I got a good night's rest in again (though actually I think that's a lie because I believe after our convesation which went until 2:30 or so, I was up till almost four catching up on e-mails). But I 'slept in' a bit. Ben ran out to pick up his children for the day and I hung out for a bit until they got back. I had decided that today was going to be the day for my meander along the footpaths into Midhurst along with a visit to the Weald and Downland traditional open air museum. Knowing full well that rain was about as probable as not, I brought my raincoat and umbrella with me to make sure that my computer was sheltered if it were to downpour.
I remembered the route without fail despite not having walked it for 6 plus years. By the end of the day, my phone's pedometer had registered 33,000 steps - about 15 miles so it was a pretty big walking day. I shot a ton of photos along the way, enjoyed some glorious views of the south downs (hills), visited the hazel 'hedge' we'd laid while I was an apprentice and even shifted into mp3 ville for a little bit, setting something of a soundtrack to the latter half of my walk. It felt so good to be out on foot along this familiar path, walking past familiar ancient trees and out for a mini-adventure.
To my dismay, when I arrived in Midhurst, I learned that the fish and chip shop which I'd been eagerly awaiting for weeks didn't open until 3:45 which didn't work at all with my lunch plans. I explored the village to see what was out there - ideally I was looking for a nice place with wireless to try to pin down my travel plans. I ended up settling for the first place I'd passed when I arrived and they just about overwhelmed me with food. It was quite good though a bit much. I felt very deserving of the meal I'd just walked six miles to get, enjoyed it and then scoured the internet for the travel solution that wasn't to be.
Afterwards I decided to set off for the Weald and Downland museum - about 6 miles south - this was to be a bus trip. But the next bus didn't leave for another hour plus which was quite frustruating. What it meant was that I'd only have 2 hours at the museum. Knowing that I might not make it at all if I didn't jump at this chance, I waited it out and made my way there.
I was primarily interested in taking photos of some of the laid hedges at the museum. I was there during my last trip and it's an incredible wealth of information on tradtional building craft and industry. I did the hotstepper, making it from one ancient structure to the next, snapping up a couple of hundred photos (more or less) along the way. Just as I was finishing up, the rain started to come. I fortunately was able to cover the entire grounds in the 2 hour limit. Some of the highlights included - springy baby lambs (is that incredibly redundant?), an elderly man describing life during the middle ages with the driest sarcastic wit one could possibly imagine, the hazel coppice, views overlooking the structures and the surrounding landscape, skirret!!, visible interior framing on a 200 year old house and a installation showing different milling techniques, the brick making installation and probably much more.
I caught the bus back north, got off in Midhurst and stopped in at the supermarket for a snack. I settled on McVitie's biscuits - a treat for me seeing as how they sell them for like 5x the price in the states. That said, they weren't the best choice nutritionally speaking. We had just entered daylight savings time (the second time for me in 2 weeks - Britain did it this weekend) which meant I had light until 8 but I was heading back home on an hour's walk at 7 and have gotten lost in the woods before and definitely was not in the mood to do it again. It was raining fairly lightly but an hour in it was enough. I kept up a solid pace and made the six mile hike (or something like that) by 8pm. I was so happy and exhausted to be home. Ben and I caught up over a couple of bottles of Hip Hop (picking up on a trend, are ya?), ate some dinner and called it a reasonable night.
No comments:
Post a Comment