LEJOG
Distance walked – 36.1km (22.5miles)
Total Distance – 775.4km (484.6miles)
There are places I’ll remember
All my life,
Though some have changed
The Beatles – In My Life
Goat’s Head Pub
We stayed in Abotts Bromley last night, an eccentric and slightly sinister English village. Our B and B, looked out over the Market Square and The Goat’s Head pub. The pub is a 16th century timbered black and white building with a room named after Dick Turpin who stayed there after one of his nefarious escapades.
The village, however, is more famous for its Horn Dance, which is an English folk dance, dating back to the Middle Ages, which occurs in the village once a year in September. It involves 12 dancers, six of whom carry large sets of reindeer antlers (The antlers are kept in the village church for the rest of the year). The other dancers include a Hobby Horse, a Maid Marian, and a Fool. They dance through the village and surrounding areas accompanied by accordion music in an all day procession before finishing on the village green where a fair is held.
No fair or procession yesterday, however, and despite there being four pubs in the village and one curry house, none of them served food on a Monday (at least to us). We ate sandwiches in our room instead, nervously, like Edward Woodward, waiting for something to happen. . . .
Safely on the Way
Luckily, we slept soundly, with no dancing or banging on the wall from the next room, and left Abbots Bromley safely, after a hearty full cooked breakfast and with a packed lunch provided by the B and B.
Today our walk was to take us into Derbyshire and the southern part of the Peak District National Park. This is an area very special to us, as we spent our honeymoon there, 24 years ago. It is a beautiful part of the country and a walker’s paradise. First, however, there was the small matter of walking 30+km to get there.
Staffordshire Way
We followed the Staffordshire Way for half our journey today, before joining the Limestone Way into the Peak District. The morning was initially monotonous, with the route following the edge of giant prairie like fields of crops. Despite this, the walking was easy with well-maintained field edges, and there was always something to look at: the vivid yellow of the rapeseed crops, a small brook with mature trees in various stages of Spring bloom, a copse beside the field. At one stage the path took us in a giant elongated Z, like Zorro had flashed his sword across the landscape, inadvertently creating the route.
Crossing a Harry (live action)
The prairies gave way to dairy pasture fields where the walking was not easy. The fields were either knee high in wet Spring grass, or chewed up by the cow hooves, each step risking a stumble. And then there were the stiles. . . We estimate that we climbed over 70 or 80 stiles today. We find the stiles difficult to negotiate with our backpacks and sticks, and each one requires significant physical effort and concentration. We have nicknamed the stiles, Harrys, for obvious reasons (although his popularity remains a mystery to me). The Harrys are in a variety of styles, (see what I did there), some having two steps, some only one, some having a post to hold, some not. They are often in poor repair with wobbly or missing steps. We do not like the Harrys. All in all, the going was tough, our guidebook describing this section as one of the low points of the entire journey.
The Way out of Uttoxeter
With some relief we reached the city of Uttoxeter. We found a quick route that took us through the city (passing the famous racetrack), and out the other side. We crossed under the busy A50, before a better section along the Dove River took us to the edge of a shooting club firing range.
Yikes!!
The red flag was up which meant shooting was in progress (we could hear it all around), so we proceeded with care, ensuring we stuck to the path. We emerged, thankfully, unscathed and then followed an easier bridleway into the village of Rocester, home of the JCB factory. We had lunch in the churchyard, they always have some benches, before setting off on the Limestone Way.
Farewell Staffordshire Way – Hello Limestone Way
One of the problems we have found on these long walking days is that there are no public toilets anywhere on the route. The villages we pass through, almost without exception, have no facilities. Even the bigger towns often don’t have public toilets. This has meant that I have, unfortunately, had to resort to a natural approach to the problem on a couple of occasions. This has been christened an Edith PIAF (or Poo In A Field), or Edith for short. (Thanks to The Kentons for this acronym). Needless to say, an Edith was required today.
South Peaks
After many more Harrys, the walking slowly improved as we gained the southern section of the Peak District, and the hills became higher, with deep interspersed valleys. We felt like we were coming home.
Stone Harry
As well as the Harrys changing to the traditional stone stiles of the area, we also noticed that the buildings were now constructed from the dark gritstone of the Peak District.
Several more ups and downs, found us in the village of Thorpe, before we realised that our B and B was a further 2km down the road. We were very tired by now, and the last few kilometres dragged on, so it was with relief we rang the doorbell, and were greeted by Sarah, the cheery owner, with offers of showers and fish and chips, which we gratefully accepted.
Hopefully less Harrys tomorrow (and no Ediths).
6 Responses
Harry and Edith – a match made in heaven
They should never be in close proximity though! 🙂
You’re going to have to jog a bit if you’re gonna get to glasgow in time for my 50th guys.
Belated celebration in a field perhaps??
After catching up on 4 days walking, I am thoroughly exhausted🤣. Loving the blog, not sure want to hear a lot about Nigel’s version of Edith but we are mad about Harry💕
Edith stories should be kept to the bare minimum 🙂