Last night our campsite was quite strange; it had a good write up in the books but the poor new owner, who had only just moved in the day before, really has a big job on his hands. It has good facilities but everything is tatty, chipped or not quite working properly. It has obviously fallen into disrepair very quickly as it won an award for best toilet blocks in 2010!
Which brings me nicely to the subject of Bridgwater - a place I have memories of travelling through looking for a new tyre for a borrowed Mini in 1975 (our friend had forgotten to put the spare in) and of stopping here briefly, for refreshment, on our way south when the children were little. It, too, looked in disrepair, uncared for , like a ghost town with lots of boarded-up shops, charity shops and no tourist info centre. A very sad place; it couldn't even get its road signs correct.
A footnote - after a wet 6 miles with The Walker, I visited the Clark's Shoe museum at Street. Amazing; the history of shoes, examples from all eras and even displays from foreign countries. My kids will be pleased to know that their Clark's shoes and sandals are now displayed in the museum... well not theirs exactly........but they are now history!
One of several attractive murals in Street - this one depicting the town's shoe industry
I kept bumping into this man with grey and white hair, shorts, map case and walking stick in Street and Glastonbury so I took him to a really posh campsite with showers that you only need to wave at to make them work!
From Bernie:
Today's walk 17.5 miles : Cumulative 275.3 miles
Less than a thousand miles to go - now I feel we're really rattling on!
Huge shock to the system, today, dealing with the traffic & people of Bridgwater, Street & Glastonbury after the quiet of Exmoor & the Coast Path. I had great difficulty in finding my way out of Bridgwater: there's always a tendency to believe road signs rather than the map in your hand, especially when the map is over 20 years old! Needless to say, the map proved to be unerringly correct!
The difficulty lay in the railway, the M5 & King's Sedgemoor Drain - all of which are pretty fearsome barriers to eastwards progress when you're walking! Greatest joy was the enormous arch-like footbridge over the motorway though I swear it shook as I crossed.
King's Sedgemoor Drain near Chedzoy
Highlight of the Day: wandering the lanes around Chedzoy (a lovely little village with a 12th century church), the site of the 1685 Battle of Sedgemoor which brought the Monmouth Rebellion to an end. I'd only ever viewed this from the M5 & it had meant little more to me than the name of a motorway service station. To walk through the countryside, past cottages that would have witnessed those events, was an eerie experience.
Another highlight was the lady who stopped me in Street to tell me what lovely brown legs I have! What do you answer to that when your wife's walking beside you??!
Nesting swans on the marshland near Chedzoy
Beer of the Day: a diversion to the village of Ashcott, after we discovered that the pub at Moorlinch doesn't open at lunchtime, led me to the 'Ring o' Bells' & a pint of 'Northern Star'. Brewed by a local micro-brewery as an occasional 'special', it's a very pale but hoppy beer - very good, too!
Almost popped in here to see what they could do for knees....!
Two days ahead of schedule, now, but we have a couple of gentler days ahead!
Trevor & the boys: thanks for the message & thanks to Joe for keeping on looking at the map & reading the Blog - it keeps me battling away with this blessed laptop to get the thing published!
Camped just behind Glastonbury Tor - an impressive spot
nice shot of Glastonbury Tor and you shoud be walking and not chatting up the ladies :)
ReplyDeletenathan
Hi!
ReplyDeleteThe big bear on the right is Brewster!
He's the one I fell in love with many years ago and wanted to bring home for my garden - I think I saw the original in the Lake District - the man who made them said he could post him to me.
I'm still saving up!
Di