Page 24 - Walking Back Through Time

me in a car despite having downed a good volume of wine whilst at the café! Not great!
The whole affair is quite unsettling as she is clearly disturbed and known in the area as a nuisance. I try to concentrate along the busy road which is now my nemesis on this long hard day. Also I am hampered by blisters from training shoes worn down to flat, thin rubber. I eventually resort to wearing size 9 walking shoes – ouch!! Because my feet swell on long-distance walks, size 10 is my usual expedition shoe size and these were pinching my heels a bit.
By 6pm I had completed 50km taking in Ingrandes and Varades with Nantes another 40 plus left to walk. After further refreshment I soldier on to the last main town en route called Ancenis which is slightly west of the D723 on the River Loire. As dusk draws near I struggle to find a route out of town and after consulting a maid at an inn, I continue along a subsidiary road which eventually re-joins the D723. The walk intensi- fies in the pitch black with pouring rain and at the next town junction, 29km from Nantes, I feel too sore to continue efficiently. In desperation I try to put up a tent in the dark. The ground is too hard to drive the pegs in sufficiently and so I just make a temporary shelter where I rest from a storm for a couple of hours. Unable to sleep I dismantle the shelter as soon as the rain stops and continue walking in the dark. The respite is short-lived as the storm returns along with the build up of traffic. It's like walking up a stream at times and the speeding trucks make the jour- ney a hazardous one. As traffic hurtles toward me, lightning dances across the sky to the tune of roaring thunder.
Eventually daylight emerges from the murky clouds and I find a café on the outskirts of town. I stop for a drink and chat to the owners who tell me the train station which will end my journey, is a further 10km. It is an awkward passage in the side of the road and I stop once more for a breakfast at Macdonalds. From here I gradually make my way to the train station to conclude my walk and after the monumental effort from the previous day I am glad to obtain a bit of food and a comfort as I be- gin the journey home. From Nantes Gare I am able to get a train to Rennes and a second one to Morlaix where a bus then takes me to the port of Roscoff. I have missed today’s voyage to Plymouth and so book