2012 Getting Ready ... Again!

This Surf and Turf adventure began last August. Can one ever plan too far in advance? Originally, the walk was going to be The Thames Path, but having encountered some ladies last summer whilst on route from St. Bees to Robin Hoods Bay, ladies who had trod part of that path, and from pleasant conversation with them, having determined that said path would be better reserved for the day when "flat" would be absolutely necessary, I turned
my attention to other alluring walks of suitable duration. The South West Coast Path immediately came to mind. It, however, being 630 miles from one end to the other, was over my physical budget. The question became, "which section?" Since the whole could not be accomplished, it seemed to make some sense to choose one 100 mile segment and add to it a different sort of terrain for the other 100 miles. That is how the Cotswald Way came into the picture. My friend Wendy decided to come along, so now we are two.

For the SWCP, I determined the itinerary, rest days, and such, then turned the booking of the B and B's over to Contours. Ahh, but for the Cotswald Way, I made all the arrangements. Isn't e-mail wonderful? The only small hitch is when an establishment requires a deposit, but does not accept credit cards. When this did happen, the proprietor kindly waived the deposit. Hopefully, s/he will not waive the room! Sherpa Van Service and Trip Advisor were two invaluable sites in the planning process. I will not burden with details, but if anyone out there wants to do their own planning, do know that with Sherpa, you can turn all the arrangements over to them, use only their baggage toting service, or take advantage of options in between. Their site is easy to navigate, too.

See the well-packed bag below? That is my suitcase with tons of room to spare even though it may not look it.




Why, you may ask, would anyone post a photo of THAT? I will keep the reader in suspense not a second longer. My tech support person, i.e., Alex, is visiting this weekend, and I wanted to make sure I remembered how to import photos, post them, and all that, so a test picture was required. A good thing I went through the process again because smoothly it did not go. Now, all is in place, and I am, as it is said, good to go.

Two days later, erev (the evening prior to) departure. Wendy, traveling from San Francisco, left today to have an extra twenty-four hours to recover from jet lag. The plan is for her to meet me Thursday morning, 8:30, at bus stand 12, Heathrow, terminal 5, whence we shall take a coach to Woking, a train to Axminster, and finally a bus (if the timing is right) or a cab—whoops, that should be taxi—to Lyme Regis, our first destination.

I can hardly wait!

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Location:New Haven