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Link to part 8:
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=39013_____________
Chipping Norton to WerchterAfter saying goodbye to my parents I continued my journey. At least the rain had stopped but after a couple of days off, relaxing and enjoying the comfort of trainers, I struggled to get going. The boots felt heavy and my legs pretty tired walking out of Chipping Norton. The break had been nice though and after a couple of hours I got back into my walking rhythm.
While the surrounding was pretty nice, the walking was not! The route led me along roads and I was too busy watching out for oncoming cars and jumping into bushes to avoid them, especially around tight corners, to really enjoy the scenery or the walk. Walking on hard concrete wasn’t pleasant either.
I stopped at a pond for some food and thought it was time to come up with a plan.
From looking at the map, it was obvious the rest of my journey to Harwich wouldn’t improve much. The area was too built-up and unless I was willing to take rather large detours, I would spend my days walking along roads and through towns. Since I was getting close to leaving the UK now, it was time to consider the rock festival in Belgium again for which I had bought tickets long before I had the idea for doing this walk. I hadn’t thought about it til now, but so far I have been to that festival for 13 years in a row and if possible would quite like to add one to that. I especially loved the idea of walking to the festival. Lastly I had convinced Iris, my friend I stayed with in Dundee, to join the festival and would have felt really bad if I dragged her into getting a ticket and then leaving her there on her own. I knew quite exactly how far I had left to go in the UK but since I had no maps of the continent yet, I could only estimate how far I would still have to walk once I crossed the channel. I had 15 days to get to Werchter, near Brussel, and I figured it might be possible if I upped my average mileage and had no more days off. I have always loved challenges and this was exactly what I needed to keep going since the walking itself wasn’t fun anymore. Instead of getting my motivation from the outdoors life and stunning scenery, my aim for the next section was simply to find out how far I could push myself. Until now I had had a rest day around every 5th day, trying to go 15 days without a rest day and at an increased pace would be tough but I really wanted to find out where my limits were and how far I could push myself.
With renewed focus I got up and set off. By the time I reached my original goal for that day, Banbury, my feet were pretty sore from walking on concrete all day, so I got my phone out and booked a bed and breakfast in Sulgrave, about 8km further along. Now I had no choice but to keep going. I cursed myself for most of those 8km, but when I reached Sulgrave after having walked pretty much a marathon, I felt great about my progress and planned to try and keep this strategy up. I ordered my breakfast for 7:30 the following day so I would get an early start.
I promptly regretted the early start, as good as the idea sounded the previous day, I am really not a morning person and set off tired, sore and slightly grumpy. The weather remained nice, dry and a comfortable temperature but the the route was even more unpleasant than the previous day, leading alongside roads surrounded by tall hedges, blocking all view and making dodging cars quite tricky and scary at times. As I was on the outskirts of Northampton, my options for accommodation were very limited unless I would walk into the city but I tried to avoid that detour. I stopped a bit short for the day after only 24km when I came across a hotel with vacancies in Blisworth. I felt bad for slacking but there would be no accommodation for quite a while and nowhere suitable for sleeping rough either.
The following morning it was raining heavily , so I put all my goretex gear on before heading out, but hardly 100m down the road the rain stopped and the sun came out. I stopped to take the goretex off again as it was warm and I would sweat too much. I really hoped this wouldn’t be another one of those constant on/off days of rain but it stayed dry. After walking on concrete again for most of the day, I was quite happy when I arrived at a forest, followed by taking a shortcut across a field. It was a lot harder walking as the fields had been drenched by all the rain over the previous days and the loam kept getting stuck in large chunks to my boots but it was great getting away from the roads.
I felt good about my progress though and looked at my options for accommodation while crossing the field. The nearest available B&B would mean a total distance of 45km today, which I felt up for but not looking where I walked, I tripped in the mud and went over my ankle. It wasn’t too serious but definitely sore and I could feel my ankle swelling and stiffening up, so instead of pushing on for another 8km, I hobbled into the nearby Odell Forest and set up camp.
