Shropshire 2023 Part 6

Wednesday, 19th - Sunday 23rd July

I had been planning on walking around the north end of the Mynd for some time, so today was the day. I headed down into All Stretton itself, then wound my way around the edge of the Mynd.

I walked west and over the very northern part (where I briefly chatted to a farmer about sheep shearing), going away from the Mynd and then down a valley (at this point walking part of the Shropshire Way as far as Ratlinghope).

A left turn to initially follow the lane up onto the Mynd.

Then onto the track and across to Ashes Hollow, where I descended.  The first half of the walk felt pretty good feet-wise, but once going down this batch, my left calf muscle pulled again and my pace slowed to a crawl.  I inched my way down to Little Stretton, then along the road into Church Stretton (meeting James from the boot shop as I entered the township).  I bought some Ibuprofen gel from a chemist and applied it.  I'm not sure if it did any good, but it was applied on multiple occasions over the next few days.  I rested in Church Stretton for an hour or so, then got some groceries and fish 'n' chips (eating the latter in the graveyard again) before limping slowly back over to the bunkhouse.

On Thursday I stayed in all day nursing my calf muscle, but by late afternoon I decided to wander to the local pub, the Yew Tree, for a cider and some dinner.

On Friday I hobbled over to Church Stretton (which, by the way, is a 2.5km walk each way), where I sat and read at different locations around the village, I bought a frozen pizza to take back to the bunkhouse for dinner.  That night, around 1 a.m. I finally had company for the first time since I arrived at the bunkhouse, albeit in one of the other rooms, but they left before I came out the next morning.

Saturday was a rainy day (and I'm sure my calf muscle wasn't up to walking) so I remained at the bunkhouse all day reading and eating up the last of the food.

Sunday I packed up way too early, but walked to Church Stretton for an 11:20 train to Gatwick, where I then walked from the airport to a BnB, with a short venture out to a local pub for dinner.

Monday I flew to Toronto for a night, staying with some friends, before flying out again to return to New Zealand.  

The future...

As I've grown to dislike flying, and with my back condition and gradually painful knees from arthritis, I had kind of made the decision not to leave New Zealand again, and to only do local day walks unless I really felt up to some multi-day ones.  However, recently watching some TV and Youtube episodes of long distance walks in the U.K. is bitter-sweet, making me hunger to be back out on the trail again, and reminiscing about walks I've done, but realising that even though the mind is willing, and I am still fairly fit, the back and knees likely won't allow such activities again.  Then again... never say never.