On the Way to Stornoway

OK, it has been over a year and a half since I finished the big walk. I have been occupied with trying to make the house I bought in Stornoway habitable and a postgraduate course. So my trips between London and Stornoway have reverted to being by plane or ferry bus and train.

The plan, obviously, is to move to Stornoway but work/debt considerations means this has not happened yet. Still I hope to do it within a year.  And it occurs to me that there are some places in the South I have not explored and that chief amongst them is Lyme Regis and the Undercliff.  I have never been to Winchester, where Jane Austin is buried, either and it ocurred to me that I could undertake a short-long walk from here to the Undercliffe, joining up most of the main Jane Austen sites: Chawton, Winchester and Lyme as a minimum, and exploring some new country. This would have the benefit of extending the line I have walked every step of the way of from the South Coast of England to Stornoway.

I have been  humming and haa-ing about this for a bit.  Nearly set off in Autumn but I still had an essay to write for my course and then Christmas came. But I have finally decided to set off again.

I have until the Autumn at least to do this walk.  Financially, because of the house I am on a tighter budget than last time but then it is a much shorter walk.  And I should be able to do the greater part in day trips from London, I think, so there should be less need for expensive accomodation.

So here we go, a short walk through Jane Austen country to the southern wilderness of The Undercliff.

http://www.southwestcoastpath.com/walksdb/81/

Oof, drank a bit too much of Jan and Mun's good wine last night. I only have a half day's walking to do today but I have arranged to meet people so I have to get off at the right time.


Mun has taken to buying silverware in his retirement so breakfast comes in the most elegant, Georgian looking, silverware, tea-pot, coffee pot, even the egg cup set for their own eggs is lovely.

Back on the schoolbus and it is not raining this morning. This is being lazy as I could just walk down the hill as I have lots of time before the Stornoway bus. But I am fancying a cappuccino from First Fruits, the little cafe near the ferry Terminal. Expensive, but very good indeed.


Only when I get there it is shut and so is what used to be the MaCleod Motel. Nowhere to get a coffee. Bugger, I should have stayed and drank more tea with Tracey! So I have to mooch about Tarbert for half an hour or so before the Stornoway bus gets ready to depart.

I am woken by hail rattling on the window and the howling of a cold north wind... kidding, kidding, I am actually woken by the bright sun of another hot and more or less cloudless day.
According to the TV news there are moor fires raging in Glen Sheil and Torridon as well as some in England. Hillwalkers needed to be air lifted to safety in Torridon. I think about my walk from Kinloch Hourn to Glenelg in that dried out country and am very glad there was no fire there. Perhaps that is what the Coast Guard helicopter was doing?