(More
photos coming in here, scroll down to see one from closer to the
site) Monday early...."Dad and Sandy go off to Brighton this morning – they will be in a rush and leaving early so I have already said my goodbyes yesterday. I`m glad to have the morning here still, so that I can spend more time with John, and also see Margaret when she comes down ....." Written
Monday
evening....."Ivan
came at 12 and drove me to
the
bridge at Ashwater. He also had offered to take my other heavier
rucksack on to Bradworthy for me. It was a grey day, with low cloud,
and quite cool. I asked if I could take his photograph and here
he is, standing near the bridge. I started with real enthusiasm up the the hill out of Ashwater. I have always loved hills, not just looking at them but walking and most of all running up them, the steeper the better, in fact the only kind I don`t like are long draggy ones. When I was a runner I loved doing what what was called hill-reps- running up a steep hill, down again, and then up again, a number of times.
I
imagined I was still in my
running
days and attacked the hill, going at a good pace, (for walking!) of
about 16-17 minutes a mile. I went past Ashwater School, and thought
how good it was to see a village school still thriving. I took some
photos of it, including their recycling sheds. As the walk progressed
and I took more and more photos this had a cumulative effect on my
timing, until I could no longer tell how many minutes a mile I was
doing, but anyway, it wasn`t a race.
The banks were high
with flowers-
so
many bluebells, stitchwort,
sometimes an orchid, still some
primroses, stitchwort intertwined with sticky burr, buttercups and
parsley, one of the varieties I usually call cow parsley but probably
isn`t. The views were both intimate – small fields with cattle or
sheep grazing in them – and wide views of wooded valleys as I came
down into them. I passed a fish -farm then took a hill out of the
valley.
2009 note: this spot was about the closest
that I came to the new sites of Brandis Corner and Chilla
Moor. Ivan had told me
that there was a
photo
of the start in the Western Morning News, so in Holsworthy I went
into the local supermarket and picked one up. I stopped briefly for a
cup of tea in a small cafe, used the public toilets by the bus-stop
and the church, then went on, towards Bradworthy, with my umbrella up." Click here for
the second part of this walk, from Holsworthy to Bradworthy back to the map |