After massaging my ankle for a while, I covered it in Ibuprofene gel and got into my sleeping bag to read. It was quite enjoyable, the forest was nice, it was dry and I saw a fox and later on a deer run by me, until I noticed more and more slugs crawling over my bivvy again. Annoyed and actually missing the cold weather that kept this pest away during the first part of my trip, I fully zipped up the bivvy and tried to sleep.
Bit of a sleepless night as it gets quite stuffy in a fully enclosed bivvy but I was glad to find that my ankle had recovered quite nicely and continued on. At least for a while I had some pavements to walk on and quite nice views.
This didn’t last and it was quickly back to walking on roads and dodging cars. I was still having my usual blister problems but was pretty used to that by now, my heels kept giving me more and more grief though and the last hours of a days walk were becoming increasingly unpleasant and painful. My motivation slumped and I stopped after 28km in St Neots. The only vacancy I could find was an overpriced Premier Inn but I just couldn’t get myself to walk any further. I washed my clothes in the sink as most days and found a new use for my hiking poles!
The next days’ route to Cambridge was no different.
At least I had gotten my distance back up again today. I accepted by now that I wouldn’t enjoy the walking experience anymore and covering a good distance was all I was looking for so I felt in quite good spirits when I reached Cambridge. I visited Cambridge in the past and really liked the city.
I was too exhausted for much sightseeing though and didn’t have the time to take a day off to explore the city a bit further. I used my phone to find a place to stay and vacancies were pretty limited. I eventually found a B&B, it was rather expensive but it would have to do. While it seemed expensive while booking it, it felt like a lot more of a rip-off once I actually saw my room… barely big enough for the bed!
To add insult to injury, when I looked out the window, I looked straight at a youth hostel across the road! No idea why it hadn’t come up when I searched for accommodation on my phone! Oh well, nothing that could be done about it now so not much point complaining any further, I ate my traditional tube of jaffas and went to bed.
Over breakfast I had a look at my map to see what todays walk would bring. I was quite pleased to see that after following roads for a while to get out of Cambridge, I should be able to reach the Devil’s Dyke, a 12km embankment built by the Anglo Saxons towards the end of the 6th century, the largest one of its kind in England. This should lead me directly towards my next destination, Woodditton. Excited by a change of scenery I set of. The sun was out and I quite enjoyed my walk out of Cambridge. From the map it wasn’t very clear how I would be able to get onto the Devil’s Dyke but I just hoped for the best. Once I got closer, I was relieved to see a path across a field leading towards the embankment.
Once on it, it was a nice and easy straight-line walk for the rest of the day with some nice views, including a view over the Newmarket Racecourse. Luckily there was no race on as I had to walk across the track and under some barriers.
While having a break and some snacks, I booked a room in Woodditton. I also got in touch with Thierry, a mate from Luxembourg who now lived in Ipswich. We had studied at Aberdeen together and I had planned to visit him in Ipswich. Unfortunately he wouldn’t be at home on the day I was going to reach his area, so he decided to come and meet me in Woodditton. I was really looking forward to see him again and also meet his wife, I had missed their wedding because of my walk. Once a meeting time and place was arranged, I continued on. After getting off the Devil’s Dyke, it was just a short walk through some woods before arriving at Woodditton.
Considering how reasonably priced it was, the accommodation was excellent!
Shortly after getting out of the shower, my friends arrived and we headed to a local pub. It was really nice catching up with Thierry and also meeting his wife Bhavani, who had brought me some stunning food as well!
The next day I made my way to Bury St. Edmunds. It was quite an uneventful walk, but very pleasant. The sun was out all day but the temperatures remained comfortable. More importantly, I avoided roads for the majority of the day yet again and had an enjoyable stroll through the countryside. My feet definitely appreciated the softer impact!
