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Day 27 was the day for the walk into Bristol, the biggest city on the route so far. Also the goal for the first section of the walk. The plan was to get to Bristol in a month and at the moment I’m on course to achieve that.

But it was quite different walking from the previous days of the walk which had been predominantly rural. As a result my daily descriptions and other records, like my scrapbook, have focused on the wild spring flowers and other wildlife. About 80% of the photographs I’ve taken so far are of plants. For me records of the natural world are an essential part of my walking. Will this change with a walk into the city?

The route had been chosen with care to get me onto the Severn Way as easily as possible. The Severn Way, one of Britain’s long distance paths, was the one Hannah used 7 years ago to get up into the Midlands. Although Hannah hadn’t been a great fan of the path I’d decided to use it too as it was largely flat. I will be walking in my daughter’s footsteps and that’s something I look forward to.
The first challenge was to cross the River Avon and to do that I used the cycle and footpath that goes alongside the M5. It’s quite vertiginous and during my crossing I was the only pedestrian on the path. You can’t see much of the M5 traffic due to the steel barriers but you can hear it and it is very loud. It also makes the path vibrate, up though your feet, which is a very odd feeling.

The phone number for the Samaritans is displayed at frequent intervals along the path with a phone in a box in the middle. Even so floral tributes are evidence that folks have died here recently. I give thanks for those who listen on the phone.
Both before and after the bridge the path goes via an established Greenway. This green corridor exists to encourage wildlife for the city and as far as the bird song is concerned it seems successful. For local people there was a community farm and also the local foodbank.

Bob met me and guided me to the start of the Severn Way via various industrial areas including the Co op distribution centre. I crossed the M5 and the M49. We lunched on a bench looking out into the Severn Estuary.

The last section of the day to Severn Beach was along the coast next to the railway. Arriving at Severn Beach we went to the same cafe we visited 7 years ago. Severn Beach was called the Blackpool of the South West in the 30s. Shirley’s Cafe has been provided local refreshments since 1940 making it the oldest still open in the seaside place. The food and welcome are both good.

Glorious things are found in this city:
Renewable energy is generated,
Local people serve and support others.
Help us to get the balance right
So that others may keep their balance.
May the city be green and glorious,
And these things spoken of far and wide.

JAL 28.04.2019
Day 27 of the End to End from Sheepway to Severn Beach via the Severn Way

On the 26th Day of the walk there was plenty of variety: windy weather, a lost path, celebration and views of Wales.
To begin with we’d all been warned about Storm Hannah and it was windy, particularly crossing the bridge over the M5.

Thankfully some paths were more sheltered, especially along the ridge a little way up from the coast path where the trees had formed a green tunnel the floor of which was scattered with bluebells.

But not all paths turn out to be that easy to find. The path between Swiss Valley and Walton St Mary was one such, so I went round the longer way by road, something I generally avoid.
The road up to Portishead was OK though and we stopped at the Ship Inn for some lunch and to celebrate the 250 mile mark.
Later this was topped off with an ice cream in Portishead High Street. This is St Nicholas Church where the Anglicans and URC work together.

The Severn Bridge was getting closer and bits of the Bristol channel coast revealed a signal station and windmill as well as an outdoor swimming pool.

Portbury common was near the end of today’s route, a small green oasis between housing, docks and marinas and the motorway. Our end point today was in Sheepway. The wind had started to drop and I’d walked through a storm.

Reflection on Psalm 46

God, our strength and refuge, a help in trouble;
In your embrace we are held firmly and closely.
As the wind drops, as the world stills around me,
So I too become still, to know you, Creator.

JAL 27.04.2019
Day 26 of the End to End, Clevedon craft centre to Sheepway

Thanks to so many who write encouragement to me each day. Whether it’s a simple ‘Woot!’ or a longer more complex interaction, I’m grateful. This post is dedicated to Anne who reminded me about Kennings, those compelling ancient word pairs with Scandinavian origins.

Today was the second day to be a Cheerful rain-walker. But the rain was not as heavy as the first wet day. I was walking along the old Strawberry Line which was reasonably sheltered. There were a few primroses near the beginning of the walk but they were on their last days, until next Spring, I hope. The track through the old cutting was like a green corridor. Both bird and bat boxes were common to attract the right kind of residents.

Bob bought along a snack for 11s and we ate in the rain. The walk down the old line finished at Yatton station which is still on the national rail network.

It was a walk of two halves with the next part on a road that was wet and somewhat busy. Somewhat wet, but not soaked, we arrived at the end point for the day which was the Clevedon Craft Centre. 

