It's becoming apparent that I WON'T get the WAD of signatures in the book that I -naively - hoped I would. I've already gone into the way that people won't sign without having the time to 'digest' the info, and that I'm pinning my hopes more on the flyers, and the A4SML I've sorted out with at least five of my hosts. The signing book that Kate got for me is now on page 4 -not including the bits of signed paper that I've stuck in. BUT! I'm not getting disillusioned, for these reasons:
1 - I almost always get into towns just when everything's about to close, and -if I'm lucky - may have an hour or so the next day before I have to start the walk. The only way I could have wrung the most out of every stop would have been to have planned a rest day in every place. That way, I could have visited every museum, Town Hall, art gallery, heritge site. But that would have made the walk twice as long, which is impractical, for every reason you're thinking. In hindsight, though, an extra day in the big places would have been a good idea.
2 - The signing book is a BIG testament to the truth of the phrase 'quality not quantity' -Every name in that book tells a story, and it's one of me, sitting next to this person, explaining in detail the importance of Wearmouth/Jarrow. Some of these names testify to talks of over 30 minutes: I really love moments like that, and they're the BIGGEST enjoyment of this walk. They're also what I'm best at. I'm learning that at heart I'm an educator, not a salesman.
I was woken up on Sunday by a phone call from Radio Newcastle, telling me I would be live on the air 'in one minute'. They weren't wrong, and after the interview, I fell straight back asleep. I spent most of Sunday trying to catch up with this blog, and after dumping about a quarter of the weight that I didn't need at Rich's, I headed out at about 4 for what I knew would be my easiest leg. Well, it was, and it wasn't..
Clarence Dock is a bit out of Leeds centre, and it's on Hunslet Road, a main artery which very quickly leads to you looking back and seeing the (diminishing) view above. I got a little lost in my panic to avoid walking onto the motorway, but before I even knew it I was walking past Rothwell, and this strange-but-nice-artsy-and-craftsy tower on the left:
It became rural quite quickly, although everywhere had a path by the road, and I felt like I was just having a nice afternoon stroll. I passed a place called Robin Hood, where I got applauded by people in a beergarden, and flyered them for their trouble, and on into Lofthouse before I'd even registered that I was doing a walk. Then I saw this sign:
...and just followed my nose.
The suburbs of Wakefield were stretched all along the road I walked in by, and it was ok. Two 'youths on bicycles' shouted something at me, and I told everyone on Twitter about it, but I REALLY didn't have clue what they had said. Like most Yorkshire stuff, it ended in 'ARRRH, but when you walk past thousands of people who are mostly looking or beeping, stuff like that doesn't matter.
I'd had a call from my host, and she'd directed me with perfect precision - shame I wasn't so stringent in my interpretation of it. I was to 'stay right at the fork in the road', but I saw the fork as three roads, and took the right-hand one of those - a totally unimportant road that took me 45 minutes out of my way, and back in the direction of Leeds. On the way, I saw a building with my name written all over it:
Everywhere you go, there are always 'two guys sitting outside a pub'. I've got room to call them 'TGSOP', because my earlier acronyn 'DSCB' seems like it's not needed anymore- my chafing is totally over. Anyway, outside the Bay Horse, it was like that Monty Python Spam sketch: I told them that I was looking 'for a place called Thornes', and one guy laughed - 'Thornes?' he said 'Thornes..ho, ho!' Here Tom, you heard this? This guy wants Thornes! 'Thornes?' said the other 'HA,HA! Mahles 'way -you want Thornes? Mahles left to go! Bob! This guy wants THORNES!' 'THORNES?' said the other... I found out I was five miles in the wrong direction, and walked back to the fork in the road, and took the middle one.
This took me to Wakefield centre, and a really well good-looking group of buildings:
It was late in the day, though, and everything was closed, so I asked two old characters on a bench, and they directed me down to Wakefield Westgate Station, where Judith Ware rang me. She turned up in five minutes, and drove me to 'Thornes.' I would never have found it by myself, but it was the location of a secluded vicarage on the edge of a park, on the the edge of town. It was a relaxing, quiet night: Judith and I share a fascination with maps, and I poured over her detailed maps of the the next day's walk, before spending most of the evening catching up even more on my blog.
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