Tues 19th May - Midsomer Norton to Bath

Today simply felt like it melted away into nothing as I knew by the end of the day, I'd be resting up at my Aunt and Uncle's, ready to tackle the next section of my challenge.

After returning from the pub the previous evening, I crashed out about 9:30 to the sounds of my wind up radio.  At about 10:30 I was woken up in a daze by the blinding flashlight being shone into my tent along with the calls of "Excuse me... Excuse me...".  Half asleep, I opened the tent to see the groundskeeper of the campsite standing there shining his light in my face.

"I heard what you're doing and it's a really good cause, so here you go" he said as he leant forward and handed me the £15 pitching charge I'd paid earlier that day. I was still half asleep and probably made absolutely no sense, but tried to thank him as best I could before returning to the comfort of my sleeping bag with a big smile on my face.  I'd like to think that the owner of the campsite knew nothing about it; I guess I'll never know.   

I woke up at 6am, ready to meet the morning head on and chomp away at the miles before the heavy traffic made some of my route a nightmare to walk.  Luckily, the Somerset weather gods took pity on me and allowed me to pack my tent and the rest of my equipment away in glorious sunshine.

This didn't last for long though, as I was soon met by some ominous looking clouds moving in with the prevailing winds.  Within the hour, the waterproof cover was on my bag and the hood was up.

The guidebook suggested taking "The Limestone Link", but I'd had enough of hopping styles purely to be met by wildlife that didn't want me there.  Instead I opted for the roads, which seemed like a great idea as they were relatively straight, alas my blisters had other ideas.

Soon my left little toe felt like I was walking on hot coals as the blister made light work of the painkillers.  Nothing was going to take my mind off the pain and I knew that stopping was going to make it hurt even more, so I stuck my iPod in and on I plodded.

In hindsight I'd have to thank the blister, as the lack of stopping got me to Bath in a crazily short amount of time.  I was expecting to arrive by late afternoon / evening due to the 5 miles I had to add on to today's journey from the campsite, but my 1:15 i was bang smack in the middle of the city.

Heading towards Bath's central station, a call came in from my Dad who'd kindly arranged to pick me up so we could head to my Aunt and Uncles in Swansea for 2 days.  Within a short time I was sitting in his car zooming along the M4 and feeling totally surreal about it all.  I'd gone from watching cars zoom past me as I trudged alongside them, to sitting in one of them and moving at about 20 times faster.

That thought was soon gone as quickly as the scenery moving past me as I looked forward to having a lovely two days with the family and seeing what treats were in store for the next leg of this walk... being three days ahead of schedule wasn't half bad either!!!