 This compact group of old buildings included a small but welcoming tea shop: Dot teas. It was time to embody my second Kennings for today and become my alter ego: Eager scone-eater.

You set a table before me,
And I feast eagerly:
I give thanks for the walk,
The weather and the company,
In every dimension.

JAL 26.04.2019
Day 25 of the End to End from Winscombe to Clevedon craft centre via the Strawberry Line.

Day 24 of the walk, our break for 11s was on a bench in the churchyard of St Gregory at Weare before we set off across the last part of the Levels. A local dogwalker stopped to ask us if we were looking for Frankie Howard’s grave. We weren’t.

Earlier in the morning, not long after I left Blackford, a man in a white van stopped to ask me if I wanted 4 bags of compost that were in the back of his van. I didn’t.
I mention these incidents only to illustrate some of the more humorous moments on the walk. We do have some laughs. There are also occasional incidents of adventure peril, usually when I take an unplanned or unscheduled route or detour. Recently some of these have involved Road Closed notices. At Stoughton cross the road was closed but having established through sign language (the road works were noisy) that I was on foot, I was waved through.
On other occasions it includes mud. Inspite opf yesterday’s rain and more heavy rain last night there wasn’t as much mud as I’d expected this morning.

Later, after I joined the Strawberry Line and saw my first primrose for several days, I saw an unexplained notice saying Detour Ended. It wasn’t clear what the detour was or where it went. I carried on. Another notice told me that there was a tunnel ahead and to ‘use my light’s that I didn’t have. However before the tunnel there were more notices, this time arrows pointing in different directions. A small tree had fallen across the path but there were no clear instructions as to what action to take. I ducked under the fallen tree and into the dark tunnel.

After all this humour and peril I was glad Bob had found a fish and chip shop. He caught up with me before Winscombe and shepherded me to the chip shop. I ended the walk at the old Winscombe station.
On the way back we made a small detour via Sidcot school and took a photo of the Quaker meeting house there. I try to visit places on or near the route that link to other projects and interests. In this case, Sidcot school was the school attended by Arnold Wynne who is named on the Roll of Honour for WW1 in Silcoates Chapel. He was a Quaker which explains his education at Sidcot, a Quaker school. He taught natural sciences at Silcoates before WW1. I had pieced together much of his life during the commemoration of the centenary of the war. He was Killed in Action on 9th April 1917 at the Battle of Arras and my visit to Sidcot was one of the final pieces of the story.

Another side visit was to the church at Rodney Stoke, near where we are staying. The church contains a window that was dedicated in 1920 giving thanks for the return of all those from the parish who served in WW1, including four women. This means it was one of the Thankful Villages, nine of which are in Somerset, who remembered with gratitude that they lost no one during that war in which so many were lost.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them

JAL 25.04.2019
24th Day of the End to End, Blackford to Winscombe via Weare.

Standing at Gold Corner, the waters rising, as the clouds sailed past and changed from silver to steel to leaden greys and the lines of ancient willow trees loomed up in the mist it was possible to believe in the myths our ancestors made about the wetlands. A sword could have been forged here in a grey place, and lost again in the grey mist. People could have come and gone in the misty world, silently. Cuckoos have called here for ages, and still do, as invisible today as in any other.

Probably in the distant past people would have used small boats for this kind of crossing, before the Levels were properly drained. The small hills, knowles and mumps rose up around me, reminding me of the safety of higher ground. This could have been Avalon, named for the apple trees that still bloom here.

Before I started walking, we stopped on the way at the Abbot’s Fish House at Meare, the oldest remaining monastic fish house in Britain. Around it the meadows would have seasonally been a pool and earlier still it was an area of Lake Villages.

My route today began on an old railway line from Bawdrip. It was dripping from trees and bridges and the sculptures on the heritage route wore the marks of the rain, both today’s and other days.
After Cossington the roads were often straight lines, alongside the Drains, crossing by small and large bridges. I remember Gold Corner from Hannah’s walk in 2012. Bob also walked this way in 2003 so now all three of us have taken this way across the Levels. At Gold Corner there is a large pumping station. The red line on the wall to the right of the main door, impossibly high over my head, marks the height of the highest recorded water level.

I took an old Drove route and then a footpath which of course made the going wetter. There are many degrees of wetness on a walk. The fact that my underwear was now wet meant this was a seriously wet day.
Bob helpfully appeared at the bridge where I rejoined the road with a seat in the dry car and a hot pasty to warm me up.

