The Wrap Up

We're home and it's time for the wrap up.  Sunday did not turn out as planned, but that's okay.  In the morning we had time to take a walk around Bosham before our taxi transfer to Heathrow.  The transfer perfect, right on time.  Then things took a little turn.  We made a rookie mistake by not being careful about the location of our hotel.  It's called the Hilton Terminal 5 so we assumed that it was at or close to Terminal 5.  Wrong.  It's on the Terminal 5 side of the airport but a bit of a distance away.  We would've had to take a bus or taxi just to get to the underground station so we opted to just chill at the hotel.

After lunch we went for a walk from the hotel and came to the historic town of Colnbrook where, once again, serendipity struck.  Check out the sign and you can see the history.

We wandered the park and Pippins Orchard where we could not find any apples ready to be picked and eaten.  But it was a nice park and town.

Did you notice the most important historical note on the sign?  Yep, that's it - The Ostrich Inn which has been there since 1106 and is the third oldest inn in England!  You know we had to go there for dinner.  The fish and chips were good but the highlight was the interior.  Original 900 year old beams in a door frame!  Amazing.

It was a fitting end to our time in England.

The trip home was largely uneventful except for a few inconveniences related to British Airways.  We don't recommend them.  We do highly recommend InnTravel, the company we arranged our walking tour with.  Their trips are great and they do things right. 

So, to really wrap things up, we had 2 very different experiences on this trip.  First, the Oceania cruise which was fabulous as usual.  Second, the InnTravel walking holiday which was equally fabulous though in a different way.  Per the Komoot app, we walked a total of 66.1 km or 41.1 miles over the 5 days.  According to the pedometer on my phone, we averaged over 23,000 steps per day for a total of almost 166,000 steps over the 5 days.  That's about 1000 calories per day.  I definitely feel that I earned all of the pints of bitter that I consumed!

Our next big trip is in December when we'll be cruising Australia and New Zealand.  I'll keep you posted then!

In the meantime, peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry

Day 5 Hike Complete!

We did it!  Our fifth, last, and longest hike is done. 

Today's walk was a flat 15km (not counting a short diversion to the pub in Chidham for lunch).  We chose the around Bosham and the Chidham Peninsula option.  It again covered a variety of terrain with one challenging section.  I'll keep you in suspense and say more on that later.

The day started out cool and windy and we were excited to get underway.

As we walked along the Bosham Channel, high tide was approaching and we sighted many birds, including swans.

Then we got to an interesting stretch.  The app told us that we would be going off grid which meant that we would be walking between the channel and a field where there was no real footpath.  It made for slow, careful walking to avoid a twisted ankle.

It was a relief when we got to the end and found a road to briefly walk on.

We soon got to a footpath which took us by the water and the swans came to visit.

The next section of the trail took us by a large farm field on which a large variety of vegetables were being grown - cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, and more.

We soon began the stretch around the Chidham Peninsula where we had more bird sightings and good views.

And then we got to the interesting part.  The path led us down to the rocky beach.  We had misread the info that InnTravel had provided and thought that we were past the section where the high tide could be an issue.  On the beach, there was a sign warning that it would be impassable at high tide, but we thought that we were long enough past the high tide that we would be okay.  We were wrong.

We got to a section of the beach where the water came up to the trees and bushes growing alongside.  There were two local women walking in front of us who started scrambling through the vegetation and we followed.  Stepping over tree branches and through bushes, we finally made it out.

The rest of the walk was uneventful except for one creek we had to cross.

Did I mention a diversion for lunch?  We walked into Chidham to have lunch at The Old House at Home, another pub with lots of local flavor.  Did I mention that they had beer and mussels and a lovely salad?  I think that pub food has changed quite a bit.

The rest of the walk back was made interesting by the now low tide and an encounter with a man and his dog.  The dog had gone off the trail down by a pond.  The man said that he was searching for a rat since he had once caught one there.  He tried repeatedly to command the dog to return to the trail with no luck.  His comment to us was that he had spent 2000 pounds on obedience training and this was the result!

The contrast between high and low tide was fascinating.

The arrival back at the hotel was quite welcome.

Before I wrap up this post, allow me to digress for a moment.  After dinner last night, we walked down to the water and were greeted by lovely views.

On another note, the Millstream Hotel is quite a contrast to the 2 inns that we stayed at previously.  It is a very formal hotel with seemingly regular clientele of a certain age.  Sort of reminds me of being on an Oceania cruise!

 So that's it for today.  Tomorrow we have a taxi transfer to the Hilton at Heathrow.  If we feel up to it, we'll take the Underground into London and drop in to see King Charles III.  Then we fly home on Monday.  I expect that there will be one more post to wrap up this month long trip.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry