Part three
The final build up
01/05/2022 Test walk day one
Richard, Tom and I get up reasonably early, eat porridge, shoulder our packs and head out of the front door, just as Rich and I will when we start the HocWalk (only with heavier packs). There is a spring in all our steps and, although it should feel strange walking along the paths I normally run or walk the dog, somehow it doesn’t. It hasn’t rained for weeks but the weather conditions today are perfect, sunny but not hot with a gentle breeze.
We soon reach Hockering Wood, which is where our path diverges from any of our usual routes. The wood is cool and shimmering in the morning light, carpeted with heady-scented bluebells. We catch sight of a hare upright on the sun-dappled, grassy path. It is still for moment then senses our presence, twitches its ears and lollops away into the undergrowth. As we reach the end of the woodland path, there is a flicker of movement in a nearby clearing. A roe deer shakes loose the night and canters off into the forest. It is magical.
We leave the wood and turn left onto the road, heading for a footpath across a nearby field. In the middle of the field is a small copse. I ask Rich whether we should go through or around it. ‘Hilariously’, he says, ‘it is not on the map’. There is, of course, a Public Footpath sign pointing straight into it. I go in front and it is a small, twisty but perfectly passable footpath, but only if you are less than 6 foot tall, judging from the grumblings behind me. We cross another field and enter a similar path through narrow woodland. This time, I am accosted by spiders’ webs and overhanging twigs. There is also a gruesome trail of half-eaten corpses, kills from a fox or perhaps a sparrowhawk, which are gradually getting fresher as we progress. The last one looks only an hour or two old.
We arrive at the Museum of Rural Life (an erstwhile workhouse) at Gressenhall, the start of the Nar Valley Way, which we will be following for a while. The signpost here says ‘King’s Lynn 34 miles’. We have already walked over 8 miles, so the combined total mileage of our two days cannot be the 37 miles Rich had calculated. I repeat ‘I told you so’ very irritatingly over the next two days. Fortunately, Tom rescues the situation by declaring that he has a packet of Tangfastics in his bag left over from his Dungeons and Dragons game on Saturday. The mood lightens considerably.
We stop for lunch in a field at the top of a hill a little further on. Rich and Tom have a post-prandial snooze. I don’t because I have managed to sit in a patch of thistles. After lunch, we continue roughly along the Nar Valley Way, rerouting where we can to reduce the distance, but this also diminishes the interest. It is a price we are all willing to pay. We arrive in Litcham in the late afternoon, where a signpost helpfully tells us that Castle Acre is 6 miles further on. We sit down on the village green to have a snack and some water. Tom and Rich are again comfortable, but I have sat in some stinging nettles.
We go on through Litcham Common, home to Norfolk’s wild ponies (who knew?) and, a little further on, stop to watch a blackcap singing from a low branch, the call vibrating in its blue-grey throat. Like most of the wildlife, it is largely ignoring us. A few miles later, there seems to be a kerfuffle in the road among some baby rabbits. Tom thinks he has spotted a squirrel, but squirrels don’t have black-tipped tails. It is a stoat mesmerizing and catching the baby rabbits. No wonder there is such a commotion! As we cross the river to arrive in Castle Acre we spot grey wagtails in the eddies at the water’s edge, our last rare creature of the day.
The Ostrich pub is warm and welcoming, and we are all exhausted. As I sit in the room, I start shivering uncontrollably. Is it cold, exhaustion, something more sinister or a combination of all three? I have a hot shower and realise that I was just cold, stopping moving after a day walking almost non-stop. As a result of our miscalculations, we have arrived later than planned and The Ostrich has stopped serving food. They recommend getting delivery take-out and we decide on Swaffham Kebab and Pizza House. We all order a large doner with everything, on Thomas’s recommendation. I don’t finish it, but it is quick hot and delicious, so much so, that one of the other pub visitors says he’s going to order some too.
I lie in bed that night with my feet out in the cold air. They are hot and painful and, not for the first time, I am cursing my worn-out boots.
02/05/2022 Test walk day two
We have a fantastic Ostrich full English breakfast and buy some comestibles from the Spar just down the road to carry for lunch. We set off and Rich and I don’t feel too bad – it’s amazing what topical Voltarol gel can do for your feet. Thomas, however, is struggling. It transpires that he has blisters. After much persuasion, he agrees to sit down and let me attend to them. He is wearing novelty Santa socks with his boots because, he says, they were all he had. I start to dress the blisters when a barn owl flies close by us in broad daylight. It’s going to be another amazing day.
We continue along the Nar Valley Way, across fields and through woodland, gradually approaching the A47. There is a pathway under the road alongside the river, but it looks small. As the shortest member of the team, I am dispatched to investigate. The path is very low, strictly for muntjacs and fairies only, and I turn round to go back to the main route. Rich and Thomas are nowhere to be seen, however, as they are already scaling the crash barrier to cross the road.
