For an OS map of today's walk (8.87 miles; 14.27 km; 493 feet total ascent), click here.
[I left my journal with all my notes at a B&B so I'm writing this with Ken's help without the benefit of my notes to keep the blog rolling after being stuck for several days.]
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| Breakfast at the Woodbridge |
For today's walk we left Ironbridge Gorge and headed broadly eastwards, ending just outside the village of Albrighton in east Shropshire—across from the garden shop of the world famous rose breeder David Austin (more on that tomorrow).
We loved our dinner at the Woodbridge Inn the night before and, since our Airbnb did not offer breakfast, we had breakfast there, which was right on our route out of the gorge. We got there just a few minutes after they opened, arriving at 9:15 a.m. Ken had Eggs Benedict and I had toast and jam.
We love getting local information, and a prime example of how helpful it can be came when we had walked the road up and out of the gorge and came to a gate just beyond which was a stile for the Monarch's Way, a path we have followed from time to time and were intending to follow to Sutton Maddock. We were going to follow it again, but just then a woman walking her dog came through the gate and told us that the Monarch's Way was a muddy mess because the farmer had just plowed his field, which the path was supposed to cross: we'd be shin-deep in mud. Instead, she gave us good instructions to follow the path she had emerged from through the forest edge to the next field, which offered a nice way into the village. We were so grateful, especially when later in the day we saw some walkers who had taken the Monarch's Way with very muddy lower pant legs.
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| "Road work": note the pack cover on a rainy morning |
It was rainy at times but mostly in the morning. Given the wet and muddy fields, we were actually happy that much of our walk today was on quiet minor roads and tracks, even though road walking is much harder on the feet. However, sometimes even flat roads can become the scene of mishaps.
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| At least there were no nettles! |
Walking on the minor road to Beckbury, Ken suddenly turned an ankle, fell, and abraded his knee pretty badly, with multiple cuts that took a while to stop bleeding. Fortunately, his ankle felt fine and he was able to continue walking after a few minutes spent staunching the wound...with napkins! [I loved the phrase "staunching the wound" and insisted it be inserted—Ken]
Later we reached Beckbury, a delightful small village. We had a fun lunch at the Smokey Cow, which specialized in BBQ and other North American-ish delights (we had nachos with pulled pork).
After we came out of Beckbury village shop, alongside the road I spotted some baby quail (?). I'm not certain of the type of bird, but there was a mother and ten chicks.
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| The mother (extreme top right) and a few of her chicks |
Now on the home stretch for Albrighton, we left Beckbury through a tunnel of hedgerow plants, and then suddenly broke out from the cosy village into another world—of wide-open fields and big skies. This was a field of carrots.
After an hour or so of walking we arrived at our Airbnb, greeted by our host who showed us their lovely loft suite above a garage. We ate the dinner we had purchased at Beckbury shop earlier that day (truth be told, it was a pot of noodles!) because we didn't want to make half hour walk into Albrighton to get a full dinner after all the road walking we had already done.
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| The lovely loft |
Our hosts Ian and Lesley were wonderful. They offered to do our laundry—always a huge deal when you have only 3-4 sets of clothing in a pack! And they even welcomed us into their home after dinner for drinks and chat. (Ian is into "challenge walking" and is training for the "National Three Peaks" challenge: to climb the highest mountains in England, Scotland, and Wales—all within 24 hours!). We had a delightful time visiting with them, and it was a great finish to a fun (well, except for Ken's knee) day.
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