D45 – Bridgwater to Taunton
Actual distance 19.88Km or 12.35miles (or the length of 8,147.5 8ft fishing rods)
Total Ascent 95m (or the height of 60.5 Deborah Meaden’s)
Staying at Huish Woods, Blackdown District Scout Campsite
Written by guest writer Olly Mackley..
0810 and I am 10 minutes late for starting breakfast! This was day 2 for Ethan and I (Seawolf / Olly), and I couldn’t believe I had fallen back asleep, after waking at 6.15ish!
Phil, Jennie and James were already up and getting things organised for the day. I got the bacon and scrambled eggs on (plus beans for GF’s), along with the coffee. Did a bit of washing up and cleaning, and got ready to go, whilst Phil and Jennie made sandwiches for lunch. As you can imagine the kids, after 44 days of non-stop exercising, take a bit of steam to get going.
We got in the car about 10 to drive back to the Boat and Anchor pub which was the end of the day before and the start of today. We had a lovely drink in there yesterday at the end of our bike ride, whilst we waited for the support crew to pick us up.
It occurred to me though, that under no illusion, this is not a holiday. At every single waking hour there is something to do – making lunch, walking here, cycling there, washing this and cooking that, planning this and writing blogs. From 7am to gone 11pm, they are on the go. And at the end of the day trying to write a blog post/social media (which uses considerable brain power / energy, which is a ‘thing’) after a long day of exercising, logistic planning, driving, cooking, washing etc it’s draining. This is no mean feat, especially when you consider it will be nearly 60 days and 1100 miles, when they finish.
Meeting us at the Boat and Anchor was Lynne and Imogen (a Scout from the 1st Chandlers Ford, and her mum). We started our journey on the canal path towards Taunton (the Taunton to Bridgewater canal). As you’ve probably read that the team have had a mix of success with Canal paths, but this one, for 12 miles, was the best. 10 out of 10! No problems whatsoever – gravel path all the way.
For some reason, which I never understood, there were stone statues of each of the planets (equi-distant) but scaled down, including the Sun, along the canal path. Many discussions around why Uranus was so important in the Solar system, and how ‘My Very Educated Monkey Just Served Unicorn Noodles’ is a great way of remembering the order of the planets (we love a good acronym)!
The canal water was clean and at lunch I got a reprieve from the heat and stuck my hot feet into the cool water! Bliss! We mused at the thought of the little fishies giving me a bit of a spa treatment, but no such luck. We carried on towards Taunton, but by this time the heat had turned up a notch.
We took a quick detour into the Creech St Michael Baptist Church, where they gave us free coffee, tea, cold drinks, flapjack and Hot Cross Buns (which was lovely). We chatted with three of the parishioners who had opened the café today to help weary travellers, one of whom who had lived in Southampton not long ago! We even had a few rounds of Dobble, with Bethan and Hattie winning the last 3 hands, after Phil had been victorious in the first!
Back on the canal path, getting ever closer to Taunton, we wandered under the M5 and back into sillyivisation (thanks Imogen). There were a few notable pieces of Graffiti along the way, a couple of which caught my eye.
We finally stopped at the Morrisons, around 4.30pm after walking past the Somerset Cricket Ground and the junction of the River Tone and the canal. Elaine and Phil met us with the cars, and supplies in hand, we zipped back to the same campsite, and had a tea of sausage, chips and beans!
Like I said, this is no easy feat, and I am in awe of Jennie, Phil, Hattie, Ollie, Bethan, James and Cara.
