Day 7: my first walking companion


Day 7:

Day 7: Somerset. Opened my poste restante at the Angel Hill Guest House, Tiverton. I forgot to pack my nutritional supplements for the Land's End - Tiverton section and have lived off what Ran Fiennes calls 'cafe food' for 6 days. I therefore had a delightful first breakfast of branch chain amino acids, 48 grams of whey protein and a recovery shake fortified with vitamins and minerals. I swapped the full English for oats and berries. I could hear my body thanking me. In return I asked for another 25 miles. This started at 09:35 and the first 10 miles along the Tiverton-Taunton canal - nice easy flat miles - shot by. Until the tow path abruptly ended in a muddy field. Off came the running shoes (sigh) and on went boots and gaiters. It went well until the dwindling markers vanished and I was left with only dead reckoning and a sinking feeling until hero of the day Mark arrived at exactly the right moment. Mark just so happened to be a specialist of the local area which is fortunate because I was on the verge of becoming lost. 'I thought I'd catch you up here' he said as I turned my map around a few times and scratched my head. Mark is an ex-military mapping specialist, former adventurer, ski instructor and geographer - my first walking companion in a week! He showed me the way through Thorne St Margaret and we walked through Tone to Nynehead and I got a guided tour of the local area instead of being stuck. Instead I was able to make my 25 miles to Tan Pits Cider Farm camp site a mile or two east of Taunton. Thanks again Mark!

DAY 8

A note about the blog

I must be the only LEJOGer without a smart phone. This means I don't have the ability to update this blog when I'm on the trail. My support team back home kindly offered to update the blog for me, so this will be communicated by text message and written up on my behalf. It will therefore be brief and without photos. I will expand on this when I get back from my journal entries, dictaphone recordings and photo journal. The detailed account will be published as a book which will be available on Amazon.

Charity

Thank you to everyone who has made a donation to Helping Hands for the Blind, a respectable local charity. You can make a donation here. Using Gift Aid, the charity is able to claim an additional percentage of each donation from the government as part of the Gift Aid scheme.  

While I am not tracking how much has been raised, the charity themselves may wish to do that; leaving a note with your donation such as "LEJOG" will help them do that. To be frank, it's more important that they receive donations than it is for me to take credit; they're actually doing something important whereas I am going on what could be described as a holiday.

My books

Lastly and leastly, I am an independent author. Writing is a pleasure even if reading it isn't! I will write an account of my LEJOG journey in the form of a book which hopefully will encourage other people to give LEJOG a try (and probably discourage many more). If you want a copy, the first batch will be given free of charge. Ask and you shall receive...

My other books are available on Amazon:


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