All By Myself

LETJOG E2W – Day 17: Tuesday 30 April – LEOMINSTER to KINGTON (16.0 miles)

First of all a big thanks to Chris and Mima in Cardiff, for putting me up last night on my flying visit from Leominster, and for their fun company, laundry service, and wonderful home cooking! It was really super to see you for a few hours, even if this made for a particularly early start this morning!

Back to my walk, and today, leaving Leominster station to grey skies and an early morning drizzle, really did feel like the beginning of a solo challenge; into an unknown of unfamiliar country, uncertain weather, and some rather ‘on-the-hoof’ route planning and accommodation arrangements. Ever since I first envisaged this LETJOG E2W escapade, I have reckoned the Welsh section to be the most demanding in terms of terrain, and also due to the distant spacing of potential overnight stops, that makes for some quite long walking days. And of course I have always expected to experience some wet weather in these parts at this time of year.

So, my walk today started off from the station in Leominster where I had stood with Tim yesterday, before proceeding through the town centre via my coffee stop, and then westwards as ever, waterproofs donned, on roads out into the country. After five miles I reached the award-winning ‘most beautiful village’ of Eardisland, and my path then took off across the level pastures besides the River Arrow, that I followed upstream for the rest of the day: as the miles passed so the landscape changed, with arable fields giving way to pasture, hardwood copses to stands of conifers, and the older buildings from black and white half-timber to stone. And although my path today was relatively flat, to the west appeared the Welsh hills, dark grey in the mist and cloud, as my first day in ‘Upland Britain’ looms. Those hills are for tomorrow – this is the story of how today unfolded.

Reaching the town of Kington, just short of the Welsh border marks the end of the English Midlands section, the Second Stage of my LETJOG E2W walk. Since reaching Rushden in Northamptonshire on the River Nene at the end of my ‘Eastern England’ section, I have spent eight days (plus one Rest Day) covering around 134 miles, and so alongside the anxiety of my imminent exertions in the Welsh hills I have a fair sense of accomplishment this evening. An early night beckons for the challenge ahead!

‘All By Myself’ seems a fitting Blog heading for today, as I prepare to head off solo into the wilds of central Wales tomorrow. I have taken the words from a 1975 song of that title by US singer-songwriter Eric Carmen, previously frontman of pop rock band The Raspberries. The music for the verses is based upon part of Rachmaninoff’s ‘Piano Concerto No 2 in C Minor’, whilst the chorus is taken from Carmen’s own song ‘Let’s Pretend’, recorded by The Raspberries in 1972.