The route then goes into Narborough along a towpath that we have walked before. There is something about it niggling in the back of my mind. As we start it, I remember. It is incredibly hard underfoot and very uneven, all made worse by the weeks of drought. We soon start to tire and I see a small metal bench up ahead and suggest we stop for a bit. Rich and Thomas have hefted their packs and bagsied the seat almost before I’ve finished speaking. Rich relinquishes his spot a while later for me to take a turn, as he is not wearing Santa socks.
As we continue, I spot what seems to be a ruined castle far in the distance. ‘Is that Pentney Abbey?’ I ask Rich. I’m thinking that if it is, that’s where the bridge (our suggested lunch spot) is likely to be and it looks a long way off. He doesn’t answer and I assume that either I’m hallucinating or my vision is not what it was. The building, however, comes into view more clearly as we progress and Rich admits he’s never heard of Pentney Abbey. There is indeed a beautiful bridge there and it is a peaceful, idyllic lunch spot, with the water gently bubbling in the background. This time, we all fall asleep, enchanted by the loveliness of the place.
After crossing the bridge, the landscape begins to level out and we get a feeling for what walking across the fens is going to be like. There are lapwings, a cuckoo and nesting swans to lighten the mood, however. We diverge from the Nar Valley Way as we approach King’s Lynn in order to shorten the route. Rich confesses that this is also because he wants to visit an area of common land that looks interesting on the map. Needless to say, it is pathless and we get lost, finding ourselves on the wrong side of a stream. We retrace our steps and recalculate the route. At least we won’t make this mistake when the do the walk for real.
King’s Lynn and the Hardwick roundabout come up on us quite quickly and we try to locate the bus stop to get home. Tesco’s is disappointingly closed and so Rich and Tom go to Kentucky Fried Chicken to buy some drinks. This is another first as, in all his 60 years, Rich has never been to KFC. He has still not eaten there, but the diet cokes were very welcome. There was also a final surprise from the day: linnets in the KFC car park.
The Excel bus arrives on time and we sit on the top deck as the bus retraces some of our route and takes us back to Hockering. It has been an incredible two days.
Things we learned from the test walk:
Our mileage calculations are wrong
We need to check accommodation and food timings
Most of our new kit is excellent but
Our new water bottles need cleaning out (they taste of TCP)
I am definitely taking Havaianas (for sore feet after a long day)
We both need new walking boots
We need lots of painkillers and anti-inflammatories
Briefs are better than thongs (and Santa socks are to be avoided altogether)
Sit next to Rich to avoid hazards
We can do it
04/05/2022 – 05/05/2022
Rich is 60 today and we are going to Cumbria for two days for his mother’s interment. We meet up with his family but there is no time for walking. We drop into George Fisher in Keswick on our way home to buy new boots. The assistant is brilliant and we get some (matching) Scarpa lightweight leather boots and he recommends Superfeet Trailblazer insoles, though they haven’t got them all in stock.
Rich drops me at Penrith station as I am off to see Little Mix with Catherine in Manchester, a gig cancelled from two years ago. Cathy and I also use the time to eat out, drink cocktails and meet up with my Mum’s cousins, Susan and Marjorie and their husbands.
09/05/2022
After the holidays and revelries of the last few days, I am dreading weighing myself. I am in fact 90.2kg, a big improvement but not yet the 8kg pre-walk weight loss that I really need to compensate for carrying a pack.
13/05/2022
I finally complete the UEA Norfolk and Norwich ‘Gran Torino’ walk, although I do it in reverse for some reason. I’m feeling really chuffed until the next week, where I try a new workplace walk and get lost in a wood!
28/05/2022
Rich is having a 60th birthday party and we have invited friends and family to celebrate. Yet again, people ask about the walk and we talk about my blog. I really must actually do it.
02/06/2022 – 05/06/2022
It’s the Platinum Jubilee weekend and we use it to go up to Cumbria again, ostensibly to check on the house, but in reality to do some training. The weather is glorious.
On the Friday, Tom wants to go to La’al Ratty, the narrow gauge railway in Ravenglass, as part of remembering Cumbrian holidays with his grandma. Rich suggests going to St Bees’ Head on the way back, another trip down memory lane. When we park at the beach, we find a notice board commemorating Wainwright’s Coast to Coast walk. It displays the quote that originally started off the HocWalk. We also visit a primary trig point up on the cliffs in the middle of nowhere. Rich collects them.
The following day, we climb Red Pike, High Stile and High Crag in Buttermere. We stop for lunch at Bleaberry Tarn. Thomas says later that it was his best lunch ever. Rich declares on the way down that he is now feeling really fit and hasn’t noticed the day’s exertions at all. I have.
