There was a thick fog in the air when I woke in Worcester this morning. After packing away my tent I keenly headed off south on the Severn Way, which handily runs right next to the spot where I'd camped.
It didn't start quite as well as I'd hoped, the overgrown grass in the first couple of fields was knee high and my trousers soon got soaked by the heavy dew. This was followed by walking along the side of a field of tall maize, then across a freshly ploughed field. The Severn Way joins the A38 near Clifton for a while, the road wasn't nearly as busy as I expected and there was a good footpath so I decided to stick with it for a while to cut out some meanders in the course of the river. In fact I decided to stick to the east bank of the Severn all the way to Tewkesbury (the Severn Way crosses over to the west bank). I picked up riverside footpaths again from Ryall, these were slow going in places with broken stiles and banks of stinging nettles as tall as me, but they gave me a reasonable enough off-road route the rest of the way.
By the time I arrived in town the sun had burned away the last of the fog. With nearly 14 miles covered it was time for lunch, I bought a sandwich in a supermarket and rested on a bench overlooking the River Avon. Tewkesbury was one of my favourite towns of this whole walk, it's full of character and there are many well preserved Tudor buildings. I saw very little evidence of the severe flood that hit the town in 2007.
With the sun shining I took the Severn Way all the way from Tewkesbury to Gloucester. It was much better terrain here, all the grass fields were kept well trimmed by the cows and sheep. I took a short afternoon break at The Red Lion Inn, it is in a fantastic location overlooking the Severn. I saw many caravan parks along the river through the day, all the static caravans are on tall stilts even though they are on ground several metres above the river. Presumably this is in case the 2007 floods are repeated.
When I reached the northern edge of Gloucester I left the river and made my way to the Milk & More depot. Unfortunately after a day of high mileage I arrived far too late to meet the Milk & More team. Then I pushed on another three miles to the south of the city. Mary who lives there has very kindly offered to put me up for the night, she is a relative of one of my milkround customers. I'm being very well looked after and Mary has already given me a generous donation for MacMillan. I've also had the pleasure to meet Mel and Alan while I'm here.
I'll sleep very well tonight after putting in the second highest mileage in a single day of my walk so far. It's back to the roads again tomorrow as I head for Yate on the northern outskirts of Bristol.
GPS data click here
Mileage today; 31.19 miles, walking time 7 hrs 56 mins, average walking speed 3.9 mph
Weather; a foggy start, then bright spells, max 19C
Cumulative mileage; 695.76 miles
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| Tewkesbury |
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| A typical section of the Seven Way between Tewkesbury and Gloucester |
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| One of the riverside caravan on stilts in this flood prone area |
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