mud, mud, glorious mud....

Yesterday I visited family in North Walsham for Sunday lunch so took the opportunity to do a walk in that area. It was only a 6 mile walk this time, shorter than I would like but, as you will see, the conditions meant it was plenty long enough....

The walk started at the water towers in North Walsham on the Norwich Road. From there it took me along several field edge paths and through to the edge of  Lord Anson's wood. From there the route took me on to Weavers Way, a footpath that leads from Cromer to Great Yarmouth along the disused railway line. From there I followed it into the small village of Felmingham before taking a path through Bryant's Heath and back onto Weavers Way into North Walsham. The walk itself was good, plenty of varied scenery, an unbelievable amount of butterflies to see and very quiet and peaceful. There were also a surprising number of small frogs jumping through the fields...! All in all it should have been a great walk, but of course I didn't count on the weather.....

I've said before how I've only got a few more bits of kit to buy before I'm ready for the challenge, my experiences yesterday confirmed for me that the next piece I am buying will be waterproof trousers! I set out in glorious sunshine, sadly 20 minutes later I heard the distant rumble of thunder, before one of the most torrential showers of rain I have ever experience. The first lesson I leant was that I need to get more efficient system for getting my rain gear on, or at least a warning system so I start sooner. My waterproof and bag cover are great, but by the time I managed to get them on I may as well have not bothered. The second lesson was, it doesn't matter how waterproof your top half is, if you don't have waterproof trousers the rest of the walk is going to be pretty miserable.

I kept walking and about 5 minutes on I came across a bridge to shelter under along with two other walkers so together we did our best troll impressions until the rain got lighter. The bridge helped to keep the rain off for a bit, but soon the ground started to fill up with water, this didn't help with my rain soaked trousers issue....

The rest of the walk was, I have to admit, pretty miserable damp soggy kit, regular showers and the threatening distance rumble of thunder. Returned home with mud up to my kness and boots that are in severe need of a good clean. Still, it's likely I'm going to encounter some sort of rain during the challenge, so practice has to be a good thing.....right?