Monday 1 July 2013

Ooh Ah Ooh Ah, Oi be in that Zummerzet now!

Well, there it was then; flirted with Wales, but never really touched it dagnabbit. Next time...

After that splendid evening in Chepstow, we had a little bit of a slow start on Sunday morning to cross the river and head for the West Country. A little bit of fiddling around in the town centre, then eventually we arrived at the M48 Severn crossing. Liz was meeting a couple of pals, and so photographs and suchlike followed, with the crossing taking an age. Never mind, we can speed up when we get across, and try to make up the time!

I took a couple of pics before we left

the Castle View Hotel - a fine overnight stop, which was obviously opposite
 
Chepstow Castle!
 
Anyway, here I am on the bridge
 
needing a haircut, but in fine fettle really, lots of this does one the power of good!
 
Made by Brains Brewery, an old pal of mine, The Reverand James.
 
So we crossed the bridge eventually, and one of Liz's friends joined us for the whole way to Clevedon, Claire - a tough little lady who kept up a good pace all day. We followed the A403 to Avonmouth, catching good views of the Severn from the other side.

this one was actually on the bridge though!
 
We got to Avonmouth by 3.30 ish, then after a little bit of a hunt, we found the way up to the footpath on the M5 bridge. A breezy little stroll, but very nice all the same, then followed by a 3 mile cycle path all the way to Portishead. Quick stop for the remains of the contents of my flask, then 6 miles at good speed to reach Clevedon by 7.15. A pretty long plod, and a long day, but the sun shining on the Severn Estuary at Clevedon was worth the walk!
 
Claire was a stalwart companion for the day, and her other Nicky came along to join us for dinner at our rather splendid hotel for the night.
 
The Moon and Sixpence; good food, good ale, good service!
 
Indeed, a delightful young lady called Kate provided vital local knowledge for the following day's walk to Burnham-On-Sea!
 
By way of a big added bonus, a rather nice couple were sat near us in the bar, and I was vaguely aware of some whispering and 'phone fiddling'.
 
It turned out that Mike and Lisa - from nearby Weston-Super-Mare
 
had seen my t-shirt advertising the 'big plod', and had googled 'old milko'. A very pleasant chat followed, and so did 50 quid towards the charities - thankyou very much indeed you lovely people!!
 
Katrina and Paul Hurley at Brand Marketing (t-shirt designers and suppliers) - take a well deserved bow, they have been exceptionally good. Thank you both very much indeed!
 
So, getting past 750 miles now - nearly there, sort of!
 
Alec Hawkes  30.06.13
 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooo arrr, you do be in zumerzet now chap and must only partake of e scrumpy....That aside, I recon you are doing damned marvelously... :-) Posted by Colin.

Unknown said...

cheers mate!!

Karen York said...

Sounds like your having a ball & meeting lots of nice folk along the way. Enjoying the blog, will this be the next book, possibly? Keep on plodding, your both doing a grand job, the kids will be proud. Xx