The walk

While we were in Wales, Denty came down with a pretty bad case of the ‘flu. It was proper ‘flu with the fever and all, not the man-flu, contrived to get out of hiking type. Anyway, as he was unwell,  before it starts to rain again, I thought I could take a short walk into the village about a mile away to see if they have a little shop to get more paracetamol for Denty.

I had two choices, to walk the single track road or to take a supposed short cut over the hill. So I wandered out of the very long and uphill driveway…

When I got to the end of the drive, I walked onto single-track road, fully intending to follow it to the village. A mere 10 meters later, I spotted a little footpath through the pine woods on the side, leading up the hill which I assumed to be the short cut over the hill… so I quickly amended my plans.

The pine woods quickly went steeply uphill and became an apple orchard…

The uphillness doesn’t end, but look at the pretty colours!

The chesnuts were everywhere… I used to think they would be nice and fluffy, not ouchie-prickly!

Then there still was further uphill movement… at this point, I was vaguely wondering if I took a wrong turn.

But I wasn’t too worried, the oak leaves were just so pretty.

However, most of the acorn has fallen. While I was taking this shot, a little squirrel was getting quite annoyed with me and started scolding me.

Finally, I got the the peak and it was apple orchard again, at least is downhill this time!

I enjoyed an apple… even though these were grown specifically for cider.

Finally, when I got to the bottom of the hill, there was no village…

Apparently, I climbed up and down the wrong hill… but I soon found a little road and decided to follow it. By the road, the hedges had really cool looking fruits.

The wild blackberries were really sweet…

As well as the wild raspberries…

And the redcurrants…

When I got around the corner, I saw the hill that I was supposed to climb. It was heck of a lot smaller and had many sheeps.

Happily, I headed towards it, passing by a tree heavy-laden with mistletoe.

Finally, I was nearing the cottage… I could not resist stopping to kick up some leaves. I went “shuishshciusshshuish”.

I had a lovely, lovely walk. According to my pedometer, I walked 6 miles, much of it very steep uphill. I think I may have had too much fun for a person supposedly walking to the village to get her sick husband some paracetamol. The village didn’t even have a shop!

Poor Denty waited so long that he wandered out to try to find me, thinking that a two mile round trip should not have taken two and a half hours… Eek. Luckily, he had just started out by the time I got back to the cottage, otherwise I might have to start feeling guilty.

Anyway, after a nice hot soak, he even cooked me a lovely lunch.

A little footsore, but on reflection, Denty was right… my parents would love to come here. There is just so much to see. Granted, I would not want to walk with them as they would probably be way ahead while I try to follow, huffing and puffing like bellows.