Refuelled, I set off for the second part of the day and soon met a pair of Lejoggers on bicycles. Sue and Ivan are both in their 70s and doing the ride for a cancer charity. It was uplifting to meet them, as it always is when you met others who are undertaking this particular challenge.

The Levels have played host to many historical groups. The Romans were said to have made salt here, presumably to finance their legions (and maybe there as one here).

The final part of the path was overgown with cow parsley. But as I was already completely soaked, what did a bit of wet foliage matter. The Sexey Arms car park was soon witness to the wet walker’s legs as I stripped off my trousers and wrapped myself in a blanket. It was only 20 minutes back to the van and some hot soup.

God grant us a quiet night and a drier day tomorrow.

JAL 24.04.2019
Day 23 of the End to End, Bawdrip to Blackford via Gold Corner.

Today I left the hills behind for a while. It has been wonderful if tiring walking in the old wooded lanes and paths of the Quantocks. This morning I descended on to the Somerset Levels. The change of landscape is quite abrupt as is the increase in traffic and an associated rise in noise level. I crossed the M5 three times, two over and one under the motorway.

The wayside flowers have also changed: the Primroses are gone and there’s a lot of cow parsley and buttercups. There was also a number of Goldfinch and butterflies including the Red Admiral.

There were several quiet cool churches on the route. In this week after Easter many still have Easter flowers and decorations. The first was St Marys, North Petherton; quite a large church.

There was a bit of construction related bother on the tow path of the Bridgewater and Taunton Canal. Bob and I converged on the Boat and Anchor, a canal side pub, and enjoyed some early lunch.
Later I obtained some local strawberries at a farm. These are grown in polythene tunnels and taste delicious.

I walked passed the campsite on the edge of Bridgewater where we stayed in Hannah’s end to end in 2012.
Footpaths lead me along fields and across the drains that criss cross the levels. My final path of the day was alongside the King’s Sedgemoor Drain, one of the largest. The battle of Sedgemoor was fought in this area in 1685. Day 22 finished in Bawdrip.

Many of the churches were dedicated to Mary so for today, here’s a reflection on the Magnificat:

Come let us make God bigger, as Mary did.
Let us rejoice in knowing God, as Mary did.
For like Mary, we are not important in the universe.
Even so, God has blessed us, as Mary was blessed.
Through us God’s ways may be known in the world, just as Mary made them known, lifting up the poor and humble, casting away the arrogant ones.
For we are part of the human family stretching back to Abraham and Sarah, through whom God promised many things, just as Mary was.
And so we too give Glory to God, Creator, Son and Holy Spirit, as Mary did.

JAL 23.04.2019
The 22nd day of the End to End, from King’s Cliff Wood to Bawdrip.

Benedictine spirituality is very Psalm orientated. In the Rule of St Benedict the order of the Psalms to be used for different offices on specific days is given. As I walk along I make up songs and sometimes using imagery from my remembered bible, I make up Psalm Snippets. Here are some for today.
This morning on the way across Exmoor to the start point for Day 21 we encountered a family moving their sheep. At the back of the group, the youngest member of the family, a girl of about 8 or 9 years of age, was learning the skill of keeping the sheep moving.

The family of shepherds are like God in their ways :
Encouraging their sheep down the road
To the fields of new grass
They imitate God’s care of me.
Having decided to take the Macmillan Way West the first challenge was the climb up Cotherstone hill. St Agnes Well was near the bottom.

However the way proved to be rather poorly sign posted. Some mountain bikers helped me get on track and I eventually met Bob coming towards me on a path across a field.

At lunchtime I was recumbent under a beech tree in Fyne Court car park. Looking up it seemed to me that:

In the green meadow, so cool and calm,
Every new leaf is like a mini solar panel
Tuned into the energy of the universe
As I long to be tuned into God.

After lunch the second half of the Way wound its way along with the interesting observation that the signs only made sense in the opposite direction from which I was walking. I saw a doe in the wood and earlier heard a Woodpecker drumming.

As the deer searches for cool water,

On a day as hot as this
I too seek the cool shade
And welcome the one who brings me water.
The doe and I continue our searching:
Although the path is poorly marked
I find the right direction.

