Bushy heath to Edale

A short day today just 7 miles of walking to join up with the start of the pennine way which we will be using and abusing as suites us for the next 12 days cutting out unneeded sections and adding bits as suits us.
But today was a simple hike to castleton via the impressive gorge passed the ruined castle into the town for a good fryup and to restock Alfie's food for the next three days ( seems to like bakers complete ! ).
Headed out of town and over the hills via hollins cross in cold wind with grey skies and threats of rain, entering Edale the skys were black with the threat but held off till they'd left the valley (unlike last night when the tent had been put thru its paces (unintentional pun)).
Now warm and snug in the nags head pub , with food to order and all rest day chores done, may go for a relaxing walk tomorrow .............right !

Alstonefield to Bushyheath farm

The start for today was a brisk walk down a short lane followed by an abrupt and steep descent into Wolfscote dale and Biggin dale not as impressive as dovedale but very pleasing to pass thru, onto heathcote where I had a brief chat with some locals about geese and moorhens in a protected pond which they fed regularly.
Hopping down an embankment we walked along a converted railway track in freezing north easterly winds to the cafe adjacent to the road to Monyash mid Bacon roll we met Steve Clifford of end to end in 2010 fame (pic to follow) nice chap hope to meet up again!
Bit of road walking which I seem to like these days ?!!! To monyash then overlooking Taddington we descended sharply into Millers dale and just as sharply back out the other side! Now enjoying some sunshine we walked pleasant lanes and cross country to tideswell for a provisions stop and then up hill to our campsite at Bushyheath farm, all alone on this windy night but a very pleasing site with very green credentials.

Doveridge to Alstonefield

After leaving the campsite without paying ! No one there not our problem really.... we had a mornings walk very much looking to the horizon , with initial scenery quite normal to home we kept our beadey eyes on the hills ahead and the peak district , passing Rocester we picked up the route of the Limestone way and followed paths and roads to Thorpe and the start of Dovedale having not walked Thu here before I was impressed by the dramatic changes of view along the dale from charming river views to impressive caves at Dove holes (pic), too soon we reached Milldale and followed a steep road to Alstonefield settling into our campsite modestly priced at 4 pounds with reasonable facilities , we headed for dinner to the George Inn , very cosy and friendy to dogs and all. dinner was expensive but excellent duck shared with Alfie !

Cannock Chase to Doveridge

After a comfy night spent on the Chase where the rabbits had done a wonderful job of keeping a soft base for the tent ! We walked the forestry paths to Rugeley, for a cracking full English breakfast and to pick up more supplies, friendly folk in town very accepting of this smelly pair of wanderers, after we said what we were up too!.
Headed thru Colton and the unsignposted Stockwell Heath to stumble thru cattle fields fast becoming my worst underfoot surface! Better footing took us over the Blithfield reservoir dam to be assailed by a blizzard of mosquitos, I've never seen so many had to cover my mouth to prevent overdosing on protein and who knows what else!.
Into Abbots Bromley and dinner at the Baggot pub great place nice cheap food and entertainment from two locals ( mark and len) both pensioners who'd known each other for 20 years and had yet to settle their political differences, one Tory one labour but great friends despite the antagonism they relished !.
Some standard and uneventful walking thru fields bought us to Uttoxeter and a supply stop at Tesco only to find our path out of town obstructed by the industrial estate the path appeared to go through, a little imaginative trail blazing (ahem!) saw us taking a path over a much underused but pretty little suspension bridge into Doveridge and our abandoned campsite.....
For once Alfie's charms failed to get us both entry into the Cavendish pub so a quick pint and back to the tent to sleep.

Wombourne to Cannock Chase

The last section of canal walking today so farewell to level walking!
The route through wolverhampton i'd anticipated as being very industrial and to my great satisfaction it was'nt, other than the bridges overhead being busy with traffic and some major railway bridges with some great graffiti (pic to follow) you wouldn't have known you were in a major city! Well done to the local council for keeping it clean! .
Coming into the small canal intersection (?) Of cross green we met Adrian and sue who donated to our charity and also offered a place to stay near hebdon bridge , sadly a mid day point for us.
At Calf heath we an old chap looking to see the state of the local rabbits, plans for dinner I think !
Roads saw us to Huntington where I finally got my first stamp for the transit verification form the end to end club issue!.
Into the woods of the Chase we headed and made our first major mistake en route by simply turning right as the path hit the road than seeing that the route was right at a road junction slightly to our left ! Nearly a kilometer later as we saw a town ahead rather than the anticipated pub re routing was inorder (after a little swearing!) . A zigzaging route through more woodland took us to the pub and a major dissapointment as the pub was now a Baptist bible college ..... I had to walk right around the building before I could fully believe it! Baptists in a pub whatever next!
Thankfully we had enough food so pitched tent at our planned spot and slipped into sleep.

