Monday

A much better day than yesterday as it was marginally less hot, with a cooling breeze at times. The route was also more interesting.

I left the rest of the hostel occupants sleeping and crept out at 6.45.

Knowing the Mendips quite well I did not see the need to go up the gorge and climb over Beacon Batch. I took the more obvious route following the Strawberry Line trail to Yatton. That way I got 11 miles done before having a late breakfast at 10.30 in the Strawberry Line cafe at Yatton Station.

Sitting at the station I remembered that in 1978 I caught the early train from there when I first moved to Debenhams. Instead of putting me up in a hotel in London they agreed to let me travel First Class each day. I was only an Assistant Buyer. How the job market has changed.

From Yatton I followed the 3.5km straight of Kenn Moor Road and then took to the fields along the drainage ditch to the Blind Yeo before emerging onto the B3130. All easy walking except for a slight altercation with an over-friendly herd of cows and their big friend.

I was looking forward to some tea, at the cafe at Golden Acres Nursery and Fruit Farm, only to find the whole site derelict and abandoned. Fighting my way through brambles and vegetation I managed to find the exit from the site and continued up to Cadbury Camp.

From there to Clapton Court was a nightmare trying to force my way along a path which was so overgrown I almost had to go on hands and knees to get through at one point.

I stopped for a drink at the Black Horse at Clapton in Gordano before reaching the hotel at the motorway services at 3.45. Just after I arrived there was a heavy shower of rain!!

The hotel is undergoing renovation, so it is cheap, and I can get a subsidised breakfast tomorrow at Harry Ramsden’s.

Tomorrow I cross the Avon and head for Aust.