Happy and dry the night before... eating at the Inn in Kintbury, West Berkshire
The food was tasty and the desserts bountiful.
But today, it's May 11 and time to go onto Crofton.
She Said:
A few words about our stay at the Dundas Arms, Kintbury -
Delicious dinner - some kind of warm wild mushrooms, watercress, etc. with a raspberry balsamic glaze that we really couldn't eat fast enough. I mean, SO good.
Plaice (European flounder) with a light wine and butter sauce (always a good combo), new potatoes, and those adorable tiny baby veggies (love those teeny weeny ears of corn) in, of course, garlic and butter (another good combo). Our desserts were equal to the meal - outrageous pound cake with fresh berry coulis (me) and a small Apple gateau with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream (R).
Yes, after walking 10 miles a day, we are obsessing about food. Tonight our B+B hostess is making lamb for us. Can't wait.
After dinner last night, we strolled into the village - 10? 15? cottages. Quite quaint. Luckily, I had brought along my umbrella as we were caught in a heavy, heavy, heavy downpour.
One of our breakfast mates was a retired Air Force Captain who had been stationed in England helping to set up missile stuff for NATO. He and R had a grand conversation as the Captain also was one of the Air Force's early tech guys, so he and R were throwing around all kinds of acronyms that they each understood and I knew nothing about. No worries, though - we also talked world economics and some philosophy, so I did contribute (and even held my own!)
It poured all through the night, rained all through breakfast, drizzled lightly as we were getting ready to leave, and dry by the time we set out walking. Still, we kept our rain gear handy as rain was forecast, off and on, for most of the day.
Mostly on.
We passed a clever "bug hotel", a man-made structure meant to attract bees and spiders and other bugs. Very cool. Looks like the base was a wooden pallet. Then, a layer of wood, twigs, stones, little gravel-filled flower pots, and cross-cut bamboo. Then, a layer of pallet-sized sticks. Then another layer like the first, another layer of sticks, and alternating on up to about 3' high. If I were a bug, I would live there.
Then, the rain. The good news is that the temps were perfect for walking and there was no wind with the rain. Calm and peaceful.
We took a quick look at Hungerford's High Street, then the Hungerford's Cathedral (small). Hungerford's is literally 50' off the canal, so it was worth the diversion from the sameness of the canal path.
Back on the path, at the Freeman's Marsh info sign, we learned that the Kennet and Avon Canal, and its many WWII pillboxes, was an integral part of the "Ironside Line" of fortification, built in 1940 to keep goods running on the canal and to stop (or at least slow down) any German invasion coming by water.
Supposedly, there are also ruins of a "tank trap" nearby the canal under a railway bridge to stop German tanks, but it was far off across a field and it was raining hard, so I'll google it to see it!
The Freeman's Marsh info sign also said that the most common mammal along the canal is the water vole. I would like to see a water vole - they look pretty cute.
We passed an old, derelict house at Cobbler's Lock which was probably the original lock house at that point. Like the cobbler who changed my watch battery in Reading, this cobbler probably had a side gig, too - as a lock keeper.
The rain tapered off as we walked up to our B+B for tonight - the Crofton Lodge. We passed some bright yellow fields of rape in bloom. Such a beautiful and stark contrast to the green meadows and brown (not yet planted) farm fields. Rape is a cash crop - rapeseed oil.
Time for drinks and dinner downstairs. How civilized.
Total mileage:
10.46 miles (K&A Canal, in and around Hungerford)
He said:
Our easy 10 mile walk today was soggy, and so not quite so easy. We were still dry by lunch, but for the next 2 hours, the rain came down steadily. When added to the rain yesterday and overnight, there were many flooded spots to traverse where the sloping fields around the canal drained muddy water over the path and down stream. We did not have many diversions; the path is rather lonely in this stretch, and there are few villages nearby. Early on, we did stop to see Hungerford with its various shops and busy local folks running errands or going to work or lunch. Then we stopped in at the local church to see that they were setting up for a music concert... lights, speakers, a stage! Well, times have changed... The rest of the walk had a repeating pattern of locks, moored boats, lonely, drippy stretches, and the noise from the nearby train tracks, the railroad certainly copied the canal route as it put the canal out of business 150 years ago.
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