I treated myself to a lie-in and after breakfast at 9am put on my boots ready to start walking. However I couldn't leave Luton before visiting the Portuguese cafe that Lyn had spoken about a lot. It was almost on my route and Lyn joined me for a coffee and then we walked together for the first one and a half miles to the edge of a field, said goodbye and I continued towards Flitwick (pronounced Flitick!)
Today was the first day I hadn't felt the need to listen to anything as I walked, I was present with my thoughts, enjoying the sound of the leaves crunching under my feet and feeling the cool air in my face. A lot of the route was very expansive and open and I felt I could breathe easily and well.
I really wanted a salad for lunch but I stopped in a small place, Barton le Clay, where the Morrisons only had meat sandwiches and the pub only had side salad, so I ordered 2 side salads!
Towards the end of my walk I had a run-in with a muddy ditch! As I was approaching the end of a field where I needed to get on to the road beyond, I passed a gap in the hedge to my right which lead to a track - I SHOULD HAVE GONE THROUGH IT! But I decided to follow the route and carried on for about 20 metres until I got to the ditch, the long grass and slope meant it was hard to see how wide it was. If I hadn't been carrying a large heavy bag on my back and a small heavy bag on my front I would have probably been able to jump it, however I knew this would be stupid if not impossible with my bags. I briefly considered going back to the gap in the hedge but at this point on my journey, so close to the end, I was tired and didn't want to backtrack as it felt like I'd be doing extra. I decided to take off my small bag and throw it over the ditch and I would then follow. As soon as I threw it I knew what would happen next, it landed and rolled straight down into the mud! I had to climb into the ditch to retrieve it and then pull myself up out the other side and as I did so put my hand on a clump of nettles! I finally made it to the road and learned the lesson that sometimes on these walks going back can be the way forward. I was definitely tired by this point and it can be hard to make the best decisions.
After this I needed to listen to some music to give me that boost to reach Hilary and Martin's house, my overnight stay. I had the line 'another lesson learned' from the song No More Drama by Mary J Blige in my head, so I listened to that followed by some of her other tunes. MJB was one of Ro's favourite artists, particularly her earlier music, I remembered times we'd listened to these songs together.
Hilary and Martin are friends of my parents and I really enjoyed talking with them, especially hearing about their time walking on the Camino de Santiago. Lavinia and Wren, 2 good friends of mine from Bradford had driven down to walk with me the next day and had kindly offered to collect my big bag so I wouldn't have to walk with it. Hilary and Martin extended their warm hospitality and invited my friends to stay for dinner. We all enjoyed a delicious meal watched over by George the parrot. He was too shy to talk while we were there but I heard him chatting later!
Parrots remind me of Ro. I was on a train and bored once and messaged Ro to ask for any funny YouTube recommendations, he told me to look up parrots! On the day he died he sent me and some other friends a video of people dancing like parrots to a Backstreet Boys song. I was in my kitchen when I watched it and messaged him straight back to say it made me laugh out loud. He replied with a smiley face emoji. Around 7 hours later he had died from cardiomyopathy. I'm so glad he knew he made me laugh that day, as he had made me laugh on so many days. He had a wonderful sense of humour and enjoyed sharing the funny side of life 😄