Monday 15th February 2016 – 265.98 miles

Bit chilly last night. Up at 5.30 and away by 7.30.

Walked uphill to the main road – very busy road and glad that we only had to walk 50 metres of it before turning off onto a much quieter lane. Ahead was level walking and in the distance the Mendip Hills bathed in early morning sunshine.

Found our first bench of the day by Chiltern Polden village hall and ate breakfast – the last of our egg and cheese sandwiches left over from yesterday.

For the next few miles the lane zigzagged it’s way towards the Mendips crossing the many drains that carry the water away from the levels. Just north of a hamlet called Burtle we reached a “short cut”!! It passed River House Farm. The first 500 metres as far as the farm were easy. Then the footpath disappeared. Following the track on the GPS lead us to an almost impenetrable jungle of fallen willow and the biggest tangle of brambles we’ve ever seen. Sensible people would have given up and turned back but not us! We soldiered on hacking our way through for the next 100 metres – at one stage we were on all fours crawling our way through.

To make matters worse the next 600 metres were very muddy. Eventually we reached the road and vowed not to take shortcuts along footpaths again. Shortly after, a landrover stopped and Alistair Comer and his son Ben asked how long we’d been walking. We chatted about our walk and discussed the best place to get a cuppa. Alistair recommended Nanny Ida’s in Wedmore as a good place to go. Thanks Alistair and Ben. Walked on for another few miles and came to the outskirts of Wedmore. Met Colin a postman who wished us luck and then we met Claire, a post lady who also wished us well – we gave them a flyer. We also handed flyers to John Morse and Yousef Kouidri. Nanny Ida’s proved to be everything we were promised.

A very welcome pot of tea. I ordered a sausage and onion chutney sandwich too. Dave didn’t want one till he saw mine – I said he would have to order one of his own! We enjoyed our time at Nanny Ida’s and had time to catch up with our blog too.

Thanks to Margaret and Dan and also our compliments to the chef (another Dan) the sandwiches were delicious.
We walked along to the local shop to buy some supplies – bread etc. Dave phoned our friend Emily who offered to come and pick us up for an overnight stay. As it was going to be very cold overnight we gratefully accepted. We waited in The Swan pub as Emily would be a while.

Dave enjoyed a cider and I had beer. Had a great evening with Emily and Steve and their family. Supper was a very tasty chilli with rice and wine was taken too! Thanks Steve and Emily for a very pleasant evening and a warm place to sleep.