July 14 Bishops Castle to Clun

 

At 6:15, Max and I set out for Clun, stage 3 of the Shropshire Way.  Our plan had been to do a circular walk today and this stage tomorrow, but it turns out that the bus from Clun back to Bishop's Castle, where we are staying, runs only on Monday and Friday, so today being Monday, we went for it!  

It was a great walk!  The weather was perfect, path almost all off road, enough challenge so that we were pretty tired at the end, but feeling quite accomplished.  Max is a great navigator and saved the day a couple of times!  Once was when we were walking up a steep hill that was like Mortimer's Way: thistles, thorns, overgrowth, ferns, brambles, complete craziness.  After several minutes of this idiotic bushwhacking, Max, pointing to the right, said, "I think the path is over there."  I was not completely convinced, but what we were on was nuts, so we made out way over to the path "over there" and, yup!  It was just where we were supposed to be. We both concurred that Grammy would not like this very much,   

Do the dangers ever end?

Even from the trees, they are after you!

Not to mention the rivers:

Or the  grass or where ever:

On another note, aren't names like this just wonderful?

Hello, horsie!

The handsome one in the middle is Max! 

Can you imagine the gorgeousness of walking through these flowers?

I had been so looking forward to concluding our walk in Clun with a sit down by the river at the Postcard Cafe.  It is Monday; the cafe was not open.  Barely anything was open.  We went to the other cafe in town and ordered sandwiches.  It took so long, and Max was so hungry that he ate the sandwich I had made for him as a snack while waiting for the sandwiches we had ordered:

Just FYI: the sandwiches were very not great.

Then the bus!  We were sitting in the bus shelter and I to Max said, "Max, we are facing away from the street.  We may not see the bus."  Of course, he dismissed this as nonsense, but guess what!  The bus roared by eight minutes before it was due!!  So what did Max do?  He ran after it.  He chased that damn bus!  AND HE CAUGHT IT!  In Max's inimitable way, he barely took credit for this feat of daring do!  I to the bus driver, "You are early."  "Yes.  In these small towns we don't stop unless you make a reservation!"  WHAT?!  Had we not caught the bus, the next one would not be until Friday.  BTW, the fare for the two of us was $1.36.