I’ve decided that I must finish the Greenwich Meridian Trail this year. So despite the threat of poor weather I am heading out with a five day plan. All the accommodation is booked so I have no flexibility and must stick to my plan – which includes one day over 50km!! It’s the best compromise I could manage, but looks like over 12 hours of walking with less than 9 hours of daylight – let’s hope it is raining as well to make it even harder! I’m writing this on the train heading up to March. Although it’s a three hour journey, I was able to catch a 7:30am train for only £28 (with railcard) even though its peaks hours through London, even the guy in the ticket office was scratching his head.

I left home in the rain and got pretty wet just walking to the station. A promise of things to come, I fear! There is news of Storm Debbie hitting tonight, I’m hoping I’ll still be far enough south to miss the worst. Although storm Debbie sounds like one of the nicer storms. Writing this on the train, the sun is out, drying a damp Hitchin and hopefully I should start walking by 10:30.

I did indeed start walking at 10:30, and in my mind it was an easy day of only 35km. However, doing some walking mental arithmetic told me there was no way I could finish in daylight, so I started to press on. I managed to stay ahead of my 5km an hour target. The maths said I wouldn’t get to the end until 5:30 at the earliest, luckily I have packed lots of headtorch batteries! The route today was across the wide open Fens (a part of the UK that is a bit like Holland, very flat, nearly at sea level and drained with lots of pumps into canalised “rivers” at a high level). The Fens has really fertile soil and there are fields, and drainage ditches as far as the eye can see.

One of the problems is that it is very sparsely populated and there are not many footpaths, however the tiny roads have no cars either, so apart from walking on tarmac, the route was very direct (and flat!). The main navigational issue is to make sure you are on the right side of any river or ditch, as there are not many bridges. The first part of the route was on a long straight path, but there were clues to its history with a rail signal, together with the first GMT marker of the day, which is always reassuring. Further along, there was evidence of how the road had affected the railway!

On this leg, I have learn from previous sections, and I knew there was a shop at 15km, so I felt more organised and didn’t need to carry too much food. Which was an issue as I was carrying 5 days kit, including extensive wet weather gear (and a walking pole in case of deep water flooding the paths). On the gear front, I bought some gaiters to go above my boots, to stop splashing in and keep my trousers dry(er). Just north of March, it seemed I was getting muddier, (near a massive Prison) so I put them on. They certainly do the job, however after an hour or so, it seemed my feet were getting hot! A short while later, it was going to be a long bit on roads, so I took them off. The shins of my trousers were incredibly sweaty!! I think I’ll save them for bad weather, or save up for some breathable ones.

This blog post has become a bit random, I think maybe due to the unchanging landscape. However, it wasn’t boring (on the whole, but the 4km straight road was a challenge – so I went against the clock!) because the weather was spectacular, it never rained but the wind was awesome. It was coming from the west (is that a westerly wind?), so was generally on my right but every now and again the path would go head on. As my legs got tired this became more comic, as the weight of my rusac took over. There were periods when the sun was out so strongly, that the human sundial started working. There was hints of rain but it never amounted to anything, but the wind was constant. Continually pushing me around and it was very noisy, it was quite a relief to find the Lea of a building for some respite.

Then darkness fell (and one of the villagers had been murdered haha), the route was alright either on small roads or farm tracks. I hung a few (Finnish) reflectors off me, and held my torch, flashing backwards and forwards as I walked (not too much forward to keep my night vision). There were hardly any cars until between 5-6pm, where I suspect people were coming home from work and cutting through the lanes. This became more problematic as I was often blinded, and on a couple of occasions stepped towards the side of the road into a big (invisible) puddle. So I ended up with damp socks anyway.

Eventually I reached Holbeach, my finishing point for the day. I’d been unable to find any accommodation here, so I needed to catch the 505 bus to Long Sutton to stay in the Crown and Woolpack pub. The bus came on time, and after an extended visit to the bus depot, I made it to the pub. I really was tired, and the stairs in the pub were a real challenge.

While I’m still pretty exhausted at the end of the day, I am recovering much quicker (I was fine to go out for a burger, and drink Black Pig stout after an hours rest!). So I’m hopeful for the 35km tomorrow, especially as I should be able to finish in daylight. My real fear is the day after where I need to do over 50km – I’m now not so sure, I expect it will give me nightmares…..