I Had To Sleep Rough Last Night!

Things have been much better over the last couple of days and I have been making real progress. It has not all been plain sailing though. I left Telford this morning heading up the A5 in an effort to reach a place called Brownhills West by the end of the day. After a couple of miles the paths disappeared completely and another mile in the grass verge turned into nettles! A further mile and it disappeared altogether to be replaces with some very unfriendly thorn bush hedges - this has been the worst section of road I have to deal with so far and it has been extremely dangerous at times.

A couple of miles outside of Telford there are two really big and really steep hills - it was just my luck that there were only thorn bush hedges lining both sides of the road! As a result I had to run up the hills and duck into the hedges every time I saw any traffic coming. It was extremely hard going at times and extremely dangerous but I managed to make it to the brow of the second hill relatively unscathed - if you ignore all the scratches from the hedges that is!

I could see that the next mile was exactly the same in terms of hedge lined roads and spotted a guy parked up in a HGV in a lay by. I asked him for a lift and he took me a few miles up the road - I know I am meant to be walking all the way but I also have to think of my personal safety. We went past Weston Park which is where the V Festival is held - if anyone goes this weekend and is heading from Telford then check out how bad the paths are and you will see what I mean. All through this area it was hedge lined roads and, to make it worse, the road was very windy.

I am glad I asked the guy, Bernard, for a lift as I could have been killed walking up there - a couple of miles down the road we saw a smashed up Mercedes that looked like he had driven into the back of someone - that could have been me! Once Bernard dropped me off I headed down into Brownhills and managed to find a police station so that I could ask for some advice concerning the roads. They kindly told me of an alternative route through Lichfield and Tamworth that would lead to Nuneaton where I need to be by tomorrow evening.

I will spend the rest of today trying to get to Tamworth so that I have a nice short walk tomorrow into Nuneaton. I have just received an email from a friend of mine advising me that I can still stay at his so it will be nice to arrive early so that I have chance to spend a few hours with him and also freshen up somewhat - last night I had to rough it as I couldn't really find anywhere suitable so I ended up in the middle of Telford Town Park hidden in some trees in my sleeping bag. There was nowhere near enough room to pitch my tent so I just had to make do. It wasn't the most comfortable night's sleep I have ever had but I slept nonetheless!