And they were never seen again

Nothing too urgent at the start of the day, although we had a plan to go for a walk we didn’t need to leave too early. Mostly we just needed to work out where we were going to walk to and how far could we manage. Looking on the map we found a restaurant that serves fish and chips and we thought we could go there, but at 10.8kms that would be quite the return trek. We all decided that given how easy our walk the other day had been that we would be able to manage, the lure of fish and chips was strong pull. Olivia had slept on her neck in a funny way last night so it was hurting her but being the amazing strong girl she is she soldiered on for the walk. A good thing about having a lunch destination is that we didn’t need to worry about making any walkers’ sandwiches, we just needed some walkers’ chocolate and walkers’ crisps, although we only had Pringles, and some water and we were good to go. Oh, and a large supply of medical products, just in case.
At about 11.30 we set off and with the map saying about a three hour walk, it was going to be a late lunch. It started off a little coastal and then before we knew it we had turned inland and were heading up a hill, the first sign it was not going to be the easy stroll of the other day. Then after a little bit of that we were turning again and heading into the woods. Now every time this happens on one of our walks, someone, usually Jess, says ‘and they were never seen again’, and we all have a little chuckle. It certainly does feel like you could disappear as the walks are so remote and there are very long stretches where you just don’t see anyone else. Anyway, this is obviously not the case today, otherwise this blog would not exist. After not that long of walking I managed to lead us astray, I was attracted by the sea and missed a turn. Not to fear, we had not gone too far past our turn so it was easy to get back on track. We just resolved to make sure to keep following the painted blue dots that were marking our path today. Tate’s neck was getting worse so we had to stop for some medical time with some ibuprofen and balm which helped a little.
Very random things tend to get noticed on a walk and some odd conversations are had. Today we spotted some very odd lichen growing on rocks, almost like afros, and Allegra named these coral of the land and we were all forced to agree. Then when walking through a patch of rocks Jess wondered where they all came from, as all around was trees and foliage. None of us was intelligent enough to come up with an answer. Personally I just thought it was very impressive the way the foliage and undergrowth just somehow knows to only grow up to the edge of the path, otherwise it would make it much trickier to negotiate the terrain. The walk itself was absolutely spectacular, some fairly tough sections with real up and downs but some stunning views of the coast, islands and the sea at various points. Then I checked the map and realised I had led us astray again, I had been too busy focussing on the blue dots on the trees and not on the blue dot on the map. This time it was a bit more of an overshoot and we had to go back about 5-10 minutes and start following yellow dots. Allegra pointed out that this was the second time I had messed up today and helpfully offered to keep a tally of this as the day progressed. Tate, who had been a little slow and not her normal bubbly self was still in pain so another medical stop was needed so Dr Jess got out her medicine bag and applied a balm and administered some pills again and we were on our way again, paying much closer attention to the map. Olivia was a trouper to do all this climbing and walking with such a sore neck. We were all impressed and sympathetic at the same time.
The walk continued in much the same vein, never staying as one type of terrain for too long so even as we were clambering up or down a rocky section we knew that soon enough we would be walking through a pine forest or along a path and then eventually we came out at a road for the last section. We were very happy to see our destination in the distance, although our 2.30 lunchtime had long since been and gone. As we reached the restaurant I zigzagged the last part so that our distance walked would end up at exactly 12kms, a bit further than originally expected. It was late so not busy and we ordered some food and beer and sat at an outside table over the water, a perfect location. Tate had ordered something fancy that was going to take 30 minutes but that was ok, we needed to rest our weary legs. While waiting we had to discuss our walk back and we were all in agreement that we would not be able to manage another 12kms. Luckily by walking along the road it was only 7kms so we decided this was a better plan. The food arrived and it was damn good, two fish and chips, some fried breaded herring and a fish pie type dish, all of which was polished off and washed down so we were ready to go again.
The walk back obviously not scenic at all, being as it was along the road but it was much quicker and easier. We even stopped at a shop for a few impulse buys. But now for some statistics courtesy of the good people at Apple Watch. We walked 19kms in total in 4hr 44mins of walking time. The third kilometre was the longest for some reason at over 25 minutes but the average was about 15. We noticed that we were going much faster when we were on the road and our times were coming down to just over 12 minutes when Allegra set us a challenge of getting under 12 minutes. Given that we were in the 18th kilometre by this stage we all obviously agreed and built up the speed in our rolling motion that our walk had degenerated into in order to protect our damaged joints and we were all very happy with the result of 11 minutes 37 seconds. After that it was a gentle unwinding back to our van and we were done.
That was just after 6, and all four of us climbed up onto the bed at the back. It us now 9.30 and we still have not moved, we are absolutely knackered. But it was all worth it, another amazing day.Read more