The car park at the end of Kings Cliff Wood was a welcome haven when it came. Emerging from this quiet green corridor onto the road near North Petherton and then to the M5 to get to our accommodation was like entering a different world. There’s a promise of cooler weather in the next few days. Four hot days often uphill were hard work. I have now passed 200 miles and have only 99 walking days left.
JAL 22.04.2019
Day 21 of the End to End, Bishops Lydeard to Kings Cliff Wood car park

Day 20 of the walk was Easter Day. It was hot and broke temperature records in some parts of the UK. We broke the walk up into short stages to provide plenty of rest and water stops which meant Bob was busy in his support role.
The first section was from Wiveliscombe to Fitzhead. A sign post at Wiveliscombe helpfully said it’s 53 miles to Bristol. I think our route is longer. The church of St James at Fitzhead was open and the scallop shell badge was stitched on the kneelers.

The New Inn Pub at Halse was also open which provided some cool drinks. The route was fairly easy going after the first steep hill, and a cheeky little footpath through a beautiful meadow allowed me to cut the corner after Halse.

Ash Priors Common, a nature reserve, was a good place for a late picnic lunch. It had some interesting flora (and possibly also fauna but I didn’t see any of that).

At Bishops Lydeard there as a steam train in the station of the West Somerset railway so we admired that for a while and ate ice cream. The walk ended for the day on the outskirts of the town.

We came back to Exford for our final night in the hostel, which has been comfortable and good value. The adjacent pub has provided good breakfasts and tonight’s evening meal: Hot and Holy in every way (with hot cross buns for Breakfast).

In the heat of the day,
When the sun burns its way across the sky,
And news comes in of more inhuman acts
And suffering beyond enduring,
It’s hard to credit the notion
That a rock rolling God
Can move heaven and earth
To make all things new,
But Christ makes all ordinary things extraordinary today.
A bun, a breath, a life:
Hot and Holy.

JAL 21.04.2019
Day 20 of the End to End, Wiveliscombe to Bishop Lydeard

He descended into hell….

Red earth shows through in the harrowed fields. Knobbly beech hedges line the roads,  branches meeting cathedral like above my head. In places, ancient lanes wind between the sharp valleys, some are stoney tracks, others deep in last year’s leaf fall. It proves to be an amazing day. The not so silent earth is vibrating with the call of various creatures. Two woodpeckers keep up a tattoo drumming through the woods.

Each lane bears its own decorations: dandelion in one, bluebells in another, primrose and violet still making a show.

Lambs bleat from behind the hedges, running off as I approach. I regularly surprise pheasants who in turn surprise me with their strident alarm cry as they fly up ahead of me leaving the odd feather as witness by the roadside. Orange-tip and speckled wood dance along beside me.

The rural silence can be noisy too until the top of the last rise, when waiting to catch my breath from the steep climb, I look up and see two buzzards silently circling through the bluest blue.
After that one more dodgy stile and it’s downhill to Wiveliscombe and days end in a small town where even the post box wears whimsical Easter decorations. That was Day 19 and another 10 miles further on.

Meanwhile we are waiting…

Every molecule,
Every cell,
Is rearranged.
Every vessel,
Every organ
Is reanimated.
Coming back
Was hard work.
As Spring pushes up
We can only imagine
What it took to burst
The gates of hell
And rise again.

JAL 20.04.2019
Day 19 of the End to End, Bury (near Dulverton) to Wiveliscombe.

It’s day 18 of the walk is also Good Friday, which seems incredible. As well as counting days, I have an app on my phone that counts miles. It also counts steps which has become a popular thing. These are the ways we motivate ourselves. Other ways include people walking with me, like Bob who walls a bit each day. Today James, Fiona, William and Ollie came to join in from Brushford.

It was very hot by the afternoon. It was good to be able to find cool shady places to walk, including a disused railway path (even though it was not clear if this was available for public use). At some point I stepped from Devon to Somerset but it was not clear exactly where.

Another motivation method is a treat, like the lovely cream tea we had in Dulverton together at the end of the days walk.

Bob and I then went on by car over part of Exmoor to Exford Youth Hostel where we are staying this weekend. We made a side trip to Tarr Steps on the way. It’s a place we would often visit on the way back from Cornwall when I was a child. The longest clapper bridge in Exmoor, it is a brilliant bridge, and a place where steps count.

On Good Friday, of all days, we remember steps that count:
Steps through Jerusalem’s streets;
Steps alone on a hard way with a heavy burden;
Steps of another compelled to help, coming alongside;
Steps taken knowing that death waits at the end of the road;
Steps of those running away, steps of others standing nearby;
Steps of a military guard;
Steps of a crowd in narrow streets;
Steps on stones, steps in dust;
Steps to a criminal’s death;
Steps to the cross:
Countless steps.

May we who step on The Way today be sure to make every step count, for the sake of Jesus.

JAL 19.04.2019
Day 18 of the End to End, Balls Corner to Bury, via Brushford