JOGLE 4 Day 2 - 4 Sep 11

Start 09.45. Finish 18.45. Distance 15.5 miles. Bath to West Harptree. Today I was attacked by one of three so called friendly Labradors. Unfortunately we had little choice but to follow the foot path through someone’s back garden. Luckily only the paw came into contact but drew blood and left a very big bruise. Thank goodness for my Advanced Life Support (ALS) training I was able to save my self and treat the injury with TCP contained within my First Aid Kit! All that stuff you get taught in the Boy Scouts does come in handy in the end. Although the sterile 2 pence I had for making a phone call isn’t much use these days as rural phone boxes don’t take coins any more. In the meantime Ian managed to play his part in saving my life by photographing the whole thing. I have no doubt that the photograph will be rolled out when I least expect it. We walked through an old mining village called Camerton and we followed the old railway line and canal path. There is even a board and statue of a miner in the village that explains the history of the mining operation. Even the slag heap looks quite attractive, now its covered in trees. The path we have been following is called the Limestone Link and it is a really good path with lots of new gates but unfortunately it is not too well signposted. What is noticeable is that the farmers are not walker or footpath friendly. With quite aggressive cows in fields and electric fences across footpaths or even the cows stood right in front of the style. Indeed on one occasion such a beast was a massive Bull! He was very determined that we were not going across the style. In the true tradition of the British Army Ian and I came up with a plan, which meant that I had to go first and distract him whilst some yards behind me Ian would creep around the side and head for the style. I thought the better plan would be that as Ian had the bright red rucksack he could distract the bull and run like hell if he got chased whilst I fall over laughing and casually climb over the style. In the end we sort of crept around the side, waving the map case and shouting “walk on”, well that told him didn’t it!  The bull got up and moved on with a withering look as if to say –“I’ll have you next time”. That was enough excitement for one day and a welcome arrival at the Blue Bowl Inn at West Harptree was very nice. The accommodation was good and the food enjoyable with a welcome pint of Ale and staff making you feel very welcome. It wasn’t long before the “I can snore louder than you can” competition started again to the aroma of freshly washed walking socks drip drying on the cold radiator - nice!