Before I continue any further with this post, I’d like to mention that my aim here is not to discourage anyone from buying walking boots from a particular brand (Salomon, in this instance) and I’d also like to reinforce that by stating that these are the most comfortable boots I have owned to date.
This post relates to a pair of Salomon Quest 4D 2 GTX walking boots that I purchased in May 2017.
My final walk of the month was one led by Brunel Walking Group. Known for finding hills in her routes, Jenny took us down to a relatively flat portion of South Somerset and the Levels.
Summer is officially over and, with a definite chill added to each morning and evening, it’s certain to say that autumn has arrived. Daylight hours are slowly diminishing and it seems as though the end of another year is nigh.
Pen Y Fan, as you may well know, is the highest mountain in the southern half of the UK. It resides within the central Brecon Beacons of South Wales and is a popular place for all sorts of people, with a car park situated around 400m beneath the summit in terms of elevation.
I don’t often venture here, for the likely possibility that it is going to be bust. Perhaps not ‘Snowdon busy’ but, still. In fact, I’d not been to this particular mountain top for almost two whole years.
During my final two days of walking The Ridgeway National Trail (between Watlington and Ivinghoe Beacon), I encountered a number of poems affixed to individual trees, with a multi-coloured textile, almost like a scarf, wrapped around the trunk.
I don’t yet know what the significance of this is or how long they’ve been there. Given the good state of colour in the weaved work, I’d assume it’s relatively new.
Here it is, then. Almost three-months after I began my walk to follow The Ridgeway, I was in to my final day along the trail and to be followed by the inevitable return home.
An entire month had passed since my previous outing (Days 2 and 3) along this National Trail. August had been a fairly busy month and for a number of reasons (mostly, walking-related). I was also fearful of heading out at a time when the majority of school kids and working parents were likely to be outside… Overpopulating spaces, crying and congesting public transport systems.
In the first week of September, I decided that the time was right for my return to complete my final two days of walking The Ridgeway. Everything had been planned out in advance and it began with a drive to Watlington.
