From Psalm 42
As the deer pants for water, so I long for you, God: I thirst for God, the living One.
As well as the beautiful hedges, I love the strips of woodland on the walk. On Day 15 there are many of these strung out along the route. Each day the trees come out a little more, one at a time, not all at once. So too the flowering plants change a little with the Primroses now passing their peak and the bluebells yet to come into theirs.
As I took the road out of Great Torrington I heard a male cuckoo call. A few miles later, on one corner I surprised a doe. She bounded away, cracking branches as she departed. A few steps further on I noticed something small on a wood anemone flowers. A closer look confirmed it was the underside of an orange tip butterfly, which are a beautiful green and white pattern.
Each of these small beauties is wonderfully at home in the woodland.
There were other more sobering things to remember. I sat on a bench that recalled the loss of two airmen in a helicopter crash in 2008.
It was a long morning walk to Ebberley Hill for lunch. I was tired and had a snooze in the car for twenty minutes. It had been a tiring route with many ups and downs.
The last four miles continued the woodland theme. Along one such the first early purple orchids were coming into flower.
Then a fallen beech tree in early leaf, maybe bought down by yesterday’s winds. A few miles to Kingford and across the main road for the end of the walk for the day.
We returned to Great Torrington for a meal with my lifelong friend Rosie and her family. One of the good things about this walk is the opportunity to connect with family and friends old and new.
God grant us a quiet night and a peaceful end.
JAL 16.04.2019
Day 15 of the End to End, Great Torrington to Kingford