Bewdley to Wombourne

After a lovely 2 days off with Ruth  (sporty forties) and a fortifing fried breakfast we left our little bit of heaven and walked down into a quiet bank holiday Bewdley and once more onto the Severn way for the last time,

some lovely graffiti under a bridge on the severn

 quickly finishing this stretch we headed into Eymore wood and picked up the Worcester way through some hilly farm land to drakelow and then up onto Kinver edge, good views to left and right with plenty of dogs for the rejuvenated alfie to have a go at ....! A good viewpoint at the end of the edge over Kinver and down we went to look at St Austins rock this turned out to be St Austins rock houses all cut into the sandstone rock in true troglodyte fashion.

St Austins Rock houses and gardens

Walked into Kinver and food bought for a quick picnic on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal. pleasant plod along here with heron robins and a multitude of unidentified birds and the now normal odour of wild garlic coming into flower ,past Stourton we passed what is called on my map "Devils den" sadly unenlightened as to quite what this is other than seeing a door set into a cliff face at canal water level ......?.

Stopped for a drink at the pub at greensforge ,we had been passed by a family of cyclists with 2 more border terriers earlier  and met them again here where they ( the Mc Arthies) very kindly donated 20 pounds to the charity.

A push along the canal and we reached our Target wild camp for the night where the new tent was erected thanks to Ruth for sorting out our new tent! Which if JP of lejogplod ever see's it will find very familiar minus the cow hoof prints tho eh JP !     

Worcester to Bewdley

Today was a great day, at the start all of yesterdays problems were behind us (sorry!) And as the sun shone down we headed into Worcester, we lost our way slightly navigating the docks but as it had all been modernised sympathetically it was a pleasant maze to fathom.

Stopping near the catherdral a cappuccino and baguette was purchased at a posh cafe where I mentioned what we were doing (to explain our less than normal appearance) to a waitress who explained that she had just completed the Three peaks challenge of snowden,Ben Nevis and Scafell pike , she seemed impressed that I mentioned that I thought it was beyond my capability, nice to leave a smile on a strangers face !.
Back on the banks of the river we left Worcester behind on what is my favourite part of the Severn way I'm sure the sunshine had a lot to do with it but the whole section was untainted by constructions and even had a field set aside as a retreat for contemplation and rest , following this we walked through the grounds of the Camp house pub with its collection of chickens of various breeds and peacocks and peahens, a most charmingly eclectic pub which if I had known of its existence I would have enjoyed stopping at !

 
Further on we past an archeological survey taking place on an island in the middle of the river, other advocates of time team would've also recognized a geo phys survey. sadly didn't find out what they were looking for as the survey was at too early a stage.
Away from the river at Grimley and cross country for refreshment at the Holt Fleet pub, the river here and for sometime onwards has cute little wooden homes/shacks which I found charming in an isolated way, the path enters Stourport through more dockyards and small fairground.

Our way headed out of town towards Ribbesford woods where we met two fellow  lejogers this time cyclists Paul and Dan nice to add a pair of new faces to the nutters gallery.

The path into the woods had been obliterated by a motorcross course luckily shut down for the day, then on into the woods over steep hill and finally to Hoppleys campsite for a two day stop to meet up with Ruth my better half.
Back on the blog Monday.

Wainlode hill to worcestor

A nice early 7.30 start and we were away before the lads from London stired, would have been nice to say farewell as they were a great bunch of lads.

We kept to the Severn way on the east bank,(tho my map shows it on the west?)  Had breakfast of a pastie from my pack and plodded through the fields to tewksbury, pretty town worth another visit one day , had a great value/quality all day breakfast at a cafe where we were both allowed in, nice to eat without worrying about alfie.

 The route out of town took us past st johns castle tho we were to busy clambering over the small landslide on the path to notice it!
The way threaded through thick grass with clouds of mozzies at every step as we reached the M50 things went wrong, either the breakfast or the pastie was to blame but drastic action was required.

M50 another under bridge view!

As things continued to grumble away we hit a section of path zigzaging through a farm and sand/gravel pit which in my state was confusing and irritating to say the least and as the rain also started to fall we hit the A38 at Severn stoke all the way to our campsite on the ringroad of worcester.   
Still after a day such as it was we had completed our 20 miles planned and continued to keep to plan, seems to take a lot to stop us in our tracks.

Sheperds Patch to Wainlode hill ( a magical place!)

