Crossing Bedford in the cool air before dawn was quite a treat, passing the statute of John Bunyan in the town centre, where there was enough light for a photo. Bunyan was born on the south side of Bedford, and took part in the Civil War, before becoming famous as a Dissenting preacher, helping bring about greater religious freedom in England.
Not long after passing Bunyan's statue, I was treated to a beautiful sunrise captured firstly looking from the River Ouse, then through some trees a little while later, certainly worth the early start!
Once south of Bedford, I turned onto farm tracks once more, as I did then realised that I had left my walking poles behind... having covered well over 4 miles from the start by that point, it was certainly too late to double back for them (thanks to Chris for subsequently dropping by with them). In common with the preceding days, much of the walk meandered through crop fields, punctuated by small farming hamlets, with just two bigger settlements en route.
The town of Shefford was the first of these, where I was joined by a colleague from the Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire District of the Methodist Church. Angela had hoped to walk with me for a while, but with the change of plans due to the heat, she was only able to catch up with me for a while, nonetheless brought much appreciated iced water bottles.
Once Angela had turned back around nine o'clock, the conditions were noticeably hotter, with the breeze proving to be quite dry and warm. Plenty of water to drink, alongside a wet neck towel made things bearable and I reached Hitchin by late morning, stopping for a welcome large iced drink before carrying on to Little Wymondley where I stayed for two nights with friends - after the early start, the day off was much needed.
Fire damage
My route on Thursday felt very similar, once again taking the back roads and farm tracks, this time to the west of the new towns of Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City before crossing the A1(M) trunk road into Hatfield, threading my way through the outskirts to Welham Green (my wife's first home) and along a footpath by the railway which took me through to Potters Bar, my destination for the day.
Just west of Knebworth, I came across the damage caused by a large field fire on Tuesday, for which a fire service crew was still on scene a couple of days after the incident itself. My photos don't really do justice to the scale of the area involved, but hopefully you get the idea.
Under a hundred miles to go
All being well, I'll cross Greater London over the weekend, then into Kent for the final few days of my pilgrimage. With eight days to go, it seems a long time since I was recovering from a day walking into the wind and rain towards Poolewe in the NW Highlands, the eighth day from the start, and somewhat different temperatures.
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