Dear William,
Today, I walked accompanied by Celine. It has been good to spend some quality time with her. I have been amazed at her stamina and how fit she is. When she led, I found it hard to keep up at times!
Again we had a hard day for, shortly after leaving Cricklade around 9.00a.m. we encountered very soft ground for miles on end. When I say soft, I mean sticky mud which makes every step difficult. I was exhausted by the middle of the day! The highlight of the day was reaching St John's Lock, the first on the river, with the statue of Father Thames, which used to lie at Thames Head until it was moved some years ago.
Another person who never ceases to amaze me is Ana Maria. I used to complain about her (poor ) navigation skills every time we went for an outing in the car. This time round she has managed to reach us in the most amazing places next to the path, even persuading someone to let her park in his private yard so that she could be within walking distance of the path! I will never again have a bad word to say about her map reading! In addition she has been feeeding us and also adminstering medical attention to my feet from time to time. I have a couple of blisters which are proving quite painful! After having lunch in a pub on the path I also became quite ill and had to retire for a couple of hours, returning to the path later that same afternoon. We made good progress and managed to walk a few miles past Lechlade , which had been our intended destination for the day. True to form Ana Maria was there to collect us and take us back to Lechlade where we spent the night. The local Chinese Restaurant, The River Vale, donated £10 to Marie Curie Cancer Care so all in all not a bad day!
Celine has now walked with me for 2 days and over 30 miles. I have been impressed with her and really enjoyed her company. I will miss her tomorrow when she goes back to work.
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