Day 40 Part 3 - No food at the Inn

(continued from Part Two)

It wasn't far to Uckinghall and Ivydene House offered me a sumptious welcome. I had a huge bed and en-suite bathroom, with the use of two downstairs lounges, a conservatory and vast garden.

At five, I was joined by Katri, of Ecclesiastical Insurance, one of my generous sponsors. She interviewed me for a press release and I was glad to tell her about the walk and how impressed I was with Gloucestershire.

I set off to The Railway Inn, the only pub in the village, to be disappointed that there was no chef and therefore no food on Mondays. After a lunch of nuts and raisins, my dinner was nuts and crisps. And beer, of course. The Cannon Royall "Muzzle Loader" was a bit of a 'misfire' but St Austell Brewery's "Proper Job" lived up to its name.

But it was good to sit at the bar and talk with the locals. Dave, who had run a plumbing wholesale business, a barmaid who loved New York but hated San Francisco, and an ex-submariner from Cheltenham. I also met Judi, who had appeared on BBC Midlands Today that evening, after moving some of her possessions back into her Uckinghall home two years after the flood. When I returned to my room, I saw her on the late news bulletin.

My walking verse was Luke 7.22 "Jesus answered them, 'Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the dead are raised and the poor have good news brought to them.'"