What a fabulous day! 12.3 miles in 6hrs 20min, including a quick lunch standing in the shade of a magnificent oak tree, followed by a long chat with a sweet man driving a horse buggy. The horse was also super sweet! Various terrain and paths, starting with the big climb, which was not as awful as I feared because a forest then the heathland of the Mendip Hills were beautifully distracting.
I walked through so much history today, starting with that forest and heath: the forest was created by humans maybe 700 years ago as hunting grounds for the Feudal lords of the manor, and the heaths managed even longer to be grazing grounds, keeping the vegetation scarce. Now it’s an established ecosystem on its own merit, but one that needs continued human involvement to protect. The Mendip Hills have been quarried for hundreds of years and mined for lead for thousands. I passed the site of a Roman fort next to the path to protect their mining venture, and then read a sign that described how Victorians took it to the extreme 150 years ago with huge factories, extensive waterworks and pits, and hundreds of laborers, including children, that evidentially resulted in a very loud, smoky, toxic environment unbelievably different from the bucolic, bird song filled valley I was standing in. The Victorians did scour the earth so greatly it created holes and bumps and dams that are part of the landscape today.
I continued walking through a grand estate that the current owner allows passage on, but one day a year they close it to the public, and this stops it becoming a public right of way. There was a memorial to mark the 80th anniversary in 2024 of a US WWII bomber that crashed into the field in fog returning from a mission. Then I went down a steep forest path, through villages and farmland. I saw three rabbits chasing round and round a small copse on the hillside opposite from me; at first I thought they were running away from something, but they just kept at it. I watched them for at least five minutes, like dogs who have the zoomies, racing all over. I was welcomed by a kind sign outside a farmhouse.
All went well until I came to an overgrown field with an electric fence across it. I remembered reading while prepping for this trip that sometimes you have to disarm an electric fence. I hadn’t read further to learn how. So there I was in the middle of tall grass, turning my cell service on so I could google how to deal with an electric fence on a marked footpath. Made it through that to discover the entrance to the next field had a ‘bull in field’ sign. There probably wasn’t, all I could see was a sheep. But I doubled back to be safe, and walked through a weirdly deserted farm with many derelict cars and cows safely in the barn, to quiet, hedge-lined roadway.
After that, I walked the last 3 miles on the Somerset lanes. And, met the man and his horse buggy. He told me I absolutely must not stop at John O’ Groats, but continue on to the Orkney Islands. Maybe. I’m still a thousand miles away from that decision. I mulled it over a bit while I enjoyed my apple crumble with custard for dessert.
