A round walk

Bank holiday was forecast to be thoroughly wet and when we looked out of the window this morning it seemed that the forecast was going to be accurate. On a whim I suggested that we walk a circle around the house based on the #microadventure idea. We didn't plan to be spending the night out though, so perhaps that doesn't count?

A 3km radius was chosen to generate a 24km trip. A few minutes with the map showed that a pretty good loop could be achieved. The eastern two thirds would be urban, the western third more rural.

The unknown urban streets were rewarding as we didn't know them and they afforded surprise views and "ooh, I see where we are" moments. The least rewarding sections were streets that we knew but had little to recommend them. We reached them when we were tiring and the whole exercise felt a bit futile. We found numerous closed cafes and eventually had a cold drink in a pub where they couldn't serve hot drinks due to an absence of cups. Mush of the route was deserted, I assume the foul weather had encouraged people to stay indoors.

Fairly circular

The route approximated fairly well to a circle and for a 3km radius the walk should be just over 24km. With my rather indifferent GPS the distance was recorded as 33km. There are 'twiddly bits' on the loop so I suppose that it makes sense to be a bit longer than the geometry implies. It certainly felt pretty hard work considering that the terrain was straight forward.

I think it's going to take a week for our kit to dry out. The rain wan't especially heavy but it was continuous and a bit humid so there was also the issue of condensation inside wet cagoules.

My knees coped adequately with the day although a steep stepped descent was hard on my left patellar ligament and my right knee is a bit sore laterally. The physio has wondered in the past if that is caused by a slight twist. My boot soles show some wear at the heels, as do all my shoes that have done any distance, but the right is less affected than the left. Hopefully it will settle after some pre-bedtime stretches and a day of relative rest.