On Day 27 of the end to End I could see Bristol from the bridge over the M5. I had set myself a month for this goal but I’d done it in 27 days so I was really pleased with that. There were few cities on my LEJOG route. As I’ve said before, there’s no set route so you take in as few or as many as you like. I avoided Birmingham and Manchester for example. But I had included Truro back in week 1 and so Bristol was my second city, although I went round on the Severn Way rather than through the middle.
After weeks of mostly open country and rural life it was quite a change to see terraces of houses, frequent buses and busy roads. I expect Bristol looks quite different today.
This was also the day I got onto the Severn Way, one of the long distance walking routes I used for LEJOG. Although Hannah didn’t always have good reports of it in 2012, it was quite well signed and mostly flat, all of which commended it to me. I’d be following it for at least 13 days.
By the end of Day 27, I was at Severn Beach, a small place that had welcomed day trippers from the city in the 19th and 20th centuries. Shirley’s Cafe, opened in the 1940s, was still there. I hope it is after 2020.
Today is also remembered as Worker’s Memorial Day. It started in Canada in 1985 and has spread, never more so than this year. There are some resources here if you’d like to use them:
https://bobjanet.org.uk/worship/WMD_prayers.pdf
From the remembered gospel
Jesus looked at the city and wept: ‘Oh how I wish I could gather you up, like a hen gathers up her chicks’.
Gathering God, bring us together
as we remember those who have died working in a time of Pandemic.
As the virus spreads around us, may love spread amongst us.
May we be ready to care and to serve, remembering all who do.
Be in our dying and our living; may we all share your new life.
JAL: 28.04.2020 WMD in Longdendale.