The ear worm.....

 

There is really only one way that we can begin the Shona and Mike Take a Hike blog this week and that is to say: 

We have walked 500 miles and will attempt 500 more:
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na and so on......
Cornwall no more (or should that be NO MOA), 
Devon no more, 
Somerset no more, 
Monmouth no more,
Staffordshire no more,
And a few others.....NO MOA......

Now for those who know this song, tell me you don't have it in your head! I'm sure the ear worm will play on and on and on.........

As you may guess, the walk has not always been easy, in fact when trying to negotiate some of the local paths we were inclined to think of the great Missionary David Livingston when he went to Africa.

The photo on the left is just an example of how overgrown some of them are. I began to wonder if we should have brought a machete with us to hack down the vegetation.

Once you get through onto the path, it is mud, mud, glorious mud, or grass, grass, very wet grass........

Of course, it has not all been mud or wet grass, many of the days have been warm and pleasant with good underfoot conditions.

What about this week?

Sunday

As usual, Sunday was our Rest Day and we attended "Temple Baptist Church, which was only a short walk away from our caravan site. We received a very warm welcome and the first hymn was "To God be the glory", and oh how they could sing it made our hearts rejoice and the hairs on the back of our neck stand up. We of course gave it ":laldy".

We were also very encouraged by the preaching, from Psalm 46: "God is our  refuge and strength, an ever- present help in trouble...." Oh my, how encouraging to know that God is our "go to" place, where we find not only refuge but strength. We say again throughout our journey we have experienced that refuge and, that strength.

Monday - Saturday

The week was reasonably easy with a great deal of flat walking, the only day we had some mud we just could not negotiate was Monday, we couldn't go through it, so we had to climb up through the forest to avoid it, Shona was "not amused", but what's new, lol.

We would also like to acknowledge that, Kev and Wendy, who own one of the caravan sites we stayed at, were ever so kind by refusing to accept payment for the two nights we were there. Kev also very kindly drove us the 15 miles into Coven Heath to drop us off. 

The next day "Glyn" who was also staying on site came to Stafford to pick us up when we got the train back from Stoke-on-Trent at the end of our walk. Once again, we experience the kindness of strangers.

Overall, this week we have walked 97 miles and although we said at the top of the blog we have walked 500 miles, it's 510 actually, but who's counting...... ok so we are, but don't mention it, but that's us nearly at the halfway point. We say again thank you to everyone for your continued prayerful support. We are also extremely thankful the blisters have healed, and our feet feel tip top.

Thank you again for reading our blog, and once again please feel free to visit and share the "Shona and Mike Take a Hike" fundraising page at:

https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/shonaandmike-giving-page-2298439   

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