Fourteen miles of walking today along tarmac. My feet are killing me. From Braunton to Bideford the path goes along old railway track routes (Ilfracombe to Barnstaple and Barnstaple to Bideford) which are peaceful with verges full of wildlife but hard on the joints and plates o' meat. Met a couple of characters. Stopped in Barnstaple for a bit to go into the very interesting little heritage museum (lovely lovely staff who let me leave my rucksack behind their counter - thank you!). As I set off again, some random, slightly weird and creepy bloke (not a walker) approached me and quizzed me in alarming detail about where I was going and exactly what route I was taking and whether I was on my own. Away from you as quickly as possible, strange man, to meet my swarthy companion. Actually, I had someone in mind to cast in the temporary role of swarthy companion, as I'd met an interesting character on the path soon after leaving Braunton, who had passed me at Barnstaple and now I was hoping I would catch up to him! There were some quite isolated stretches of the path after Barnstaple so I tried not to be jumpy - I really didn't want to have to chin the strange man, too much hassle with the police, paperwork etc! I did catch up with the other guy later. He had a proper old wild west water bottle, was naked from the waist up, a long ponytail and with a shark's tooth round his neck. He was another one of these wild campers ('I paid for the camping when I bought the tent'. And what a huge tent it was. It made my back ache just to look at all the stuff he was carrying.) When I asked him how long he was walking for, he said enigmatically 'it'll take as long as it takes'. He'd done most of his long distance walking in Australia and the States, taking 9 months to do the Appalachian Trail. I was dying to ask him whether he was independently wealthy or just lived off the land. And if he killed the shark whose tooth he was wearing. But he was a man of relatively few words. A bit competitive too, reckoning that he must have slowed down quite a lot if I'd caught him up - cheek! For the last few miles I walked today, mostly what kept me going was finding songs on my ipod whose rhythm matched the pace I needed to speed up to. Otherwise I think I would have had to get the bus the last few miles! Bideford is, unfortunately, a rather unlovely place and I am staying in a nasty little B&B full of people who seem to be some kind of construction workers who think they are the first people to see me in my kit and ask me if I'm going walking. Ha ha. Can I borrow your sticks? Ha ha ha ha ha. Is that bag heavy? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Hilarious! I'm tired but I can still raise my arm high enough for chinning...
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