Early bird...

Date: Sat 24th May 2008
Distance: 32.2km (20m)
Location: Bungay, Earsham, Mettingham
Conditions: Nettles, electric fences, some poor quality footpaths
Weather: Sunny

Participants: Wol

As mentioned on the previous blog entry, because I was not able to join the rest of the team, I had to venture out alone again into the wilds of the English countryside. As I was away camping with the family in Suffolk, I decided on an early start strategy in order to minimise the amount of disruption to the camping weekend. This meant starting out at 5am so I could be back by midday - this was not too bad as I'd had an early night and the weather was fine (might have been a different story if it had been chucking it down).

I'd already done a bit of prep work and partly planned my walk - I was going to walk some of the Angles Way which goes round the town where we were staying and to make sure I didn't over/under-estimate distance, I decided to walk for about 3 hours and then re-trace my steps to satisfying the 6 hour walk requirement.

I headed out the back of Bungay and then picked up the Angles Way, going through Earsham and then up around Outney meadow - a mixture of roads, footpaths and fields. The going was generally OK, but some footpaths were pretty badly maintained and difficult to find and I also had to negotiate my way over three electric fences that had been erected to help herd cattle from the fields to a farm. I know that the wires don't carry enough voltage to be fatal but I didn't fancy using my wedding tackle to test what kind of shock could be received, so it was with some trepidation and concentration that I negotiated the fences.

After a couple of hours I'd wound my way back into Bungay, where I saw my first person since starting my walk. This happened to be a man in a fluorescent jacket feeding a load of chickens on a roundabout - a little bit strange, so I thought I'd avoid eye-contact and just continue on my way - I then noticed he was calling over to me, so I extracted my ipod earbuds and responded with an "Alright?". Took me a few attempts to understand what he was saying, but eventually got it - "Early Bird". I smiled, stepped up the pace, stepped through the chickens and continued with the walk.

I also had a strange enocunter with the second person I saw on my walk. He was walking in the opposite direction, and as we passed, we exchanged greetings. 15 minutes later, I ended up catching up and overtaking him.... weird.

What is now becoming a regular feature of my solo-walks, I did get lost. I somehow missed a footpath and once I'd realised from landmarks that I was somewhat off the beaten track I had to head off through some wheat-fields towards some houses where I guessed I could pick up a road and re-align myself with the map. I thrashed through some weeds and nettles and stumbled out on a road. Only then did I noticed a footpath sign pointing the way I'd just come (now I can safely say that no-one has used that footpath for a very long time...). The road lead to Mettingham, I got my bearings and then I headed back onto the the Angles Way.

It was time to turn round and head back, so I followed the map to determine where I'd taken a wrong turn before, and was reasonably satisfied when I realised where I'd gone wrong that there was no way I could have spotted the sign I'd previously missed - it was all but engulfed by vegetation.

Six and half hours later, I arrived back at camp - quite tired and with sore feet, but generally not too bad. Good job really, because after a quick kip we all went off for a bike-ride...

Wol.