Ups and Downs

Saturday: After the amazing encounter With Val and Dave yesterday, I set off along the Great Western Canal towards Taunton, fully believing that I was in a movie, and everything will be peachy. I spoke and laughed with cyclists and dog walkers along the canal which was sunny and beautiful.

There was even a campsite posted that wasn’t quite as far as the one I would have struggled to walk to, so I set off up the hill, and the higher I got, the lower my allotted pouch of luck sank.

The campsite had been closed for a year or so, but there was another one about six miles away in Wellington. Six miles after already walking over 12, and six miles along the busy A38. So I sang, I swore and I grumbled, but I walked the six sodding miles to be met by a smug faced chap who told me that it was only caravans, no tents. He was having none of my pleading and didn’t care how far I’d walked that day and wouldn’t let me pitch my tiny tent as far away as possible and be gone by first light.

When it gets past 7pm and you’ve nowhere to pitch a tent you start to get a bit concerned. I determined to find a field and pitch up, but as if by magic there appeared on the roundabout of the A38 before me, a Travelodge. The man behind the desk couldn’t reduce the room fee to a level the frugal inner me felt comfortable with, but he managed to knock a tenner off, still eating into my budget, but there comes a time when you go ‘fekkit’. I’ve got the room til 12, so I’m not leaving til then.Fekkit

Sunday: for the record, I could have got a bus to Taunton, but I didn’t, I had booked an airbnb – I didn’t want to be worrying about where to stay, and I fancied a walk with thinking time.

Every year when my sister Sarah goes on holiday, she leaves her dog Bella with my mum. One year I was stopping at my mum’s and we sent my sister photographs on facebook of us and the dog every morning, so she knew I hadn’t killed the dog (I think my sister has trust issues). Any way, since then, every time my mum looks after Bella (the dog) while my sister is gadding off somewhere sunny, me and my mum do the Bella pictures.

This year in a frenzy of preplanning, we sneakily borrowed Bella (the dog) and prepared the pictures in advance, before my sister want on holiday, which just happens to be this week.

My son Jasper saw the pictures this morning and thought I must be at home, and he rang me up, hoping to see me. We both tried not to sound upset when I explained what had happened, but there’s times when you just want to give someone a hug and this was one of them.

The high point of the last two days was definitely walking along the Great Western Canal. The sun shone, I was feeling good, leafy paths, canal teaming with wildlife and happy smiling faces everywhere. Low point – there were a few, mainly on the theme of walking alongside busy roads, but I did get an unexpected wave of sadness walking through the outskirts of Taunton, looking through a window seeing a big family eating Sunday dinner. It wasn’t the food, it was the togetherness, something I loved with my own family, everyone round a table, eating and laughing. Hasn’t happened for a while, and the last time I had my family round, it was Christmas time, it was a disaster, not just the food, but everything, and it still makes me cry when I think about it. Amazing how one little glimpse through a window can trigger a whole raft of memories and emotions.

So I’m here in a strange little BnB north of Taunton, I’ve had a bath, and I’m making plans to get to Frome by Tuesday for a music meet-up xx