This is the first real day that I have had at home since completing the walk. Yvonne and I stayed in Pershore after the end of walk celebrations so superbly organised by Pershore 41 Club and didn't get back home until early evening Sunday. I was off the next day to East Anglia for the Eastern Region Golf competition where I was presenting the prizes: it was a three day trip!
I'm sitting in my little study looking out on a cold North Sea and a grey northern sky thinking back to the hot days of our walk. A few moments ago I downloaded the photographs onto my computer and want to include some in this entry just to whet your appetite for more!
As I look at them, most take my mind back to a time, place person or people. I'm transported back to kindness, good humour, a painful foot or a quite moment as we stopped to gaze at part of the beautiful English countryside. Looking at one or two of them - taken at an Inn where we ended a days walking, I can almost taste again the welcome beer that was followed almost immediately by another as we celebrated the completion of another part of the walk in the company of new friends.
Without doubt, one of the most important elements of this journey has been the making of new friendships which grew as we walked or shared an evening together. I have no doubt that they will be lasting friendships. Already, Yvonne and I have been invited back to places where we stayed. We have received letters and photographs, cards and good wishes from those we came close to along the way or who opened their homes to us and gave us a bed for the night.
It's good to know that in some small way - we are part of their story and they are now part of ours. The story of the walk can't be told without including them. I hope that they will take up my invitation and add to this blog....share their perceptions of their part of the journey so that together we can appreciate the whole experience. After all, it's a story that involved so many people - a story that brought us together.... so many different perceptions and experiences of the times that we shared together when I - for one - never looked at a newspaper or television and didn't keep up with the news. All I experienced during the two weeks of the walk was friendship, warm hospitality, banter and good humour, the pleasure of walking through middle England in good company while taking in and remembering some lovely places and views that would grace any postcard or calendar. Could there be anything better?
Looking at the slide show was brilliant. I only played a small part in supporting Malcolm and Hugh, but the experience was top and the photos capture it all
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