A great day! We raised 42 pounds from complete strangers without asking once! the rollcall of honour
Sandra & heinz,the crew of the barge Flossie,Richard Bond,Dave & Jenny,Lynn,and the landlord of the red lion at wainlode who returned our camping fee of 10 pounds upon hearing what we are doing! Thank you all!.
The walk itself was along the gloucester and sharpness canal passing many odd what I assume to be canal bridge houses with Corinthian columns and a general Greek look about them,

                                                         (one of the prettier ones!)
entered gloucester and resupplied the dog food , promptly leaving town again ( I'm sure gloucester is nice just didn't get a feel for the place )
Bit confusing finding the way out as my maps are a little out of date I'm sure I didn't plan to walk along the bypass!
Finally  finding the path I met three lads with full packs about to head north along the Severn too , but left them to finish discussing the route, we opted for an inland route about 2 kilometres shorter than the Severn way, taking us over a hill with great views to the malverns and more importantly to the pub and campsite at wainlode.
setting up tent we had our second pole disaster as the main pole snapped again! Now making do with my walking pole holding the tent up, works quite well and as s new tent is being bought out by my missus at the weekend its no great problem (see pic above) .
Having repaired our shelter we sat at the front if the pub eating lamb shank (alfie got the bone) and watching an amazing sky not too sure what made the sky so great (beer maybe ?) But it kept me fascinated !

The three lads I'd met in gloucester arrived we sat supping the local ale and chatted away, as the sun finally set some cars pulled up with huge nets on they're rooves after much speculation the landlord clarified that the men where fishing for elver (young eel) which will be exported to Hong Kong!

Severn bridge to shepherds patch

As I write this blog o have a small ball of ginger fur named Alfie hogging my sleeping bag! Not sure what's wrong with his ! Cute tho .
Today we woke to a thick mist obscuring everything this made both the Severn bridges very moody (will add pics soon)

 just north of the second bridge the mist started to lift revealing to heavily laden figures walking towards us, these turned out to be mike and Jenny from an army barracks in York walking from barracks to landsend each of them were carrying about 4 stone of gear! God knows what tho!

With the mists clearing the nice FLAT landscape was revealed with views of pastural bliss ! At west end sluice we dodged the extra mile to oldbury on Severn by hopping over a 15 foot long bridge owned by the water authorities and banned for use by us normal mortals, daresay most take this route, following this was the delightfull magnox neuclear power station ,

 topped up with water at what used to be a pub bit is now an autistic kids home (forget its name tho) here we also met Maggie, Annie and Dave cooper who kindly donated ten pounds to the charity and half of Annie's tea, yep alfies charm works again!

Wandered on to the old powerstation at hamfield farm and headed inland to Berkeley for supplies ,cut a corner here and walked cross country......

 to shepperds patch where our campsite is right at the back of the Tudor pub, plaice and chips for dinner mmmn.

Chew Stoke to The banks of the Severn

Started today feeling rough ! Don't think I've been taking on enough sugars felt better after a good English breakfast at the B & B tho, glad I did get my energies up too as today has been really hilly again, simple road route to Upper littleton then over Dundry hill to pick up the Monarch way to Long Ashton picked up pastries at a bakery and sat on flowery bank in the sun to eat my grub.
Went east out of town and into the Ashton court estate , pretty place with deer mowing the lawns for them!

Climbed out of the estate and entered Bristol via the Clifton suspension bridge cracking piece of engineering!

Then followed the bristol community forest path through town not much in the way of forest to my eyes! Went through some charming and no doubt incredibly rich suburbs and then through the council estates where I was able to restock food and get some more cash, from the council estates we decended to my chosen route over the M5 only to find the bridge had been demolished oh sugar I said..........
Did find an alternative route through Hallen which just happened to have an open pub , so that worked out nicely! Following this continued through the Crooks marsh petrochemical plants.........

 and finally to the severn way and our pitch on the banks of the estuary with great views to Wales and both the severn bridges as the sun sets over the water.

I think we managed to see most aspects of Bristol today, nice city too hilly tho !  

Glastonbury to Chew Stoke

Probably our earliest start at a fresh 7.20 am with a brisk march across the last of the Somerset levels a Sharp ascent up Ebbor gorge and just the clouds darkening Glastonbury as we looked back south and west......

 before we concentrate on the big push north, its been good to get off the roads for a bit, Alfie has so much more fun on paths and trails!
Exceptional timing today as we left the planned route to go to a pub named The castle of comfort for Sunday lunch. as we settled into roast chicken the skys opened and drenched the mendips where we would have been walking ! To be on the safe side we donned waterproof coats and created many smiles as passersby admired Alfie!, down from the mendips we passed my planned wild camp spot as it turned out to be private property ,oops! So on into chew stoke where we managed to sweet talk our way into a non dog B&B(cheers alfie)