Bendy ODP Day 7 - Merrington to Knighton

24.9 Km in 7:52

Again just Twitchy and me on the walk.  I left with wet boots and socks from yesterday (not everything dried OK overnight). 

Today has been dubbed 'the bastard of a bastard of a day'. Rollercoaster terrain today, steep  slopes up and down and just to cap it off there was rain for the last half of the walk.

This has been the toughest day so far. Distance was OK but the amount of hills and steep descents made it really hard. 

Merrington Hall

We left Merrington Hall at about 0930; later start than we would have preferred but breakfast took ages to arrive.  The first 1.5 Km was easy and pleasant but after that it just seemed to go up forever.

We followed the Dyke for most off the day and sometimes we walked on it. The path was a good mix of open fields and woodlands. We went through an area called Eaton's Coppice

The scenery was great but we concentrated a lot on where we were putting our feet. We passed small towns and through people's back yards.  One bloke offered us a cup of tea,  coffee, soft drink or water bottle refill (all for charity); I refilled my water bottle as I had left with less water than I would have liked (bad management on my behalf).

We stopped for a quick break at about 1300 while going up a hill that just kept giving.  A short while afterwards the rain started. We hadn't quite finished the really hard parts so the rain was really not a welcome addition. 

We past a sign post that said we were half way.  It gave us a sense of achievement but we also queried the distances (once agakn the guidebook details have been a bit dubious).

We plodded on and eventually made it to Kighton. The weather had been really bad especially at the highest point of the day where we were buffeted by strong winds and driving rain (it sting).

We arrived in Knighton in good time considering the conditions and we checked into the 'Horse and Jockey' pub (Lib, Gail and Jane were already there; they had walked part of the path back from Knighton but we did not meet up with them).

Tomorrow will be interesting as more rain forecas

t and we'll be starting off with wet gear.