Medieval gravestone set into Wharrem Percy church wall
I’d bought boots over the weekend, a pair of Brasher Lithium XCRs. Today was a leave day, bright, but not too warm; time to test-drive the new footwear.
In view of the sensitive nature of my feet I decided against anything too challenging and opted for a revisit to the
The walk is a popular outing and uses a figure of eight route alternating between parts of the
The boots seemed comfortable at first, light, with plenty of support. As the day progressed, however, I developed hot spots on the soles of both feet which, by the end of the walk, had developed into full blown and rather painful blisters. I don’t think this is a fault of the boot; it’s just the usual war of attrition I always have to endure before my feet accept new footwear.
It was pretty quiet on the route: I passed just one other set of four walkers and a morose youth sat in a farm vehicle using all of his limited ingenuity to ignore my presence. There was plenty of bird and insect life on display, including lots of tortoiseshell butterflies, but no larger animals.
The pub at Thixendale was closed but I found a reasonably restful perch at the village cricket pavilion to chew my banana and apple and air my toes. It got pleasantly warm during the middle of the day with surprisingly strong sunlight: enough to lightly toast exposed skin.
The highlight of the return leg is the descent into Deepdale and Wharrem Percy. Wharrem Percy has a very agreeable setting which always attracts a smattering of visitors. In truth there’s not a lot of the medieval village to see, just humps and bumps on the ground, a pond and a ruined church. There are plenty of interpretation boards, however, and even the least imaginative can get some appreciation of the site’s past.
I finished the ten mile walk blistered, sweaty and sunburnt: I must get back into a regular weekly walk routine to regain some of the fitness I had at the end of last year’s Coast to Coast walk.
