Yesterday Janine and I did a reality check in preparation for the Camino and set off walking on a mountain bike route that our Conservancy hosts every year. We thought that we might try to walk the entire 39 km route with fully laden backpacks and new shoes!
We managed between 25 and 30 km despite getting lost, bundu-bashing and dithering for a long time at the start of the route as we couldn't find the single track path that marks the starting point for the mountain bikers. Technology also failed us as my fancy little tablet couldnt pick up the route from Google maps, so we had to make do with a faint A4 paper map. My biggest reality check was that I should've joined Girl Guides as a girl, because had I done that it might have been easier to find the route;-) Luckily Janine "found" us on the map and after a while we managed to move in roughly the right direction.
Had lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, dried fruit and nuts sitting on the burnt grass - too exhausted to care about new shoes, clean clothes or anything else - and we weren't even halfway yet.
After lunch we were joined by a neighbour who knows the obscure tracks and we managed well. Had tea at another neighbour and finally arrived back at the starting point 10 hours after starting out - exhausted but quite happy that we managed so well over rough terrain on a hot day.
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