Day 24 - Bridgnorth to Penkridge
Sincere apologies everyone for the lack of communication but I'm all up and running (excuse the pun!) again now and signing in from Priestcliffe courtesy of John and Margaret. So, story continues.....
Yet another fab breakfast (still not bored of the 'full English'!). Melissa kindly gave me £5 and another couple staying donated a further £20. Sunny so although I'm still donning my leggings, I did opt for a t-shirt today. After sadly leaving my 'country mansion' my route took me through fields of sheep and then a bridleway through some woods - very wet, boggy and muddy (again!) but there was no way that I was going to start the day with wet feet so took it very slowly and was careful where I was putting my feet! Dropped down to the River Severn and across a footbridge and then through Apley Park where a couple in a car stopped me, thinking I was from the public school and playing truant! Running through a field of cows it wasn't until I'd got very close that I realised there was a HUGE bull just feet away but luckily he wasn't bothered in the slightest. Went through a gatehouse and via a track through woods to Stockton where I picked up the Monarchs Way (this was supposed to be signed via a logo representing the Royal Oak tree at Boscobel in which Charles II hid with Colonel Carless, the Prince of Wales crown and the ship The Surprise on which Charles eventually escaped to France but all I found were stickers on a few lamp-posts!). It was a fairly flat route now mostly on quiet lanes. At Beckbury I crossed some fields full of some sort of cereal then more tracks and then round yet more fields of the same cereal crops stretching for over 2k....huge! By now the weather was overcast and a little chilly. I did pass one windmill but bit disappointing that it didn't have any sails. My legs were starting to feel really heavy this afternoon and it took me a while to twig that most of my day had been spent on the road as opposed to grassy fields and combined with my backpack weight wasn't really a great recipe! Crossed the M54 (yet another motorway to tick off) and soon on a bridleway alongside the walled boundary of Chillington Hall which I had to run all the way round to get to the other side (the estate filled 6 squares on my map!) and then continue on my NE route. I nearly trod on a pheasant and when she flew off I was unsure who was more startled! The Hall was actually a big red bricked mansion which wasn't particularly pleasing to the eye but did have a huge avenue of oak trees that stretched for over 1/2 mile with rare breed cattle grazing quite contentedly. I then dropped down to cross the canal and on into Brewood. Gently undulating lanes then took me across Watling Street (Roman road - dead straight and now the A5) and continued on these all the way through to Penkridge where I was staying at the Littleton Arms, a lovely brasserie type restaurant. The manager had kindly agreed to me doing a collection and after plucking up the courage to cold-call on people, they donated a fantastic total of £77.50. I met a party of 4 people - the lady proudly told me that she had just completed the MoonWalk marathon in London which raises money specifically for Breast Cancer Awareness. One of the men she was with unfortunately had just been diagnosed with cancer : she was quite emotional when she found out what I was doing and proudly said that it had made her evening....I felt very happy that I had done a little to make her feel that way.
Mileage 21.89 and time 4.42