The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Thursday 18 August 2011

East to West Photos: Day 5

24 March (0710-1615)
Distance: 22.25 miles (tot: 88.5) (Swanton Morley to Pentney)
Weather: wall-to-wall sunshine

Day 5 was ridiculously hot for the time of year, and also quite long. It hadn’t started hot, mind. In fact, it was so cold in the night that, when I got up in the morning and visited the heated toilet block, I had to wonder why (as we were the only people on the site) we hadn’t just slept in there.

This was the start of the super-hot day:

 Day 3-5

The mist soon burnt off.

My only memory of my previous trip into this part of the country (in 1981) was of one of these structures on a village green. We took advantage of the benches in this one for a quick break. I was hot and bothered and my feet were protesting, and we still had a long way to go.

Day 3-6

There were some very pretty properties to distract us along the way:

Day 3-7

If it hadn’t been for the length of the day, then we would have spent longer investigating the remains of the castle at Castle Acre. As it was we still took the time for a quick look around, before hotfooting it to the nearest pub to rehydrate and refuel.

Day 3-8

Soon after the pub, the old Priory looked worthy of investigation too, but after a quick snap we moved on.

 Day 3-9

With 21.5 miles down I think this photo says a lot about how much I was struggling with the distance and the heat of the day. Happily it only took a couple more days before my body got used to the daily assaults and stopped protesting.

Day 3-10

The original posting for the day can be found here.

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