PRACTICE DAY! (because Practice makes permanent!)Today was my Practice walk and Berkhamsted seemed a good a place as any to try my first walk with my heavily laden backpack (8kg!) and as they had kindly arranged their Bluebell walk to coincide with a free day i had, it seemed rude not to make use of their marked route!
We arrived in time to start at 10.45am with a bit of drizzle and overcast skies but it was good not to have heavy rain as that would really have put a dampner on my ever growing enthusiasm!
After a somewhat sleepless night worrying about how it would feel to carry my full bag, i was pleasantly surprised that i had not keeled over after the first 4 miles when we reached
Checkpoint number 1. Unfortunately (or not?!) the Steward advised us that our 18 mile route followed the Pink signs which we duly did, until we found we had missed out the entire 6 mile add on and so were in fact on schedule for only the 12 mile route! OH, WHAT A SHAME!??!We therefore commiserated in the local Greyhound Public house over a pint (of soda water and lime!) & hot bowl of chips before getting back on track for our last stretch! I was surprised to find we had covered about 13 miles over 4.5 hours which was a bit slower than i was expecting but i was pleased to be managing my pack and make it back home for a hot bath!
11 days and counting ..... not sure if i am counting down or up but its approaching and i am one step closer to leaving slightly more prepared i think!
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