Bridgenorth to Stottesdon

Day 1 Bridgenorth to Stottesdon.  10.5 miles

We left the house just before 8am this morning to drive the 25 ish miles to Bridgenorth.  Carol and Phil are now in charge of the bus and dropped us off by the river.  Bridgenorth looks a lovely place on the river Severn - perhaps when we return at the end of the walk we might be able to explore.  I think Carol and Phil had a wander round the main part which seemed to be at the top of a cliff.

 

The first 3 or 4 miles was a very pleasant walk along the banks of the river, then it turned away from the river and through fields and countryside.  We managed to just have a coffee break before the rain came; so we all put our waterproofs on then.  It did rain then for most of the walk but there weren't any torrential downpours and it did actually stop while we had a early lunch sitting on a fallen tree in a wooded area.  Up to that point the walk was easy; then came the stiles; the slithering down slippy slopes to streams where bridges had broken, and then up again to more stiles or fences.

 The other thing that was strange was that some of the paths were not obvious; at one time we were walking at the side of someone’s house and emerged on the road; if we were walking the other way there was no way that you would have gone down this path as it looked as though you were going into someone’s garden!  Then another farmer put a ‘private dogs loose’ notice on his gate that we needed to go just into to get to the unmarked path gate, - a good job the book of instructions was quite specific.  All  this rather slowed us down and as we were reaching the end of the days walk - less than a mile to go; we texted Carol and Phil to say we would be 15 minutes .... and hour later we arrived!  It was good to see the bus and also the Fighting Cocks which was open - the first real ale tasting of the trip, and apparently it was very good (I tried the shandy and that was also good) - it was so good that everyone had a second one. :)

After waking up from the bus journey back to the house; tea and marmalade cake was enjoyed (made by John’s wife Glenys), which was scrummy.  Then we've just had a lovely curry made by Pat and Stuey...... I have a feeling this blog is going to be very food orientated!

The answer to yesterday’s quiz question was E N - one, two, three etc.  Easy!

Tomorrow's weather looks similar to today's, but apparently the forecast is looking good for later in the week - yey!