I am planning to run /walk /crawl again, this time from John O'Groats down 'South' to St Albans .......... not sure how far i will get but its one heck of a journey!

Sunday 27 June 2010

DAY 37 - SAD DAY FOR ENGLAND BUT STILL A HAPPY DAY FOR ME!

SANDY TO BUNTINGFORD


The ‘Penultimate Day’ and boy was it set to be a scorcher with weathermen predicting today to be the hottest day of the year so far!! Well on that note, I was on fire & raring to go but had presumed that the breakfast would be on Sunday service mode and a little on the slow side – wrong! Supersonic service as i was the first down to be served and as a few things had run out, it didnt take long to be ready.

Louisa and Tony arrived around 10am, all ready for marching me on towards Buntingford and Louisa set off at such a pace, it was hard to believe she only had a baby 8 weeks ago! I was almost breathless at the speed but it was great to melt away the miles and before we knew it we had covered off the first 6 miles!

Tony ‘kerb crawled’ next to us (but not in any sordid way of course Mr Dalwood!) supplying us with much needed water, juice and grapes and i think he also got to enjoy a few quiet moments catching up with the Sunday papers in a layby ahead until we caught him up and ate him out of house and car!

At the 6 mile spot it was handover time and he swapped with Louisa to help me over the next 5 miles whilst Louisa disappeared off in a heat haze to visit her relatives who coincidentally were only in the next village!! There was one more handover after Tony’s stint pounding the pavements & country lanes, where Louisa and i shared some ice-cream but before we knew it, we had reached Steeple Morden and it was time to call Time to allow Tony to get back to a house full of guests for the World Cup game!! (I so appreciated their company however so THANK YOU THANK YOU for coming all this way to help me along today!)

They very kindly dropped me at my very LAST B & B location, a beautiful country pub in the very heart of Hertfordshire – the Sword Inn Hand - and i was shown to my lovely room in the garden area, complete with roll top bath and 4 poster bed! I was well in need of a shower by this stage having walked 11 miles in the very heat of the day and enjoyed relaxing away the afternoon whilst the rest of the Country seemed locked in a time wharp as boos and cheers could be heard from the nearby Bar as the match got under way!!

Instead i chilled with ITV2 and ‘Holiday Showdown’ while England seemed to sadly let things slip away and suffered a rather humiliating 4-1 loss to Germany! Oh dear. (Sorry Olivia that we are no longer in the game!)

It seems almost surreal that tomorrow i will reach Bishops Stortford and nearly the end of my nearly 6 week journey ..... it has been full of good (and some bad/terrible up North!) weather, wonderful people and some absolutely amazing countryside and scenery. I am inspired to explore more at a later date and hope my enthusiasm for all things outdoors spills over into my life once i get home, starting with more cycling and the swimming theme i have begun on.... It has also been a bit of a wake up call reminding me that i can do anything i set out to achieve and whilst i may not have reached Lands End on this stint of the journey, i have achieved a tremendous amount in covering over 500 miles so far...... which was exactly what i set out to achieve...

No comments:

Post a Comment