19/06/2022
We go down to London to see Hamilton as part of the celebrations for Cathy’s birthday. It is the final performance for much of the cast and so has an unusual melancholy quality. I am strangely touched by the musical; Hamilton sings of having blood on your hands and I am suddenly glad of the break from clinical work. We have a fabulous meal at The Duck and Waffle to finish.
22/06/2022
Everything seems to be going fine and falling into place. I have just chaired a meeting about our robotics programme which has gone well (despite an unhoovered floor, the previous meeting overrunning and consequent IT struggles). Rich calls, which is unusual. He has felt feverish and flu-like all day and has tested positive for Covid. Bugger.
I have only a week and a half left at work to finish everything there and we have shedloads of walk prep still to do – sorting out of kit, route planning, mapping, the list is seemingly endless. We decide that Rich will isolate in our bedroom and I will move into Catherine’s old room. I spend the rest of the week working, cooking, washing and keeping house and no further prep or planning is possible. All the time, I’m praying that I do not get Covid and delay our start. Miraculously, I remain negative.
27/06/2022
My final, hectic week at work (for now). I am 86.1kg and have lost the requisite 8kg. I’m still in the obese category, but heading towards overweight only. Also, Thomas has his driving test today. I have been taking him out for practice drives over the last week because of Richard’s isolation. He is not at home in the evening as there is an award ceremony and leaving party for his media course. He has not returned by the time I go to bed. I subsequently discover that he has passed his test and got an award and went out celebrating with his mates. These are all good omens, I hope.
01/07/2022
Richard is back at work today but it’s my last day at work until October and the final day of my managerial post. It has been a busy week with extra clinics and a long operating list to get everything in order before my sabbatical.
The vascular specialist nurses give me a present of walking socks and a diary entitled ‘Be a peacock in a field of pigeons’. They are lovely gifts and totally unexpected. Tim, Laura (our Operational Director of Division) and the surgical management team also give me a surprise send off at lunchtime as well as cards, an orchid and a beautiful bouquet. I am incredibly touched and a little bit gob-smacked.
I do a final ward round and spend the rest of the afternoon and evening clearing my list of things to do and my Inbox. There’s no time for a final work walk sadly. It’s going to be a strange few months.
03/07/2022
We’re continuing to go through the list of everything we need to do before we depart. I get up from the floor and find that I can’t stand up. For only the second time in my life, I have sciatica. I have no idea how this happened, but I feel sick with the pain and, though a short walk helps, it worsens as the day progresses.
Rich picks up Cathy from the station: she has come home for a few days to say goodbye before we go. In celebration, Rich cracks open some pink grapefruit Malfy gin he was given for his birthday. I can’t locate any easy cocktail recipes for this, so decide to top it up with champagne and a frozen raspberry. Rich later christens this cocktail ‘Carnage’. It works for back pain though, if only temporarily.
04/07/2022
Yvonne comes round for a farewell walk. We both do lateral flow tests before and, thankfully, we are both negative. She is a bit taken aback at our lack of kit preparation. It’s a legacy from Richard’s Covid ten days. She also comments that there is absolutely no need for us to take the tent and camping gear for at least the first week as we already have accommodation booked and she offers to bring it to us later. She is right, of course.
We have a good walk and a natter, again identifying new local paths that I’ve never tried, and my back feels better. Dinner is consequently late, but her visit and advice has sharpened our focus.
05/07/2022
Richard is up early to drive to Cumbria to get house valuations for his mother’s bungalow. This has been postponed from when he had Covid and eats into our prep time, but, on the plus side, he can collect our packs from Atom Pack, who have been delayed by a tsunami of orders as lock down has lifted.
I turn over in bed after he is gone and my back gives way again. I do what I can with the help of non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, but I’m limited to the basics only. I have a Zoom call with Mark Taylor, an IT expert who did Rich’s website for his business. He guides me through the Wix blog building site and I realise that I am just going to have to persevere learning the software and it should all come right. The clock is ticking, however.
06/07/2022
At last my back is starting to improve, so much so that I go to my last Zumba lesson with Jane Keeley in Little Melton. I am really grateful to her for getting me back exercising again and I will miss the class while I’m away. When I get home, Richard is back from Cumbria with the packs and now we can start getting ready in earnest.
07/07/2022
I had originally planned to meet up with Janet today, but she is tired after a trip to the Isle of Wight and going to London yesterday, so we decide to give it a miss and aim to meet up while Rich and I are walking.
I spend all day working on the blog and go over the last corrections after Rich has logged onto the mobile site. It has really helped having an objective view. Not everything is ready for posting yet but by the evening, it is finally published.
In other news, Boris Johnson has resigned (sort of) today. Normally, that would occupy my thoughts but now I only have headspace for the HocWalk.
08/07/2022
I thought that publishing the blog would remove it from my worry pile, but instead I ruminate over the bits that are missing and am up early typing on my PC. Not long now.