As soon as I entered Bury, I walked past a B&B with a vacancy sign and called it quits for the day, overall happy with my progress so far. In the evening I used my phone to book a ticket for the overnight ferry crossing from Harwich to Hoek van Holland. Now I just had to make sure I made it to Harwich within 3 days, but that shouldn’t be a problem, I felt fit enough to keep going at this pace. Best of all, with the ferry leaving in the evening and arriving early morning, I wouldn’t miss out on a day’s walking and felt optimistic about reaching the rock festival on time.
I woke up early and got going quite quickly, heading into Bury. I liked the look of this medieval market town and since it was still early, I used the opportunity for a bit of sightseeing.
The previous night I had roughly split my remaining route into three equal sections and my next destination was Stowmarket. Shortly after leaving Bury, I left the roads and used footpaths through the countryside instead. I bumped into a group of three guys who were out for a walk and ended up chatting to them for quite a while. They were very curious about my walk and riddled me with questions. They also insisted on giving me a bag full of biscuits, which I gratefully accepted since I had forgotten to swing by a shop on my way out of Bury.
Eventually I ended up on roads again but at least they were small countryside roads and not very busy.
I progressed very quickly and reached Stowmarket in record time. Since it was still early, I decided to walk a bit further and stopped at a sandwich shop for a short rest and booked a room outside of Needham Market, about 7km further on. It was quite expensive but there weren’t that many options and since I had been pushing on pretty hard since leaving Chipping Norton, I preferred the comforts of a bed to let my feet rest instead of bivvying. The last section as long busy roads again and my heels were yet again pretty sore when I finally arrived.
Originally I had planned to head into Ipswich from here to meet up with Thierry, but since he was in Aberdeen for his viva just that day, I changed my route to go straight for Manningtree instead of taking the detour through Ipswich. He told me though that he would come meet me again the following day at Harwich to see me off.
I was a bit worried about having to cross a motorway but according to the map there was a footpath across it. Once I got out of Needham Market, it had a real rubbish day of walking ahead of me along busy roads.
I was relieved when I finally got off the road to join the footpath that would hopefully lead me across the A12. I felt a bit more confident seeing that it was a proper maintained path:
My confidence increased further after climbing over a stile and walking past a sign clearly marking the track as am official footpath… until I saw this:
The path just stopped dead, leaving me to look down the embankment onto the cars whizzing by along the A12! I could even see the path continue on the other side, yet no bridge or underpass to get across! I double and triple checked my gps to make sure I was in the right spot, I was! I even walked back on the path again for a few hundred metres to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. Nope! Nada! No other path and no crossing anywhere in sight…With no other option I climbed down, waited for a gap and legged it across, taking refuge between the barriers in the middle.
I stood there for quite a while as the next two lanes were a lot busier. I received some pretty confused looks from the people driving by! As my legs and feet were quite tired and sore and the backpack not helping either with climbing over those barriers quickly, I had to wait for quite a large gap but eventually made it across and scrambled up back onto the path.
After that little adrenaline rush, the rest of the route was really quite nice and enjoyable.
I reached Manningtree, the smallest in England, and quickly found the B&B I had booked. At least the next day would be nice and short after having walked further than initially intended for two days in a row.
I took my time at breakfast as I only had about 20km to do today. When I reached the neighbouring village Mistley, I stopped at the post office. When my parents had met up with me a bit over a week ago I had arranged with my dad that he would try and find a hiking shop at home selling OS-style maps of the BENELUX as my planning had finished at Harwich, I had no maps of the continent and no idea where to go once I crossed the channel. He had managed to track down a map compatible with my Garmin gps and sent it to the post office in Mistley so I could pick it up along the way. I was quite relieved when I heard the parcel had arrived as it had all been quite last minute planning.
It rained on and off during the day, but I wasn’t too bothered as I didn’t have far to go and walking along the Essex Way was quite comfortable.
