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Almost a year ago I set off for my first ever solo long distance walk. And although I’ve mentioned it my social media at the time, I feel it has a place here, as Yoga and Energy Medicine helped me get to a place of physical and mental well-being to do it at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope my tale inspires you to go out there and do your own adventures. Don’t put it off, we only have this one life!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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It\u2019s Tuesday 24th August, <\/strong>and I\u2019m back from my 85 mile long adventure <\/strong>along the 136 mile Wye Valley Walk.\u00a0 Bit by bit over a succession of day walks and an overnight walk – solo or with family or friends I’d walked the path between Chepstow and Hereford. Now I\u2019ve completed the whole 136 miles from Plynlimon to Chepstow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My little four legged friend, Eva, and I have had quite an adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Firstly, there was the location of the source of the Wye \u2013 inadvisable to approach \u2013 the local shepherd said. So we got as near as we could, had a quick dip and retreated back over the boggy, tussocky valley sides, through the Sweet Lamb rally centre and waded through water and mud the next 4 miles to the campsite. We settled early into the bivvy bag, drawing the cord tight to keep out the midges, but Eva didn\u2019t seem to appreciate that this bivvy bag was a bit cramped for two, especially if you expected to stretch out width ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next day I realised I couldn\u2019t find my credit cards and cash. I had enough food for 2 days, but would need to find a solution if I was to complete the walk to Hereford. My phone was rapidly losing charge and would need a socket before too long. On my phone I have an online banking app. The only way I could see I could get cash was paying someone online if they\u2019d be happy to part with some cash. I was already regularly knocking on doors to ask for a water refuel, so having nothing to lose I decided to also ask for money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This didn\u2019t go very well and I began to feel like a scammer, until I met a couple of friendly, Brownie-carrying (chocolate variety) cyclists who understood my predicament and that I could send the money into their bank account in front of them while they gave me the equivalent cash. I\u2019ll be forever grateful to James who helped me out so I was able to complete my walk. The Post Office lady I reached later that day had no ingenious idea of how to help me out, so I\u2019m glad I\u2019d asked the cyclists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The countryside throughout the walk was beautiful. Soft green fields, rocky outcrops, steep valleys, the river Wye itself which changed every few metres let alone miles. Sometimes flowing sluggishly into pools and sometimes charging over rocks and falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We walked a variety of quiet lanes, grassy paths through fields and over mountains. I avoided the latter when it was rainy and kept to the lower lanes. Someone I met said it\u2019s possible to walk the length of Wales via quiet country lanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robert McFarlane might have written something about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The photos above was taken over the Herefordshire countryside after a night in a comfortable ditch\u2026.here’s the story:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Out of the darkness a soft voice asked ‘who are you, what are you doing? Do you have permission? I have<\/strong> permission. I’m shooting here’.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On my last night’s camp before Hereford, on the top of a hill, I’d found a dry ditch to pad with grass. It<\/strong> wasn’t a half bad place to snuggle into the bivvy bag with my faithful pooch. Even if she did growl at<\/strong> anything nocturnal and wriggle a lot.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Then she growled again and this time I knew it wasn’t a deer or a rabbit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Hello?’ Came the quiet voice. It evidently wasn’t the farmer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I assured him I had permission to be on this planet and on the Wye Valley Walk (it was one metre away<\/strong> from my ditch) I was sleeping, would he please not shine that torch in my eyes and was there a problem?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Well you surprised me’ he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘You surprised me’, I said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n From my view out of the ditch I could see his bulky silhouette against the dark sky, rucksack on his back<\/strong> and his strapped on rifle. After a while he muttered under his breath, realising I was no threat to his nocturnal activities and turning back he walked away. And let out a sigh.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My brave pooch (who had stopped growling while we chatted and evidently didn’t see a problem with this new human presence at this hour) went straight back to sleep, and I closed<\/strong> my eyes to do the same.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n They abruptly snapped back open as my brain shouted ‘Holy moly, I was just accosted at midnight in a<\/strong> ditch by a bloke with a gun!’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When I awoke in the morning, I was out of that ditch and walking before 6am.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Strangely, at the time I hadn’t felt scared at all, simply justified in what I was doing wasn’t doing any harm to anyone.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was my choice to be in that ditch. No-one else was queuing up for it. And if there was a problem, he could name it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We have one life, to live it our way, authentically, honestly, aligned with our truth. Raising our vibration so<\/strong> that others can raise theirs. Meeting others where they are, in their comfort zone and understanding of the<\/strong> world.<\/strong> I love to be in nature in as many ways as possible. I feel good there, nurtured and supported. I feel part of it, not threatened by it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n What do YOU do to feel alive?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n NB and you don’t HAVE to spend a night in a ditch…<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The last day from the memorable hill to Hereford was marked by ladies who wondered who on earth that rifle man could have been, a lack of shops to refuel, acres of cider orchards, kind drivers who kept stopping to see if I needed help while I examined my map at a crossroads and carrying Eva on my shoulders while I walked along the \u2018A\u2019 road \u2013 the fast traffic far too scary. And then a local walker mentioned the half hour walk to Hereford and I whooped in celebration. The end of the walk was virtually in sight. Along the river walk, over the old bridge with the cathedral dominating the view and my lift home was there!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note: If you’re wondering what that tape and white stuff is, that’s padding to stop the rucksack straps from making pressure sores on my collar bones. Hooray for Hereford Cathedral that marked my finish point!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the other photo, Eva was so stressed by the fast traffic on the road that the path followed for a short while, she wouldn’t walk. I carried that extra 7.5 kg instead, and realised I was stressed by the traffic too. We’re so used to it, that we just ignore the effect it has on us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My OS maps are still snipped into lighter, smaller pieces waiting to be taped back on its parent map, but the damage to my body was negligible. I\u2019d had no significant blisters, just sore feet. I\u2019d massaged my feet every night and every time I stopped walking. No muscle aches, thanks to yoga. Aching legs and sore knees on the last day disappeared as soon as I stopped carrying the rucksack. I\u2019d covered my head every day to prevent heat stroke and although I had a sunburnt lower lip it improved after plastering it with aloe vera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I got home the procedure was \u2013 hot shower, then soak in a hot bath, then a hamman (Turkish bath) scrub from top to toe and yes, the toes did need a lot of scrubbing. It felt utterly delicious. Only surpassed by my wonderful bed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n And for all the kind folk I asked advice and water from, who offered a shed out of the rain, directions to the path and gave Eva raw chicken and me cake, I am very grateful, and will pass their kindnesses on to walkers I come across in the future, to make their travels a little lighter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sianruleyoga.files.wordpress.com\/2022\/08\/morning-after-midnight-hello-1.jpg\")
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