Wednesday 19 August 2009

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!

4 comments:

  1. Hi Matt, I have a couple of questions for you- are you just relying on donations via your blogpage links or are you collecting donations along your way?
    Also are you handing out flyers as you are walking to publicise the causes you are collecting for?
    Kim

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Kim

    I am relying on the blogpage for donations as I have no way of collecting money along the way - any kind of bucket would become too heavy fairly soon.

    I am hoping to have some business cards made up and should have them when I get to Dover to be able to hand out to people. Other than that I have a load of posters with me that I am handing out to people I have dealings with.

    Matt

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Matt

    Hope you got to Nuneaton OK....Wish I had asked you your route from Tamworth to Nuneaton, you may have walked right passed my front door (you could of had a tea break. Anyway wishing you all the best and for Roman when he joins you, stay safe :)

    Regards Lisa (Rottweilersonline)

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's a bit of a bugger! I got there safe enough although it was hard work walking 18/19 miles down the Coventry Canal!!

    ReplyDelete