From Animals by Pink Floyd. Let’s cut to the chase – I’m feeling guilty, although I don’t think I need to. I don’t know – this is one of the problems of living alone, I have no sounding board. What I’m feeling guilty about is that I took a short cut on the return journey today. Yes, today was the moment when I crossed the halfway point in my challenge – I’ve now walked just over 104 miles. But, on the return journey from Mountsorrel, when going through Bradgate Park, rather than going all the way up to Old John, down past the Bradgate House ruins and out through the main entrance, I took the shortcut along the side of Bradgate Park, and the footpath which comes near to The Bradgate pub.
The day started off well – a fine morning, and the usual fantastic view from the top of Old John. On leaving Bradgate Park, the Round goes through Rough Hill woods, and then through a golf course. Now, I’d always understood that, where a public right of way crossed a golf course, the onus was on the golf course to arrange the tees such that walkers would not be hit. It seems not though, due to the arrangement of said tees and the warning notices for walkers to watch out for golf balls.
After the walk through Woodhouse Eaves (a pleasant enough village), I came across a chatty gentleman from New Zealand, who suggested maybe I should take an alternative route back to Newtown Linford, rather than just going back over the same ground I’d already trodden. It sowed a seed in my mind, but I didn’t end up taking quite the alternative route that he’d suggested.
After crossing the Great Central line (and missing the train for a photo), tiredness caused another navigation error. Funnily enough, it was about at this point that I started feeling very tired. Once I’d corrected the error, I then had a couple of miles of road walking. Yes, it was mostly around a reservoir, but tarmac and coarse gravel are never a welcome surface to tired feet regardless of the view.
After a break for lunch, I did as yesterday and put music on to distract my brain. It worked reasonably well again, but for some reason, my feet and right knee were yelling at me louder than yesterday. On the way back through Woodhouse Eaves, I realised I’d crossed the halfway point in mileage terms, and celebrated with a bottle of flavoured mineral water from the shop.
After successfully navigating the golf course without having a golf ball embedded in my skull, I came back to the northern entrance to Bradgate Park, and stumbled along its western-most path, which brought me out onto the road a couple of hundred yards away from where I’d parked my car.
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