Day 38 – 25 km walked – Total of 798 km walked – Lenham

After yesterday's very hilly walk, we woke up a little stiffer than we were used to in Belgium. All in a days work for a walker not to look like an old age pensioner when getting up from breakfast. Breakfast needs a special mention today. After 36 days of Continental breakfasts with endless reams of bread rolls, ham and cheese and yesterday's said B&B which did not instill enough confidence in us to go for the full Monty (wise decision as we ended up with hard boiled poached eggs on toast) we went for it today. Lovely sausage and Internet connection, what else does a girl need in the morning :)

A special prize goes to Dem who was the only reader who spotted Gary's deliberate mistake of mixing up the North Downs with the South Downs. Just checking that you are all paying attention! Either nobody else is reading or you are not PAYING ATTENTION!!

To be truthful – we sometimes find it difficult to make the verbal difference between East and West. Yes, yes, we know we are walking west, north west, south west – probably a combination thereof throughout every day. East is the devils work and if we are heading there we are going the wrong way (like today for a couple of miles, but lets brush over that). However, what comes out of our mouths is quite different. 'Are we going in the right direction?' I ask my co-navigator and Gary gets his compass out.. 'Yes', he says after consulting it, we are heading South-East. 'Oh good' I say, then we should be reaching the Cherry soon, to cross the Channel and todays musical choice should be the 'Tie of the Iger'. I personally am now at the point where I feel I do have a high IQ by just remembering which week day it is and what country we are in.

Gary has only recently come into the interesting feelings that are created when a toe or two go numb. I have had the pleasure since the beginning of the walk on my left foot's big toe (which is actually the middle toe on that foot). The blood flow comes and goes........... ouchhh. A couple of days ago Gary started complaining that his sock kept getting stuck between his toes. On further investigation it was the same thing – numb toe. Wiggle at your own risk!

Today's walk was less hilly but equally pleasant. Not very many cars and certainly no brightly clad bicycle riders whistling past us. I have to get something of my chest about Lycra here: Guys, if Lycra gets stretched too much it becomes see-through. So, if you are wearing 'nada' beneath your Lycra cycling shorts and they have been stretched too much, lookers-on get way more information than when looking at, say, a builders crack.

Another pleasant feature of today's walk was that the Pilgrims way and the North Downs way have joined. My thoughts kept wandering to those people who walked this ancient route over the centuries. What are your hopes? Which body parts are hurting? Why the hell are you doing this???