JOGLE 4 Day 5 - 7 Sep 11

Start 09.10 Finish 1530. Distance 12 miles. Bridgewater to Taunton. As the Hotel wouldn’t provide a packed lunch for health and hygiene reasons we headed into town to find our trusted favourite sandwich makers, Greggs. Having bought our sandwiches we headed for the indoor market located in the “Ye Olde Market” hall in search of some fruit. Having purchased a single apple and a single banana we got talking to the market stall holder. Clearly he thought we were barking mad when he found out what we were doing or else he felt sorry for two middle aged men whom he must have thought were a sandwich short of a picnic (actually it was the fruit we were missing!)and decided to give us our money back and let us have the fruit for free. I think it is fair to say that all is not lost in Bridgewater, well not just yet. Today the weather decided it was going to rain and drizzle all day. So Ian and I opted for the dry weather programme of sorts. A walking dry weather programme means you avoid footpaths, fields, long grass and anything that is going to make you wetter and muddier than you already are. A quick revision of the route saw us enjoying the minor back roads along with the steep hills as we were well and truly out of the Somerset Flats now and powering our way into Devon. I suppose “powering” is a bit optimistic it was probably more psychological than physical, but we made good progress with a short break on a nice bench in a pleasant village. This is a good thing about the English Country side in that you come across some random bench in the middle of nowhere donated by somebody who used to visit that spot for years. It’s a shame the person had to die before they put a proper seat in. Not long after our break we came cross the Temple of Harmony. I didn't see any hair spray (for those that remember the Advert). It is an interesting building of which Ian and I had a debate about the architecture as to whether it was Greek or Roman; personally I thought it was Victorian because the sign said it was built in the C19th (I think sometimes that Ian despairs over my lack of understanding of things arty). The opening times are very limited so we didn’t get to look inside. The weather cleared at lunchtime and the decision was made to stop for a proper lunch in a Pub at Kingston St Mary. We had time on our hands being that today was a short walking day. The B&B was very nice with a warm friendly welcome and best of all a pot of tea and homemade cake was provided on arrival. The building was a very old farm building in the middle of a modern housing estate. Clearly the land had been sold off years ago and all that was left of the farm was the original farm house. It was here that we came across a visitor riding a motorbike with a side car. It wasn’t any old side car but a hearse and he had been booked for a funeral the next day. I managed to get his business card and the family is now briefed as to how I am getting to my funeral! Ian and I caught the local bus from the nearby park and ride into Taunton. We were looking for a launderette and luckily the bus went straight past one. It is almost a routine now, we find a launderette that doesn’t have any soap powder and no change available for the machines and looks as though it is the hang out for the local down and outs. I bought a box of soap powder and probably used too much as the machine foamed up and we lost sight of the washing, luckily it didn’t leak out all over the floor. I did manage to sell the remaining powder to another couple as I didn’t want to be carrying it in case it leaked out of the box and got wet inside my Bergen leading to foamy Greggs sandwiches (that we hadn't eaten yet and were saving for tomorrow). Having had a really big lunch we were surprisingly ready for me more and Prezzos came to our rescue as being the only reasonable place around for food. The Park and Ride delivered us back to the B&B in time to watch England play Wales.