· James Torr · Personal · 1 min read
For some crazy reason, we decided to ride home from our Old Winchester Hill Fort wild camping pitch along the South Downs Way. Nearly 12hrs, 80km and 2000m of mostly off-road climbing later, we made it to @thebrznarms for beer and food. Feeling proud but a bit broken today, what a stunning ride.
It was only supposed to be a training walk! Turned into a bit of an epic 26 mile (42 km) hike from my house in Brighton to Eastbourne via the South Downs Way. I picked a rather splendid day for it, and took a few nice shots on the way. I'm not usually one to post miles, but thought this was noteworthy, it's the longest walk I've ever done in one day, and the south downs isn't exactly light going, especially at the end. I'm off to finish the Camino Frances on Sept 14, so I thought I'd test and warm up the old pins.
The last day. The final 20 km. 675 km walked in 28 days, two parts, over two years.
I awake in the dorm, my mind skips around in the dark, the muffled light snoring entering my ears through my plugs is a comforting sound, but not enough to send me back to sleep. The last few days have seen our little group become very close. Tomorrow is the beginning of the end of that particular form, and the end of 28 days of walking for me. The thought of this starts some waves of overwhelming emotions.
Today is the last big day before arriving in Santiago. 29 km, 6 hours walking straight. With breaks, it ends up being more like an 8 hour day. Breakfast in cafe central from the night before is a "Napolitano": a pan au chocolat, and a cafe con leche, with milk always because the Spanish coffee is, let's be charitable here, more drinkable with milk. Our small group joins up with the Spanish couple from the previous night who are having breakfast outside their hotel, a place that looks like The Overlook Hotel had a lovechild with a brutalist Soviet block of flats.