Day 4 (Day of Rest)

I know (for those reading these as they come out) that it's been a long wait, life has been fairly non stop since the walk ended, still with a little more structured time at my disposal now, it's just as well I pick up on day 4, which was our allocated rest day.

I was not in great condition for walking anyway, infact as I write this nearly a month has past and I've only just started walking without the knee strap. But besides have a decent night sleep my problems seemed to reach further than my knee, I just wasn't feeling to good in general, in a word: fatigued. Still I'm not complaining, I was of course frustrated with myself as it compromised my odds of finishing the walk but that was that and we had a day off.

The half way house was an interesting place to have a day off in, it being quite isolated by UK standards. An interesting place though, with a small number of patrons from all over the country and the world. The guy who ran it is an excentric type, quite chatty with an interest for any and all trivia from around the world judging by what I saw along with the different books and items around the place. Which is appropriate given the people who stay at the place, particularly given the struck off location of this place. There was no phone signal or wifi which I don't have a problem with, but seeing as walking is the primary activity to occupy most people around those parts and that was the one thing I could no longer do.. I did long for social media a little. (that is of course my own problematic doing.)

We had breakfast there and like the dinner we eat the previous night I eat and eat and eat, drank way to much coffee for someone who can't really move much at that point and made myself feel a bit ill by midday, we got the bus to the nearest small town  (Haltwistle) to pick up a few things (like my knee strap), but after taking some flu pills to alleviate my grogginess the extra caffeine sent me off the wrong way and by the time we took a second bus to get some lunch I had a big spell of nausea come over me, the sun then came out, and so we arrived at the pub (Twice Brewed, which I think is a play on the name of the area Once Brewed)  Once there I was feeling rough and unpleasant in the hot weather so ended up lying down on a shaded bit of gravel in the beer garden.

I mean, I shan't go on about it any more, needless to say I felt generally quite rough. I'm sure out was a culmination of issues but better preparation is an absolutely certainty in the future to avoid getting in that mess.

Its all a bit blurry there after again I'm afraid, I recall loitering briefly inside using the wifi to download a few podcasts. Once back at the Half way house mum qualified the policy that I really should not partake in the following days walk. Eventually I begrudgingly excepted that. The rest of the evening was quite pleasant though, we at some nice salads and breads picked up from Haltwistle earlier on and enjoyed a few local ales the guy sold there, sat in-front of some BBC 4 documentaries. I haven't watch conventional TV much for years, but sometimes it's bloody nice to stare in a sedated state at whatever being dished out. (If it's not to awful.)

It was interesting at least to see Haltwistle for the sake of the train station, identifying it from when we'd commuted across the country to Carlisle. The only other memory that springs to mind was an advert for learning Latin that peaked my interest, and a documentary about the Bowing 747 which  just perplexed me a little.