And very lovely it proved to be.
Alan (who knows these things) reckons we walked just over 9 miles in total (plus, for me, my one mile walk to Temple Meads station from home!)… or more than 25,000 steps(!?). Thankfully, after the heatwave of the previous few days, the weather was kind to us (19-21degC) – although it absolutely poured down with rain while we were consuming two pints of beer each during our lunchtime stop at The Bird pub in Saltford! We’d spent the morning walking alongside the winding River Avon and then, after lunch, joined the tree-lined ‘Bristol and Bath Railway Path’ (which provided welcome shade) before re-joining the Avon for the final 3 or so miles into Bath. A very enjoyable and beautiful walk… and arriving at our Travelodge hotel (next to the station) at about 4pm.
We wandering into Bath for a couple more celebratory beers (in the garden of ‘The Crystal Palace’ pub – where, once again, we were incredibly lucky to be able to shelter under their enormous garden umbrellas from another absolute downpour!! We went on to have supper at ‘Browns’ – decent food and excellent, friendly service – before slowly making our way back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
A brilliant, happy day which will last long in both our memories.
Photo: A collection of images along the way.
PS: For those not old enough to understand, the ‘Horace Batchelor’ reference relates to the Radio Luxemburg advert from the early 1960s that included the famous words: “…Keynsham, that's spelt K E Y N S H A M”!
