Tires Rushing By In The Rain

LETJOG E2W – Day 20: Friday 3 May – LLANDOVERY to LAMPETER (18.9 miles)

By my reckoning, and by a number of measures, the completion of today’s wet ramble marks the approximate halfway point of my LETJOG E2W adventure. Inclusive of one Rest Day, I have now been walking for 20 days, with a similar amount of time ahead of me, and I have now covered around 340 miles on foot, which is probably a little over half of my likely total. Perhaps most importantly though, is that through our combined efforts, we are now very close indeed to raising 50% of the target figure of £2,500 on my JustGiving page that I set with Parkinson’s UK: a figure that, if reached, would pay for a medical researcher into the condition for a month. So for anyone interested in understanding more about Parkinson’s UK please click on this link to their website.

And to view my JustGiving page or to make a donation, the link is always on my HOME and BLOG tabs above, or simply click on the link below.

Thank you all! And for the kind messages of support that make wet days like this not just bearable but inspiring! A special mention here too for the kind folk of Llandovery and Lampeter – my hosts Mike and Gill at The Drovers B&B in Llandovery last night and fellow guest Joe, and also my hosts Angela and Nigel at the Evangelisa Guesthouse B&B here tonight in Lampeter have all very kindly donated to the Parkinson’s cause. And what a community Lampeter is – a trip to the local Shapla Tandoori curry house (excellent, by the way) resulted in two chance meetings, with Dale and with Manon, who have also both contributed. Thank you all so very much!

As for my walk today, it was waterproofs on first thing, and rain all day. But it was ‘soft rain’, just cloud really, and the base was just a little higher than yesterday, and so, with reference to yesterday’s post, I got to find my hills on an off-piste walking route this morning. Such was my enthusiasm that, despite having the detailed map to hand on my phone, I somehow managed to take a wrong turn, ending up in a steep-sided valley with no path, fenced in and wondering whether this really was the best way ‘from East to West’. In truth I love messing around in the hills in the wet and, as ever, orientation was soon re-established.

I think I’d better get on with the photos of my day.

So this evening, dry, warm, fed and watered, I can look back not just on an exciting day in the hills, but also on some meetings with kind and generous folk, in a fine part of the country that I knew very little of previously. And of course I can also reflect now on a successful first half of my LETJOG E2W challenge: this afternoon I crossed a watershed, and the rivers are now flowing westward, in the direction of my walk, towards the Irish Sea.

I believe that my Blog heading today ‘Tires Rushing By In The Rain’ is the first title that I have adopted from a music album rather than from a single song. It is appropriate though, aside from the imagery, as it is a collection of 17 covers of Bruce Springsteen songs by Welsh folk artist, singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph, from 2013. The versions of the numbers are all stripped-back acoustic ‘one man and a guitar’ (and a harmonica) versions of some of The Boss’ best-known compositions, including ‘Badlands’, ‘Thunder Road’ and ‘The River’ (that I featured as my Blog heading just a few days ago). Joseph is indeed known as ‘the Welsh Springsteen’ by his fans, and he also quotes influences by artists such as The Beatles and Bob Dylan: for those interested he plays regular gigs at The Stables in Milton Keynes, where I saw him perform just three months ago. And as for my playlist, I will be including Joseph’s cover of ‘Brilliant Disguise’ from the album.