. (much much later on than my body would feel inclined to entirely put up with but needless to say at this point everything was ok.

The rain came quite heavy as well made our way out of the village on our path, with enough faith in my phones forecast stay put for 5 minutes under a tree and things gradually eased off above as we then continued. We then encountered one of many sheep on our journey, only this one was in closer proximity to Morph (dog) and just looked a little more perplexed than most sheep, and sheep always look like that to a degree.

Up and down a few hilly fields: we neared a stream where I captured an image of morph in the water, almost obscured if not for the tongue. We almost took a wrong turn at that point when some other walkers who'd just made that mistake lead the way the correct direction up a notably higher hill than before where by the top the general viewing distance was considerably further. Infact only a little further on from that we past a little stop off touristy point with more traces of Roman remnants laying about and rocky hill tops.

Traversing the first few hills reminded me of the final scene of The Force Awakens anticipating I'll find what Rey did at the top. I shan't say anymore for fear or spoilers but if you haven't seen The Force Awakens yet then you really ought to fix that. The next section of the journey was more or less the same again, big mound hill after big mound hill, enough so that the Star Wars comparison in my head eventually out wore itself. But even with the inset of minor feet and knee pains the views became more and more dramamtric at the peaks as we screamed over rocks, past random cows and sheep and finally reached the highest one.

 Hitting the point where feet went numb and parts of the body slowly lost there element we had a strategic eye for off shoot paths that went around the bulk of the coming peaks and troughs, particularly compromised at one section where upon debating so and so path over a stepping gate, this sinister guy stood right in-front of the damn thing. 

(This one however was far less sinister)

At this point I naively anticipated seeing our destination over the next peak... maybe the next one then.. or beyond that lake in the distance... No chance. So I mislead and miss paced myself internally, and by the time we'd past this postcard luring big tree the "just gotta push a little further" drive started burning out being replaced with, "screw this, my knees hate me and I want to lie down." What cognitive ability I had left was distributed entirely on the basic act of putting one leg infront of the other with some seemingly insane assumption the bloody BnB even exists. Although the primary issue on faces value here was with my knee giving way, I still hold out it was a broader problem mentally and physically, and inspite getting as much rest in as I could since the returning from the festival a week earlier, I hadn't allocated a full day to myself prior the walk to just chill and gather myself. A little more walking practise may have helped to granted, but I'd clocked nearly 30 miles off my pedometer during that festival, so my legs and my subtle internalised relationship with them may have accomplished more if I hadn't been generally scrambling about so much durning the intervening days. Lesson learn now, but hindsight out the way: by this point enthusiasm shut down like a tone of bricks, I bypassed the general frustration and impatience and went into a mindless zombie like demeana and honestly memory from that point is a bit of a blur.

We reached another museum beyond a sheep field where my spirits lifter ever so slightly upon the impression more civilisation followed, past to sheep having a fight and bought a sugary drink at the shop just before it closed. I then layed outside somewhat entirely unwilling to ever get up. Mum asked one of the staff about the Half Way house and it's whereabouts ad we where told it was only "a mile" up the road. Apparently this member of staff slept through the most entry level stages of geography at her school because that final beacon of false hope planted in my mind turned out to be the most inaccurate estimate of distance I've ever been subjected to.

So anyway we obviously got there in the end but it wasn't for lack of me not trying, determined to just lay in the grass for an hour besides this long road that we eventually walk cautiously besides to eliminate doubt this damn place may allude us more. I was worried about me knee by this stage as it had gotten beyond the point of what you might hope a solid nights sleep would do. We did at least have a day off tomorrow though, by the time day met up with us over the last ridge of the road towards this building it must have been 7-8pm. I was also feeling quite groggy and generally unpleasant but upon actually getting indoors, getting changed, having a drink and dinner everything there was perfectly fine. The beer and food numbed my fatigue and mood for the rest of that evening. But beyond that it's all a blur.

The following day was a blur to, it clearly took me a while to unravel all that, but it was very much more straight forward so it shan't be a problem to recall.

Besides all that trouble, day 3 was certainly a fine day for views. But maybe bring a Yak if your not 100% on your feet.