I reached Harwich quite early in the day and looked around for a pub to spend the rest of the day until I had to board the ferry. It took a while to really hit me but over a pint and a burger it finally dawned on me what I had accomplished. I had made it all the way across the UK, having walked 1865 in 2 months and 3 weeks. I would have never dreamed of actually making it this far and it still felt surreal. I don’t think I ever felt this proud in my life over anything I had achieved.
A couple of beers later, Thierry and Bhavani arrived. We stayed in the pub, chatting for a while longer until it was time to head to the port.
I was really glad they accompanied me up to the checkin. Getting onto the ferry would mark the end of my life in the UK and after having been here for 12 years, I felt quite emotional about it.
After saying our goodbyes, I headed through departures and onto the ferry without looking back again. I never liked long goodbyes and as soon as I got onto the ferry I was over feeling sentimental and focused on the journey ahead. I had some food and a few more drinks in the bar, bought a continental plug adaptor for my phone charger and exchanged the rest of my pounds into euros before heading to my room for an early night, excited about the new challenges to come.
I had a quick shower in the morning. After stepping off the ferry, I felt completely lost, had no idea what to do and strangely absolutely loved it. It reminded me of how I felt after completing the Pennine Way and going from simply following a fixed route to following my own route. Even more so now, I didn’t even know which direction to go. On top of that I didn’t understand the language, had no idea what the signs said, cars were driving on the other side of the road and there were bikes to dodge everywhere. I felt a great sense of freedom and set off towards the centre of Hoek van Holland full of excitement.
I stopped at the first coffee shop for a nice cuppa and some apple cake. The cake was so good, I ordered a second serving! I swapped the SD card in my gps out to load the BENELUX maps. The topographic map was quite different from the OS maps I was used to but it seemed pretty detailed and would do the job nicely once I got used to it. Planning a long route on such a small screen seemed impossible, so I used google maps on my phone in conjunction to try and come up with at least some rough route to follow. I tried to set myself a few targets that I could easily pinpoint on the gps to then figure out a more detailed route on how to get there. I was looking for a pretty direct route as I was still in a race against time to make it to the festival but also avoiding any major cities like Rotterdam or Antwerp. This is roughly what I came up with:
Buzzing to get going, I paid and left. Before leaving the town, I stopped at a bakery and stocked up on food. Even after 12 years, continental bakeries is something that I always missed in the UK. I never really figured out for sure if you are allowed to walk on cycle paths, but nobody ever complained so I guessed it must be ok. While it was still walking on concrete, it certainly beat walking over a road having to dodge cars and made walking quite easy. The regular cycle maps made navigating a lot easier than I had initially thought.
Despite always having preferred the British landscape, after having spent 3 months walking through it, I really appreciated a change in scenery and I was so motivated, I didn’t even notice my heels hurting for once. I got in touch with Hallur, my mate who had joined me for a couple of days in Dundee. He lived in Leiden now, not too far from where I was so we hoped to meet up. I progressed a lot faster than we both expected though and since he had no car, by the time he could leave, I was already out of reach for him.
As I had absolutely no plan where I was going, I just walked and walked until the evening. It is only when I walked past a hotel in Stellendam that I realised how exhausted I was, so I dropped in to ask for a room. While waiting in the bar for them to get back to me whether they had a free room, I got chatting to a couple of British guys. Upon hearing that the hotel had no vacancies, they promptly offered me to crash in their room. I wanted to check out the campsite nearby first though but it was nice knowing I had a backup plan. When I reached the campsite, I just caught the owner as he was about to leave, apparently it was already 10pm! He regretfully told me he had no spaces left, but got me to follow him. He unlocked his office again and called a friend who was running a nearby campsite, where he got me a space. I was a bit confused about there not being enough space for me to just throw down my bivvy anywhere in a corner, but I would soon find out why. When I reached the other campsite, his friend welcomed me and showed me to my space… I had forgotten that camp spaces are a lot more regulated here than in the UK and felt a bit lost in my space, so I just plonked my bivvy right in the centre of it.
