Day 11 - Tiverton to Taunton
Really sorry for the lack of regular updates but I'm finding it tough locating internet sources - it appears that it's only Bournemouth that has internet cafes! I'm currently in Glastonbury library and although there's normally a timelimit per 'visitor' of 20 minutes, the very kind librarian has let me stay on for another session...Had a fantastic nights sleep last night and woke not to the sound of bleating but mooing! Bright sunshine greeted my bleary eyes and after another hearty breakfast I set off towards Taunton. The first few miles were gently undulating and I'm getting into a familiar pattern of walking up the hills and running down them. Country lanes again through tiny villages, some just consisting of one or two houses. Halberton is bigger and dates back to the Norman times (everything aged seems to be from the Norman era!) with a very attractive little church that I had to run all the way round and then an ancient duckpond. Unfortunately the top half of the village was very run down and delapidated which was a shame after the bottom half. After a couple of fields I dropped down to the Grand Western Canal so at least this would be level going for the next few miles. Unfortunately no canal boats and I only passed a few people on my travels. No locks but plenty of tiny brick bridges which just added to the serene views. Running through Sampford Peverell I actually recognised the trail from a previous visit - quaint little church right next to the canal and a 'postman pat' like bridge up into the village, ducks and swans aplenty....get the picture (am I making you jealous?). Unfortunately just afterwards, the canal passed quite close to the M5 which spoilt the scenery and tranquility a tad. The hot weather caught me out a little and by the time the canal ended I was gasping for a drink - unfortunately hadn't come across a single pub alongside the waterway so had to take a 3/4 mile detour into Holcombe Rogus to visit the local pub (luckily the signposts from the canal tell you exactly when the village facilities are open / closed to avoid an unnecessary journey!). Duly refreshed I retraced my route back to the river and then followed the West Deane Way across several fields (some of the signs were a little to be desired and took me straight into a bog....wet feet again!) but on the whole the route was well signed and used. I tried looking for another drink at Bradford-on-Tone where there was both a pub and post office - unfortunately both were closed! It's no wonder so many post offices are closing these days if they only open in the morning! Where are they when you need one? Still following the river along the WDW across a lovely big field of small cabbages, I eventually got to the outskirts of Taunton where, like an oasis, I found a great little corner shop and stocked up on refreshments. My B&B was only about 1/2 mile away so walked the rest of the way. After chilling for a bit I walked into Taunton town centre in the evening in the hope of finding an internet cafe but no joy...pizza for tea!
Total mileage 25.4
Time 5.40

Day 12 - Taunton to Street
Sue Haynes (another Bournemouth Jogger pal) had phoned to say that she was going to come down to Taunton to join me on my day's adventures and safely arrived with her bike. In the meantime, I did manage to update the blog for day 10 using the (very) slow pc at the B&B : unfortunately both the O and U keys were missing on the keypad so I had to proof read my typing very carefully (apologies in advance if I missed any letters!). Yet another warm sunny day so duly plastered on the suncream and donned the sunnies. The first stop on today's journey was to the County Council offices in town, to try to get another stamp in my passport - they were very helpful and I eventually left with an official county seal for which the legal guys had to give authority...I feel priviledged! Then we headed off through town and picked up the towpath of the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal which again was very peaceful. The first young birds were starting to make an appearance - there was a pair of swans with 7 cygnets and a little later on, a couple of ducks with 2 young. We spent a bit of time watching some vigorous movements in the reeds, hoping that we might see an otter but they turned out to be created by some massive fish..whatever they were doing they were certainly having fun! At Bathpool we passed under the busy M5 and continued to Creech St Michael and onto Charlton where we left the canal and instead crossed over the railway line and continued our journey alongside the River Tone. Whilst there were plenty of gates, most of these were easily opened (apart from a couple where we had to join forces and lift the bike over) and the journey was really pleasant along a high bank. Then we hit trouble with a capital T in the form of stinging nettles....Sue came up with the brilliant idea of using her bike as a battering ram - the rape seed and hedge parsley had no defence against this weapon but when we lost the footpath we hit serious problems as the weeds were head hight and there were huge stingers hidden in them....by the time we decided that this wasn't actually the footpath, our legs were tingling all over and covered in red dots and wheals! Not pleasant. We decided to back track and then found the footpath had 'moved' to the bottom field instead! So just a little bit of a muddy bog to negotiate...To recover, we decided to have a lunch break at the foot of Windmill Hill - Sue had raided Waitrose earlier and laid on a terrific spread of munchies which probably wasn't the greatest fuel for running but tasted lovely anyway. Then we hit the road again, running alongside the River Tone but with a row of houses between - some of the houses were really well kept and quaint whilst others were ramshackle and appeared to be left to basically fall down which was a real shame. Over the railway line and into Athelney and onto Burrowbridge where I took a small detour from the route to visit Burrow Mump for a photo stop, a derelict church atop a hill owned by the National Trust. Going into Othery we seemed to hit the only hill on the Somerset levels and Sue zoomed past me on her bike....not fair. Ice-cream time at the local shop! At Beer Door, Sue elected to follow the minor lanes whilst I decided to take the 'shortcut' across the fields and meet her the other side - bad idea! back to stinging nettle territory every time I got to a stile which was bad news for my legs! At the next footpath sign, decided to play safe and go the longer lane route instead. Across King's Sedge Moor we briefly saw what we thought was a cow struggling to calve but it turned out that she had somehow fallen in one of the ditches and was being dragged out by a tractor - bit undignified! Caroline (yet another BJ...Bournemouth Jogger) phoned to say she was going to join me on my run on Sunday...getting to be a bit of a BJ reunion this trip is which is fantastic news! I was beginning to struggle in the last miles despite the flat terrain (Sue was getting very bored of the same endless views by this point!) and my legs hurt! Sunburt on the back of them, whipped with stinging nettles and having been pounding out almost 200 miles in the last couple of weeks - not that I'm complaining, but just wanted to let you all know that this isn't a holiday! Anyway, enough of the complaining...long trek across Butleigh Moor and then up through a bridleway to emerge at the top of Walton Hill. Great views of Glastonbury Tor in the distance and the marvellous sight of the Street YH at the end of the woods - we were both looking forward to a lovely cup of tea but unfortunately it was purely self-catering and NO MILK!! so we just had to scoff the rest of the cakes without liquid refreshment and the Sue set off to cycle the 15 odd miles back to her car at the Taunton B&B but this time she decided not to follow the same footpaths (although I did say that we had already battered down most of the stingers on our way through!) and went via the mainish roads. I really did enjoy her company today so thanks Sue! :o) The youth hostel was about 1/2 mile outside of Street and there was only me and another lady staying the night (she did kindly offer me use of her goats milk but then added that she needed to make it last for the next 3 days...talk about give and take in the same breath!). It was all very quiet and strange! Unfortunately whilst they did have a pc, my website was blocked so no updates for that night. I walked down into the village to try to grab something to eat - bad idea! All the shops are in the High Street, but I wandered around for at least 1 1/2 hours and didn't find it at all...just about to give up when I spied some locals and asked them...1/2 hour later I was stocked up on pasta 'n sauce, rice pudding, lucozade and MILK! Whilst cooking my pasta I put my music on speaker and started singing along - little did I know that the other woman was quietly reading in the other room, in direct earshot of my wailing! Oh well...she didn't complain.
Todays mileage 22.9
Moving time 5.29