Day 7: Rain and mud in the Shropshire hills

Start: Knighton

End: Brompton

Distance: 15 miles

The wind rattled my tent and the rain hammered down as I lay awake contemplating whether to get up and start the day. I really didn't want to  pack up a wet tent and to get drenched this early in the day. But the rain was forecast for the whole day and I couldn't hide in my tent all day. I unpegged my tent, frantically folded it up and stuffed it away. The field I'd pitched in had recently had the grass cut, so soggy grass cuttings clung to my tent as I packed it up. The day begun with a steep ascent of a hill, a shock to the system as the first task of the day. The path was caked in a dense layer of mud and it took all the stength in my legs to ascend without sliding backwards. My calves burnt and all I could hear was the squelching sound of my boots on the trail, the rain thrashing against the trees and the wind howling. I shoved my hair back, pulled my hood up and focused on getting to the top of the hill. The route briefly flattened but it wasn't long until the next hill. A pattern which would repeat for the next 7 hours!

The route was quiet yet again, not seeing a single person for the duration of the morning. The rain was relentless and I struggled to find any effective form of shelter to rest. My legs and shoulders screamed at me to stop and I needed to refuel. Lunch was a miserable affair! Crouched awkwardly beneath a tree, rain dripping from my hood to my nose, shivering in the cold breeze. How is it August I thought to myself!

The ascents continued to be steep, lined with mud that my boots sank into everytime I stepped. It drained my energy lifting my feet back out the mud each time. The visibility was poor as the clouds descended but I saw a figure heading towards me. A person! Someone else braving this stormy weather. As he approached, I smiled, in a way that said "Please talk to me, I haven't seen a person in hours!" He returned the smile and said, "How are you holding up? Tough one eh!" He was walking the same route but heading south and looked equally soaked and muddy. "I've had better Saturdays!" I replied. He laughed and agreed. He asked me where I was staying for the night and told me there was a country manor on the route that did great food, had a fire and allows you to camp. He showed me where it was on my map, but this sounded too good to be true! "Will they let me in looking like this?" I asked. He laughed and replied, "Well they let me in and I look much worse than you!" We exchanged advice for each others coming stretches and then both pushed on in opposite directions. This gave me a little motivation for the remaining miles, even though it was still rough going with the hills and mud making for slow progress.

I eventually arrived at the country manor and it really looked like I didn't belong there. By this point I was a sorry state, the mud was up to my knees and I was soaked and shivering. A man greeted me with a smile, "You would like to camp? Rough day for it, you're still smiling though!" He led me over to where I could pitch my tent and said, "When you've pitched, come up to the house and I'll get the fire on and you can get warm. Don't worry, it's not posh even though it looks it - you can come in like that!" This made me feel so much better, it had been a long tough stretch so this felt like a little reward for getting through these miles. Days like this where you are trudging through the rain and mud for hours on end are never easy. Although I know this is how you build resilience and get stronger, right now I'm too tired to elaborate on the positives of these challenging days! I'm happy I completed these miles, coped with the conditions and kept putting one foot in front of the other. Another positive is I'm officially over halfway through my first phase of this challenge! All I can do now is rest, eat and hope the coming days bring me kinder weather.