I made myself comfortable, having to laugh at the strange looks I got from other campers. I felt really great having walked 42km, a new record, especially considering how many days I had walked now without a break.
Unfortunately I got woken up in the middle of the night by rain. A real shame, I had been sleeping so well! I zipped my bag up and went back to sleep until sun rose. It was still raining when I got up, so I just jumped out, grabbed everything and dragged my stuff into the shower block, where I packed up my sleeping bag etc. It continued raining for the first half of the day, but afterwards the sun came out and the second half was a lot more pleasant.
During the day I noticed that in my previous enthusiasm, I had completely forgotten to stock up on food and water. I only had a couple of cereal bars left but worse, I had no water left. I was surrounded by water for most of the time, but it was all sea water. It also turned out to be a Sunday and unlike in the Uk, all shops I came across were closed. I got quite worried once I started to get a headache from dehydration with nowhere to restock in sight and no idea if and where I might find somewhere to sleep. I had a look on my phone but google maps didn’t show any accommodation in this area. I had one last hope, a slightly larger town called Nieuw-Vossemeer. I still had a while to go but decided that if I couldn’t find anything there I would just have to use my Katadyn to filter some water from a rain puddle. I was so happy when I arrived and saw a B&B sign. Nervously I knocked on the door and was relieved when they had one last room left. The elderly couples’ English was as non-existant as my Dutch but with lots of handwaving and nodding we managed to communicate somehow. They were really friendly and even made me some food, free of charge. Another 37km closer to my goal!
As much as I love a proper British breakfast, I had so many over the last months, it was nice to have a continental one for a change. Not wanting to repeat my mistake, I stopped at a shop to restock my supplies before leaving town. I didn’t want to have to rely on finding accommodation again and made sure I had enough food and water to allow me to camp even if I didn’t come across another shop for the rest of the day. I struggled a bit with the heat, but I made excellent progress despite increasingly sore feet. I definitely started to notice the increased mileage and lack of rest days!
In the afternoon I reached Essen, crossing from Holland into Belgium after a total of 1971km!
I had to laugh when one of the first things I came across in Belgium was some highland cows!
I needed more and more rests during the day to take the weight off my feet at least for a while, but I kept walking until it started to get dark. I made my way towards the nearest forest and managed to find a spot just before it got too dark to see anything.
As I was lying still, a deer came up to me, circled around me and ran off again. Having covered another 41km, I fell asleep feeling pretty happy. It was clear now I would be making it to the festival on time.
I woke up feeling refreshed after a fantastic nights’ sleep. I packed up and made sure I was up and running again early in the day as I had camped pretty close to a path and there is no right to roam here. I also wanted to make sure I could cover as much ground as possible before the full heat would kick in in the afternoon.
I kept looking at the gps as I didn’t want to miss reaching the 2000km mark! The heat became really intense in the afternoon, reaching 37 degrees. My feet desperately needed some time off, towards the end of the day, they became so painful that I had to sit down literally every kilometre. When I reached 35km, I knew I was only 25km away from Werchter and could afford to call it a day. Luckily I was right next to a forest again, so I just left the road and looked for a good spot. I found a nicely sheltered spot, well hidden from anyone walking along the nearby paths. Shortly after having unpacked my gear though, I noticed that the entire area was buzzing with clegs. Midges are really quite annoying, but cleg bites are properly sore and I got bitten a lot, especially on my hands and face. Quite annoyed I rushed to get into the bivvy and zipped it shut, not comfortable in this heat! I must have locked some of those bastards into the bag with me as I kept getting bitten during the night too. On top of that, a nearby church tower woke me up every hour with its bells, not that I managed to fall asleep very often.
