Day 13 - Porlock Weir to Minehead - 25 Dec 18

We had an unusual Xmas Day.
With the Membury's holding our Xmas day on the 23rd, to accommodate the children and grandchildren so they could have it with their other family members.
Linda and I decided if the weather was good we would complete another leg of our walks, if the weather was bad, we would have a duvet day.
To my horror, the weather was good enough.

Due to the north coast has no public transport and even if they did, it was Xmas day so unlikely to have anything working anyway, we took both our cars. The drive seemed to take for ages, in fact, it took about 1hr 30mins. With constant drizzle falling, I was beginning to think the duvet day would have been the best option.
Arriving at Minehead, we had to pay for parking at £5.70 for the day.
We then got in my car and drove 25mins to Porlock Weir where again the car park included Bank Holidays so we had to pay. They did not have any other option to pay, except cash and we were 5p short of £6 so we could only pay to 4pm, so expecting the walk to take us longer, we banked on the traffic warden (if there was one on Xmas day) having a little Xmas spirit.

After a bit toing and froing to the car, 1st I forgot my gloves, then forgetting the walking poles, eventually, we got going.

Linda is happy and I am apprehensive

Now my health these days is not the best, a lot of it is years of self-abuse by not exercising and fad diets or no diets. So, with plenty of aches and pains, I was apprehensive, but I knew it would be good for me. (in the long term).

Our first half mile was walking on this shingle, which was not easy but as it was early on in the walk, not an issue. The hills (or mountains as I called them) was the start of the Exmoor National Park.
It seemed to take an age to get to them.

Not sure why these appeared burnt, but a great atmospheric photo

Eventually, we hit the village of Bossington, where there were lots of families walking before their Xmas dinners no doubt. People were in a happy place.
I then noticed a couple walking towards us, and he was wearing a Yeovil Town woolly hat similar to mine. We commented and chatted for a while, they were both from Yeovil and they rent a cottage in Bossington every Xmas to get away from Yeovil for a few days, to enjoy the peace.

I have to carry Linda's pole whilst she takes photos.

Bridge at Bossington

At the bottom of the hill, I thought this is going to hurt.

The path lead us into a false sense of security gently climbing around the side of the hill.

We then came across some more wildlife. Pictures below.

Was concerned that we were going to get covered walking past this one.

Linda's Gingerness really shows in this light.......lol.

We then hit the monster of all hills.........

It went up and up.....I initially was proud that I was managing as well as Linda, but then my heart felt like it was in my mouth and I couldn't get enough air.

We didn't take any photos here as the aim was to get to the top, but it was high.

Linda kept waiting for me, but she got a rest, I had to try and keep going.

Linda did comment that it is not the correct place for me to have a heart attack, not sure any place would be good for that but I knew what she meant.

Grey shows the incline, to give some justification to my comments above.

Eventually, we got to a bench near the top and decided to take a break and have some food and drink. 

I did comment that everyone else was sat down at the table enjoying their Xmas dinner, but we did have Turkey sandwiches.

 At one point my Heart Rate got to 169 but after the break returned to below 100.

View from near the top.

One thing I forgot to mention, is never, never believe the Signposts, as the bottom of this steep climb it stated 4.5 miles to Minehead, after about 30 mins of climbing at the top it stated 5 miles.

That was a bit of a kick in the teeth after all that hard work!

Then on the top and going so far inland we couldn't see the sea, thinking we are on a designated coastal walk it didn't quite feel correct. Linda shared some of her wisdom.

See photos below:

Apparently, the Blue dye on the back of the sheep was an indication that the Ram had had his wicked way with the female. And each Ram had a different dye placed on his underside so they could tell which Ram had done the job!

Well in this field there must have been 100 sheep and about 90% of them had blue on their backs and the rest had Red.

I thought I bet the Blue Ram was the alpha male and the Red Ram got his rejections.

I then commented it is a good thing that humans don't do the same thing.........

Next, we came to a field where the blue dye was on the necks of the sheep.....I was thinking this Ram liked BJ's.

Eventually, with me wilting, we could see Minehead, it was about 1540hrs, knowing that the car was past the Butlins at the official start of the South West Coastal Path, I know we were not going to make the 4pm car parking deadline. 

We walked as fast as my aching limbs would allow us. 

We got to the car at about 1600hrs and then got to my car at about 1620hrs, luckily no ticket and then we took the long drive home.

One thing we did learn was that it is not practical to drive all that way, walk and return on the same day, so we agreed in the future we would do this and stay over somewhere.