6.7 leisurely miles today, kind of like an active walking Rest Day. My host brought me a full English breakfast (I felt excessively pampered), and we chatted about the warm and sunny days lately; I’ve been a lucky walker! I told her about my cow meet-up yesterday, and showed her my planned route for walking to Cheddar. She told me there would likely be cows in the fields on my route, and probably with calves. She suggested I find another way to get to Cheddar. So after doing my daily footcare routine, I planned a route to stay out of the fields and walk the smallest and quietest of country roads. There was a little more than a mile on a busier one, with no verges to get out of the traffic lanes. Nerve-wracking, but the busy road was very straight so all drivers could see me from a great distance and they were very polite to give me lots of room as they slowed to pass me.
I did pass a field of mommy and baby cows, and even though they were on the far side of it, and a hedge, fence and rhyne (pronounced ‘reen’ - a little waterway) separated us, predictably they stopped eating grass, looked at me, and then they ALL moved closer and started trotting to keep up with my pace. They just all clomped up together in the corner, staring, as I walked quickly away. Very unnerving, and cows will start filling my nightmares I’m sure.
When you walk the country lanes there’s a lot of history that pops up, people have used these routes for centuries. I came to a crossroads and saw a way marker cross from the 1400’s (it lost the cross at the top at some point), the cross symbol helped promote established religious order - early propaganda of a sort, and the way markers helped people move about in hard to navigate environments or along pilgrimage routes. I noticed a street light that’s rare in small hamlets, I’m sure it was the kind that used to be gas lit; I took a photo and realized that beside it was a modern electricity wire. History layered.
As I walked, I saw in the distance Cheddar Gorge, the gap above the town I will be walking up tomorrow to cross over the Mendip Hills. It grew closer. It’s going to be a big climb for the first mile, maybe 800ft. I’ve included the elevation profile below. Coming into Cheddar I found myself on the best footpath ever, soft, wide. There was a fun rope bridge (not to cross thankfully) and boats local people are using in their back garden rhyne.
In Cheddar I passed another medieval stone cross, this one to show the location of the town’s market. The medieval civic engineers were great propagandists, taking every opportunity to throw up a cross. I was early for checking into my Airbnb, so I stopped to get lunch for tomorrow at a gas station shop and to the pub for lunch for today. Quirky sighting: the gas station had a laundromat at its roadside. Very convenient, taking care of lots of tasks at once!
I’m staying in another shepherd’s hut tonight. A much more rustic one; will not be having breakfast brought to me. These were used for hundreds of years by shepherds in the lambing season to keep the flocks safe. Not necessary anymore since the 1940s, but I guess some old abandoned ones were found, fixed up, and started a craze. I think my one last night was a fully modern build, very fancy. Tonight’s I think was hobbled together from old and new pieces by my very groovy, handy host. He’s also placed a stone circle in his garden from stones found nearby. Best thing about my home for tonight is that I can see Glastonbury Tor 8 miles away.