After a pretty crap night, I got up once I could see daylight through the bivvy, packed up as quickly as possible and rushed out of the forest. I felt absolutely dreadful, my left hand was so swollen from all the cleg bites that I couldn’t move my thumb, both hands and face itched a lot, I was very tired, I felt sweaty and disgusting after not having showered in 3 days and my feet were in agony pretty much as soon as I started walking. I was extremely grateful I only had 25km to walk today but even so, they were an incredible struggle. It took forever and I had to stop constantly to sit down and take some weight off my feet. The only thing that kept me going was completing the challenge I had set myself upon leaving Chipping Norton and looking forward to see several of my mates. I felt quite chuffed about my timing, the rock festival lasts from Thursday to Sunday and every year I went there on a Wednesday to make sure I would get a good camp spot when the camp sites open at 6am Thursday mornings… it was Wednesday today and it is incredible that I managed to arrive here with such a perfect timing considering it took me 3 months to get here, I am rarely this punctual when trying to get somewhere with a 5km drive! These thoughts kept me going until I walked, or more likely stumbled, past the Werchter road sign to see my best mate Patrick sitting on the side of the road next to his car with a huge grin on his face and some cold beer awaiting me!
MADE IT!!! 479km in 15 days!
If I hadn’t been so utterly shattered, I would have probably jumped from joy! He had only arrived less than an hour ago from Luxembourg and we hadn’t even finished our first beer when Iris walked around the corner, having flown in from Dundee. I don’t think I ever witnessed better timing, three people arriving from different countries by different means and all arriving at almost the same time, especially since the only thing we agreed on was to meet at some point on 27th of June! As the camp site wouldn’t open until the following morning, we just played Frisbee, sat around chatting and went for a walk to festival entrance while it was still nice and quiet, a ritual I started at some point over my years of attendance.
Later that evening, another two friends from Luxembourg arrived, Romain and Christine. Having to get up at 5am, there was no point in sleeping, so we stayed up partying and drinking all night until it was finally time to go queue at the campsite. A few days earlier I had called my parents with a list of items they needed to pack for me, that Patrick picked up and brought along, mainly my tent and trainers!
Once we had the tents set up, Thierry also arrived, now the party was complete and we got ready to head to the festival itself. Before setting off, I noticed 2 tics stuck in my arm! After all that time sleeping in forests and walking through the countryside I hadn’t had a single tic, one night sitting in a field and I had two! I had tweezers to remove them but since there was a first aid tent nearby I thought it would be best to get them removed properly and avoid messing it up. Bit of a system shock to be surrounded by so many people and so much noise after 3 months of solitude!
One of the first things I did was buy some clothes. Having worn nothing but the same two base layers and micro fleece for months, I enjoyed wearing a simple t-shirt and hoody a lot more than I would have ever expected!
I ended up having quite a weird experience that day. We had spent all day standing and walking around watching bands, eating etc and when the last band came on stage my friends all headed back to camp, tired from having skipped sleep the previous night. I didn’t want to miss this band though so stayed back and headed into the crowd. In the middle of the concert, I suddenly collapsed, I didn’t pass out by my legs just gave way. I certainly wasn’t sober but I was most definitely not wasted enough to justify this. Confused a bit I made my way out of the crowd, but my legs just kept buckling underneath me at increasing regularity. I was very tired after not really having slept two nights in a row, but in all the action and excitement I hadn’t fully noticed how much my legs had really suffered over the last days, and after standing about all day my muscles were simply giving up on me. Usually it takes about 15 minutes to walk from the festival site to the camp, but I have no idea it took me this time, it felt like an eternity and I got increasingly worried, almost reaching a state of panic, thinking I wouldn’t make it back when I kept falling every few steps. Luckily I made it and decided to spend the remaining 3 days mostly watching the bands lying down and relaxing!
Despite this, I had a brilliant time with my friends and thoroughly enjoyed Rock Werchter.
Monday morning it was time to say goodbye to my friends and watch them all disappear in different directions as I set off on the final leg of my journey!
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Link to part 10:
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=39758