Most commented posts
- Day 2 – Gone with the Wind — 7 comments
- Day 15 – Blenheim — 6 comments
- Day 6 – Rollright Stones — 5 comments
- Day 23 – Walking with the End in Sight — 5 comments
- Day 3: Brockenhurst to Lyndhurst — 4 comments
Author's posts
Sep 10
Day 11: Hanslope to Westcroft
Gone with the Wind A better day with warm mist and easy to discern walks. We walk through the old Whaddon Chase hunting grounds: all the old bittersweet memories flood back. Too many hunting ghosts and memories soar over fences in my mind’s eye to relate here, but… it was fun being young. Our children …
Sep 09
Day 10: Northampton to Hanslope
Can’t See the Route for the Trees Hot and hot again. Lost in the woods as usual. Our maps are dire, and we waste time. I am reminded of the eight POWs who escaped in 1944 and used a map of the route to England one of them had purloined: after they arrived in Dover …
Sep 07
Day 9: Weedon Bec to Northampton
A better day. Moses’ Crossing We nearly faced a disaster. Moses faced a major road: just before I grabbed him, he darted across the road towards our excellent driver, Richard. A lorry flashed by…it missed him by an inch. Benyon’s law of pain It’s simple: unless you have a clinical issue – in which case …
Sep 06
Day 8: Lower Shuckburgh to Weedon Beck
Honours and Shame Another roasting day and wandering around in circles. It could be worse. I might be Michael Fawcett, Chief advisor to Prince Charles. No one told Fawcett the way to extract millions from Mahfouz Mubarack in exchange for honours without breaking the 1925 Act. This act was passed to stem the gross activities …
Sep 06
Day 7: Rest Day
Counting Blessings A day away from roads, brambles, plough and paths that lead nowhere. A day to sort out the car, get clothes cleaned and have a good night’s rest. Breakfast with younger daughter – always a joy – and lunch with her beloved sister so our cup of happiness floweth over. Kariba danced with …
Sep 04
Day 6: Harbury to Lower Shuckburgh
Plough of Despond A sweaty day. Our joyful mood, stimulated last night by kind friends and a great dinner, gave way to irritation when we found our paths terminally blocked by the HS2 construction site. We zig-zagged to escape only to find the farmer had tractored the right of way into terminal extinction: we were …
Sep 03
Day 5: Hampton Lucy to Harbury
Relationships Used to Involve Relations I think we all regard mobile phones as an unalloyed blessing. However, I think these phones have a serious kickback from the law of unintended consequences. When I met Jane, I determined to marry her as soon as possible. I suffered what the Italians call “colpo di fulmine”- “a stroke …
Sep 02
Day 4: Welford-on-Avon to Hampton Lucy
Oh, it’s a Hat! I was amazed that the pub sign was a flag that contained quite clearly male genitalia: I was surprised because the village simply didn’t look that sort of a place! The last time I saw such a sign was in Pompeii, for brothels were the sort of thing the Romans went …
Sep 01
Day 3 – Lenchwick to Welford-on-Avon
Tub-thumping Pub Hooray… a great pub at last. Just as well after yesterday’s ill-tempered rant at down at heel pubs with which the UK is infested. We lunched at “The Bridge” at Bidford-on-Avon. This pub is excellent. . The staff seem genuinely pleased to see us. It’s clear someone had taken trouble with the decor …
Aug 31
Day 2 – Beckford to Lenchwick
Pub Grub Grumble Another lunch in yet what sadly turned out to be yet another bog-standard pub. It was sited by a river with all the natural romance of Wind in the Willows: you could imagine mole and ratty rowing lazily by on their way to their famous picnic. Anyone with even the beginnings of …