Shine On You Crazy Diamond

LETJOG E2W – Day 8: Sunday 21 April – BRAMPTON to RUSHDEN (21.2 miles)

So, after eight days of walking I am now into Northamptonshire, where I have reached Rushden on the River Nene, a geographical divide that I adopted as the end point of Stage 1 of my LETJOG E2W walk across the British Isles. With the ‘Eastern England’ section of my trek now behind me, and as I am about to enter the rolling hills of the Midlands, I feel that I am indeed making progress. My walk to date has entailed 147 miles, significantly more than the 128 miles that my route planning had indicated, and in turn a greater distance than the fastest vehicle route of 121 miles (as advised by Google Maps). Of course, I am avoiding the main roads, and sticking wherever possible to footpaths, bridleways and farm tracks, plus some minor lanes where necessary. The reasons for exceeding my planned mileage lie mainly in the detours that I have taken to find available overnight accommodation, or to see certain sights along the way, and in a few cases to take necessary diversions around closed paths.

As for the route planning itself, the E2W path is not an acknowledged walking route – I have used my own experience to put in place the daily sections of the path on the OS App. In some instances I have been able to utilise stretches of ‘official’ walking paths, such as the Angles Way, the Boudicca Way, the Hereward Way, the Ouse Valley Way, and today the Three Shires Way. The result is a fairly unique route, that I hope combines variety with practicality.

My walk today was another long one, and after yesterday’s marathon I certainly felt some fatigue towards the end of the day. I was lucky though to enjoy clear and dry weather, although a gusty side-wind did add a chilly edge to my trek. Possibly it was these cold conditions that deterred even any regular Sunday morning dog walkers, and I had the paths pretty much to myself all day: here is the story of my walk.

After another long day of walking, and with tired legs, I have had the joy of some company tonight – how good it has been to catch up with old friends Pamela and Andrew in Rushden for dinner, and then, joining us for an evening drink, my son Alistair and partner Cerys. A very fine way indeed to celebrate the completion of the Eastern England section of my LETJOG E2W walk! My challenge has already proved to be quite an adventure – now the second stage, my path across the Midlands, beckons!

My song title Blog heading today ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ is a little contrived: the ‘diamond’ link in the title is with the local football team, Rushden and Diamonds, who are based in the town (the name dates from the merger, in 1992, of former local rivals Rushden Town and Irthlingborough Diamonds), and this connection rather planted the song in my head as I walked today. The composition of ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ is a fairly complex nine-part piece of music conceived by Pink Floyd members David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Richard Wright and dedicated to their former bandmate Syd Barrett, who had been let go from the group some years earlier due to addiction and mental health issues. The song was included as two separate ‘bookends’ to the band’s 1975 concept album ‘Wish You Were Here’.