Wet, lost and loving it...

Date: Fri 28th March
Distance: 14.5 km (9 miles)
Location: Hertford Heath, Goose Green, Martin's Green, Hoddesdon, Broxbourne.
Conditions: Very Wet, Muddy and very off-road...
Weather: Raining.
Participants: Wol

Shortly after leaving the house, the heavens opened and the rain continued throughout the duration of this adventure in the countryside. Started off by doing a quick loop of the estate and then headed off over the soggy fields to Hertford Heath, not really sure of where I was going to walk to. After a short period of time I came across the garage on the corner that I remember Lurch referring to as an access point for an old Roman road, so I thought I'd give that a try.

Indeed, this is part of the old Ermine Street Roman Road that runs from London to Lincoln and York, and this proved to be pretty easy going, past Balls Wood on the right and several nature reserves that I never knew existed and Hoddesdon Park woods on the left - through Goose Green and Martin's Green until I came out onto the road at the corner of Pembridge Lane and Cock Lane. At this point it was really hammering it down and although my feet were nice and dry, the rest of me was absolutely soaked (couldn't see very well with my hood up, so decided to get wet instead of getting mown down by a car). I proceeded along the road to join White Stubbs Lane.

As I approached Broxbourne I picked up another footpath parallel to the A10 and headed north. My big mistake was then taking a footbridge back across the A10 that lead me through woods to the back of the Hertfordshire golf club, where the trail came to an abrupt halt. To avoid the monotony of back-tracking I decided (maybe rather foolishly) to head off north through some fields and woods, over some fences and eventually joined up with a road that I mistakenly identified as Mangrove Lane.

After walking for a while and not passing some expected landmarks (I put this down to the rain driving into my eyes at inopportune moments), I stumbled across Martin's Green again and realised I was quite a bit further away from home than expected.

With the pressure on (I'd arranged to be picked up by the missus in Hertford Heath), I really stepped up the pace (which is not saying much as the muddy conditions were somewhat hampering my progress, and streams had suddenly appeared in front of me that weren't there on the way down...

With the clock ticking, I took the plunge and jogged the last mile, crashing through the mud and water until I met up with "support crew".

Very wet, absolutely knackered but loving this Trailwalker thing...

Carl.