Day 24 Approaching the Quantocks

I had a restful night at the Royal Oak, followed by Eggs Benedict for breakfast. There were also mini pains aux raisins. Yum. I had only 8 miles to go today as I had engineered the route to go over the Quantocks tomorrow so I had a leisurely start and had time to take some photos.

Today was along both the Coleridge Way, marked with a feather-that’s the signpost symbol, not a real feather, and the Macmillan Way West, not marked at all. Well, there were footpath signs, but no indication that one might be on a named path.

After setting off in the wrong direction, yes, I have a map, no, I didn’t look at it. I was trying to impress a couple of other lady walkers so strode off briskly and purposefully. Luckily, there was a footpath cutting through to where I wanted to go so I didn’t have to walk back past them.

The paths today were wooded, and in some places quite overgrown, particularly on the Macmillan Way. The gates were in pretty poor condition as well. The photo below looks as if there is some green spirit presence, but that’s just the photo. It didn’t look like that in real life.

The weather was overcast, so I wasn’t aware of the partial solar eclipse but I did pass a Bronze Age cist in Langridge Wood. A cist is a stone-lined grave, and a skeleton was found when the mound over the cist was dug up for road building in the 1820s. I also found a skeleton, unlikely to be of Bronze Age origin and definitely not human. I debated whether I should post a picture of the skeleton but decided that some of you might find comparative anatomy less interesting than I do, so I haven’t. And it wasn’t that good a photo anyway.

I was now nearly three miles in and approaching Roadwater. I stopped for an orange juice and soda water at the Valiant Soldier pub. The landlord told me he had had about five End to Enders (another name for we LEJOG’ers) in over the last couple of weeks, all of them men. We discussed how we were all later this year, rather like the spring flowers, but he thought he wouldn’t see many more. There is a guide to the End to End trail and the route goes through Roadwater which is why he sees so many of us. Roadwater also has a village shop and cafe, where I bought a couple of apples, it being a little early for lunch, and rather unusually, a Scientific Instrument company.

At Roadwater I left the Coleridge Way and joined the Macmillan Way. Mind you, as I’ve mentioned, you wouldn’t know you’re on it and it’s fairly clear that it’s not a well-trodden path.

I soldiered on, stopping for lunch at a corner of a field. I sat there for a while reading my book until the rain came on and forced me to put it away. It was only a short shower, so I was able to take my waterproofs off before heading down to Williton. The rock here is Devonian red sandstone (and mudstone and siltstone) and the buildings are unpainted stone, giving it a different look from earlier in the week.

Still a lot of streams although today’s are mainly confined to proper stream beds, and look a lot prettier for it. So pretty that I very nearly took off my shoes and socks and had a paddle. Very nearly.

Williton, where I’m staying tonight (White House Hotel) is quite pretty coming in over the fields but is rather blighted by the A39 that runs through the middle of it. Still, it has useful shops, I’ve topped up on plasters and biros (I’ve lost two in the last week) and discovered things I never knew existed.

I’ve just finished my dinner, butternut squash and spinach risotto which is just like something I might eat at home only with truffle oil. My next decision is what to have for pudding. There’s no STP on the menu, I think I’ll go for cheesecake.