Day 2 - Lynton, Combe Martin

~18 miles / Sunny / 5 Deer

Knee sore within 3 minutes, I decided to alter the 18 mile a day plan to allow me to get used to carrying a heavy rucksack again.

I had a coffee in Lynton and thought about various options, talking them through with the waitress at the one cafe in town open at 9am. Physio means going to Barnstaple to try and get an appointment with someone who will most likely tell me to rest and build up strength. The better option for me is to take a day (well, 12 hours) rest, see if I can find a support and plan to carry on tomorrow. Concious of time, this meant a bus to Combe Martin, but well worth it if I can shake the problem early on.

* Photo, Combe Martin

Day 1 - Minehead, Porlock

~ 17 miles / Sunny
Quite an eventful day, all things considered. After having another chat with Andrew at the YHA about the SWCP and specifically my options for today, I felt well prepared. Three hours later, I had completed the first day according to the 8 week guide book. Arriving at lunch time in Porlock allowed me to hide from the midday sun in The Ship Inn, eating prawn cocktail and drinking amber ales. Doesn't exactly sound like the hard life yet. The end of the day and the following day changes that!

I bumped into two ladies at England's smallest church, so I was informed, in a tiny settlement called Culbone. I sat in the church for a couple of minutes, and although I'm not a particularly religious person, there was a real sense of calm and tranquility inside. Light filtering in through the little windows and the distant sound of water in the stream added to the effect. Annie and .... (is it Jean? Sorry, my phone crashed after I wrote this post the first time ) took an interest in my story and I've decide I need business cards with  my blog/JustGiving details on so that I don't have a repeat of the embarrassing moment when a teabag is the only thing I have to write on. Teabag signed, I headed off wondering why my complaining knee hadn't gone away unlike the ankle and hips, which briefly had a tantrum and then got on with the job in hand.

The niggling pain in my left knee was getting worse on downhill sections. After stopping for supper in a combe with a stream, my knee tightened up and the final few miles of the day were pretty painful. Hopefully a good night sleep would sort it. Despite the perfect location, flat grassy area sheltered by bushes, clear skies, sleeping with the fly off under the stars, my knee began to complain pretty soon into the new day.

Day 0 - Minehead

Having now lost this post three times, what follows is an abridged version of what would undoubtedly have been a literary masterpiece. Now I'm afraid I just want to get the facts published!

Heather kindly offered to drop me in Minehead and we parted ways in Tesco car park a conflicting feeling of excitement and worry came over me as a wandered the aisles picking up the last few things I needed.

In my infinite wisdom, I booked the Minehead YHA without actually checking where in Minehead it was. Turns out to be 20 minutes walk outside the town up into the woods of Exmoor National Park. Despite my initial grumbling and wondering whether I had taken the wrong road, the YHA was a lovely place, wooded on all sides and had plenty of character. There were 4 or 5 other groups there and things were quiet, I ended up with a 4 bedroom dorm to myself.

I slept fairly well, waking only with the noise of people moving around elsewhere in the building. Tomorrow night I imagine will be much more pleasant in my tent with the fly sheet off if the forecast is correct.

*Photo - view from the hostel dining room, it was the same in all directions.

Fundraising Success

I have absolutely smashed my target of £3 per mile and am rapidly approaching £9 per mile!

Absolutely fantastic news!

www.justgiving.com/AlanMacnair

Final Preparation

It is the week before I leave and the weather has seriously improved!

I've been on a walk down to Langness in the sunshine and mowed the grass in the field. All on this probably amounts to 10 miles, incidently these are the only miles that my new boots have traveled for their breaking in, but I'm fairly confident it will be fine. It's my 5th pair of Berghaus Explorer Trek boots and being non-leather, they are pretty forgiving.

A had a lovely surprise as I went to go to the airport. Dad (who is the inspiration for the walk) was standing at the door chatting to a neighbour having been released from his appointment slightly early - fantastic!

A quick trip down to the Isle of Wight for the weekend for a wedding and then I start walking on Wednesday. My pack is ready and just missing fuel and water at this point. It does feel a little odd sitting in an airport wearing walking boots, shorts, a polo shirt and suit jacket...

Possible Geocaching?

Each little square on this map represents a Geocache (a container hidden on the ground at a published latitude and longitude). There has got to be at least 100 of these along the coast ... if I start searching for these I somehow doubt that I will make it all the way around in time! 

Equipment

Just about all my kit has arrived now.

I spent an hour rummaging through various outdoor bags/packs sorting out what I would be taking with me and threw it all into my new BioFlex65.
Quite exciting to think that in just a month (a month tomorrow actually) I will be putting this on my back for day one of my walk.

The South West Coast Path association have been very useful, helping me with my enquiry about fuel sources for camp cooking. I've used a coke can stove (see right) before and the fuel (meths, denatured alcohol, strong brandy, petrol) is much easier to find in the states than in the UK apparently. I still need to make a few phone calls and find out if camping shops on the SWCP stock meths. If not, I suppose I will invent in a Jetboil or similar.