Checking The Progress Of The Seasons

Having bumped along a bumpy track to not-our-usual-car-park on the Chase, Mick and I both set out in the same direction, but at different speeds. As we had driven up, it had been obvious that there was some sort of an orienteering style event going on (since Googled and found to be the final Questars event of the season), and soon Mick was in amongst a group of runners who were clutching laminated maps, whereas I was simply being overtaken.

Mick’s mission was a 5-mile run. I was out for an 8-mile walk. Given that we weren’t on a Welsh hillside as we should have been, my second choice had been to see the change in colours on the Chase – namely the prettiness of the heather in flower before it gets overtaken by the the leaves changing colour.

My intention had been to take lots of photos, but given that there was clearly going to be quite a mismatch of timings between Mick’s run and my longer walk, as I set out I resolved instead to do the walk at top speed, leaving no time to dig the camera out repeatedly.

I was about 5 miles into my walk when Mick texted to tell me he was in the tea-room by the Katyn Memorial. “I’ll be there within 20 minutes” I texted back. And that’s where it all went wrong.

A very nice egg and mushroom sandwich was had with a pot of tea (during which I found out that even though our routes had not been massively dissimilar, the rain was so localised that Mick hadn’t been caught in the short-but-incredibly-heavy shower that had drenched me). And, having enjoyed the food and drink, I found that I could quite bring myself to let Mick sit around in the car for another half an hour or so (or was it just that laziness prevailed?), and so into the car with Mick I got.

Although shorter than intended, that was my first outing on The Chase since the beginning of July, and it reminded me that I need to get over there more in the next couple of months to enjoy the changes that this time of year brings.

(Post Walk Note: although I only covered 6 miles on the Chase, I did run down to the local shop this evening (yes, RAN!), which, together with the walk back, did add on the 2 miles I’d missed earlier)