JOGLE 4 Day 4 - 6 Sep 11

Start 08.15 Finish 16.35 Distance 15.5 miles. Glastonbury to Bridgewater. The Travel Lodge Breakfast Buffet has died and been re-incarnated in the form of packaging and lots of packaging. Yes it was delivered to the room but left outside the door and no one actually knocked to say it was there either. Probably just as well as the staff would want to deliver the breakfast and run away as fast as they could in shame. Breakfast was a muffin, cornflakes with UHT milk, orange squash and something resembling a croissant and everything double wrapped. Luckily the town of Street was only a couple of miles away and that’s where we headed for a proper breakfast of scrambled egg on toast with a decent cup of tea and real milk- heaven. Ian was introduced to the delights of the Street Retail Outlet Centre (Clarks village) which I think he was impressed with. The walk to Bridgwater was fairly uneventful. We were still following what was left of the Great Western Canal and came across some sterling efforts to revive large parts of it, including some massive lifting gear. Unfortunately I don’t think it will ever be fully connected due to houses and garages being built over it and the land reclaimed and converted to back gardens. The views of the remaining Somerset Flats were nice and put in perspective the massive drainage ditches, although the views were being taken out by squally rain, which plagued us all day. A lot of the roads were very straight and boring, foot paths provided a welcome relief, I even saw a bird of prey attacking a small bird, although it flew off and the bird was saved as we approached. The footpaths in places were up to the usual poor standards we have come to expect in this part of the world along with some of them being blocked by electric fences and cows. We did come across a rather nice cottage with three carvings of three bears outside, very cute, indeed the home was being used as a cottage industry selling homeopathic remedies. I didn’t check to see if it was made out of sugar and spice and all things nice just in case we became bewitched, mind you it could have been owned by the barking mad pharmacist we met earlier in our travels! We came across more angry dogs, luckily these were well locked away behind a big fence. Finally we crossed the M5, a good sign as this means we are well on our way into the West Country. We didn’t see any large hoardings with packets of Marlborough on, so maybe we are not that far West yet. Bridgewater was a big disappointment, very run down and lots of shops boarded up. It had the air of an inland seaside resort? We managed to stop at Costa Coffee for a latte and some nice biscuits as a treat. We arrived at the Old Vicarage Hotel in the centre of town, only to find new owners in charge and struggling to find our booking. Apparently I confused them (no surprises there then!) by saying we were in a twin room, in fact we had been booked in to a family room, so one double bedroom, one lounge, one dressing area, standard en-suite and a twin bedroom all for £48 each. We decided to eat out at Prezzos which was located in a very nice old converted Corn Market. We asked the hotel if they could provide a packed lunch for us, but they declined due to health and hygiene reasons because of carrying them in rucksacks! Whatever!! After a quick wander around what was left of Bridgewater and a quick beer in a Weather-spoons we headed for bed.