A Year Long Pilgrimage

I don't have much of interest to report, as each of my days are spent moving from my room to the restaurant and back.  Having said that though, I have been meeting some interesting people.  I bailed up Gareth, a Welsh microscope salesman, telling him that I'm not usually so brazen, but would love his company while we ate.  I learnt that he trains people from all sorts of fields on microscopes, not just medical.   Once he was in Europe training people from a chocolate factory, as they investigated the cocoa beans they were using, and at another factory in Glasgow which was researching the biodegradable containers they were about to manufacture.   His hobby, with his telescope, was time lapse space photography.  The other night I met Jim and Lynn.  They were here for Lynn's Cochlear implant, which had been inserted before Christmas, and was to be turned on the next day. Then I met Jackie over breakfast, a retired physiotherapist,  who was ...

Well, since the last post I have left hospital and am now staying in a hotel.  I arrived here nearly a week ago, and yesterday moved rooms.  I have chosen a hotel that has a restaurant AND a lift for ease of movement.  I'm not sure that the nurses will approve of how I get around.   Entering and exiting rooms is the trickiest part.  I carefully open the door, without getting the wheels of my frame caught,  then I line myself up with the door, give it and almighty push, sprint through, as much as one can sprint hopping, before it crashes into me again, then one more shove and I am through! On my frame, with the new cast on my wrist, but still the post surgery cast on my leg. I have discovered that not all accessible rooms are equal.  My first room was an older one, with a marginally lower toilet and shower chair.  This was quite difficult standing, and is so much easier in my new room.  However, opening the room door is much harder as the...

Well, at the end of the last post I  said that my walking came to halt just before reaching the Red Lion Hotel.  In fact since that time I have only hopped, and only in the last two days!  Why?  Well.... This is long and tedious, with only a couple of photos, so don't feel compelled to read it.  I am trying to make it brief, but I know some people want the detail.  Last Saturday evening, a week ago, as I walked down the path on the side of the road, to the hotel, my feet went from under me.  I had slipped on a frozen puddle, which in a momentary lapse of concentration I failed to see.  My momentum, and the weight of my pack flipped me over like a turtle, but in the process my right arm and leg got stuck, while I continued to move.  The result? A broken wrist, and a broken ankle!  A passing dog walker stopped to offer help by carrying my pack, but I had a better idea when I saw someone get into a car opposite.   I asked him to a...

Having left Hilborough as early as I could, in heavy fog, and retracing my steps along the busy "A" road, which was fortunately not too busy, I resumed the path.  Reaching the end of a back road I was met with a padlocked gate and a sign saying "Military Training Area".  The path on my map went straight through, and as there was a gap in the fence, so did I!  Rather than go across the fields though I followed farm tracks in a big loop, passing farms, an old quarry, and even what appeared to be old military defence installations.  The gate at the other end was somewhat more secure, but I managed to extricate myself.   In the fog! My big pack (so everyone tells me) looks tiny next to this giant - right next to the hole in the fence. A warning to drivers to check their brakes after fording the stream. Defence installations loomed in the fog. After walking another kilometre along a road, my map directed me through fields, but this time the signs said "Military ...

After leaving Norwich I headed to the small town of Swaffham - in the fog, so thick all I could see were shadows looming out of the gloom.  Photos were few and far between on this day. Inside the church at Necton.  Note the angels on the roof ( you might need to zero in).  The bell ringers were practising and they continued for well over an hour (I stopped for coffee and they were still going when I came out) All Saints  Church,  Necton.  When planning this journey I realised I was going to be very close to Swaffham and immediately planned to somehow visit the town, and in particular one of the churches there.  I can hear you all saying what's she on about now, or something similar.  It is not a town that one passes through, but one where a choice has to be made to visit it as it is not really on the way to anywhere. Well, for many years, visiting schools as a storyteller, or sitting around a campfire, I have been telling the story of the Pedlar o...