Sunday 2nd June - Wells

I decided to see whether I could actually make it to Wells this time.

First, though, I wanted to go to church.  I had wondered whether to cut out all non-walking activities, but I thought I could manage an hour for this.  There are enough times in the year when I just feel too emotionally overwrought to attend church, but now, when I’m in a good mood and want to thank God for ferny green banks and trees lining the roads, it seemed a shame not to go.

In the two hours between setting out at 8 and the service at 10, I just about had time to do a circuit of the roads around Harridge Wood, over Oakhill Recreation Ground, and up to Ashwick Church.  I arrived just before the service started, and sanitised my hands from picking up a plastic bag in the woods to ensure that some animal didn’t choke on it, and getting rid of it in the rubbish bin at the Rec.

The sermon was on the subject of rest, and the importance of intentionally resting and relaxing rather than simply trying to do as much as possible and collapsing when you’re exhausted and feeling guilty about not getting more done.  It made sense – but, I thought, the emphasis on banking your energy was probably more important for older people, or people with a medical condition such as chronic fatigue syndrome or long Covid.  For me, at the moment, stretching myself in exercising seems to be building up my stamina, so I want to make the most of it while I can.

I had a cup of tea and several biscuits after the service, feeling relieved that my appetite was coming back and that I had already eaten some crisps on the first leg of my walk.  One of the difficulties of exercising a lot more than I usually would in one day is adjusting the amount I eat accordingly, and on the first day I had needed to coax myself to eat my packed lunch.  So it was reassuring that my body was reminding me when I was hungry.

Refreshed, I set out for Wells, walking along Old Frome Road. The grass verges were uncut most of the way along, and chest-high with various different species of grasses plus cow-parsley and thistles, and – not quite this tall, but still impressive – plenty of other flowers. In just a short stretch, I noticed plantains, meadow cranesbill, herb Robert, campions, buttercups, vetches, and something with small white flowers with five notched petals that might have been a stitchwort or a mouse-ear. The profusion of vegetation meant that I needed to walk in the road, but it was worth it.

I turned down Crapnell Lane, and this time managed to find the East Mendip Way without too much difficulty.  Turning off the road, I sat under a tree in a field (carefully avoiding any cowpats where cows had also been using the tree as a shelter from the hot sun) to have a snack, and then continued on my way.

This time, when I was more familiar with the East Mendip Way, finding it was much easier, and the route marked on the map made it clear that I didn’t need to find my way through the middle of King’s Castle Wood, but follow a path looping around the outside (but this was still, thankfully, overhung with trees).  My only wrong turning brought me out onto the pavement running alongside the B3139, which was in the direction I wanted to go in anyway.  After all, there was a pavement to walk along, so I could just pick up the path again on the track leading to the Bishop’s Palace.

The familiar mosaic of the Dragon of Worminster Sleight was there to greet me as I arrived, and the moat around the Bishop’s Palace was as soothing as ever, with its forests of waterweed, its fish and waterfowl, and the sound of overflowing water gurgling down a culvert.  I ate a belated lunch sitting on a bench, and then made my way around the wall of the Bishop’s Palace, around the Cathedral, and back out of Wells.  It was nearly 3pm, time for Choral Evensong at the Cathedral, and I felt tempted to stay, but I couldn’t really afford the time for two church services in one walking day.

I followed Old Frome Road as far as Maesbury Castle, then crossed the hill fort as the previous day and crossed the fields on the other side.  This time, I noticed a small scattering of early purple orchids in one of the meadows.  It seems fatuous to say that summer is the time for purple flowers, when the most noticeable flowers are the profusion of bright yellow buttercups covering almost every meadow.  But summer does bring a wonderful range of pink and purple flowers.  Apart from the many varieties of cranesbill – nearly all pink to purple apart from the big blue meadow cranesbill – there are campions and catchflies, foxgloves, clover, mallows, thistles, willowherbs, and even, as I said, orchids.

This day’s walk was 18 miles – not quite as much of an achievement as the 20 of the first day, but enough that my feet ached by the time I got in.  I hope I’ll get more acclimatised to it as time goes on.

Apart from my feet, I also noticed that I was starting to get the first mild sunburn of the year – or at least, a patch between my neck and shoulder felt sore from possibly a combination of sunburn and my bag’s strap chafing.  So the next day, I would need to visit Wells again when shops were actually open, to look for a replacement compass and some sunscreen.