Hello all,
I'm in London again and it's warm and sunny. Beautiful. I lay in Hyde Park for an hour with the sun on my face and legs gathering energy to keep walking.

I finished the West Highland Way Walk in the rain on Friday. 7 long hard days, 4 were wet , all were cold.
I said in the last blog we were to walk on Roman Rds- incorrect , as of course they didn't get there. They were actually droving roads, used to bring the livestock to market. The cattle had shoes put on, like horses, as the stones were so hard on their feet.

I was glad to finish the walk, the days were long and hard, and not always scenic, though the last day into Fort William was lovely through forests.

I stayed on 2 days, had a rest day in town, in the rain then on Sunday with a person from the walk and a guide we took off to climb Ben Nevis. It's only 1344m but very treacherous with notoriously bad weather obliterating vision and steep edges and gullies. There are deaths each year.
It was horrible weather, hail and snowing and I had great difficulty walking/ climbing in the hard rigid mountain boots. I'm usually good on uphill but was last and aching.
However once we got into the snow and put the crampons on I got it together and moved along.
We are the only people who got to the top, the guide using a compass to lead us. Saw NOTHING. We couldn't even take our cameras out as so cold and wet.
The guide took a photo with his camera which was in a special bag. No lunch, drink or sit down, just turned around.
Then the wind was straight at us, so we got a facial dermobrasion!!

It took hours to come down as our legs and knees were in agony. I still have sore ankles from the boots.
We had a hot chocolate at the Inn at the bottom which was lovely.

The next day I got 3 trains taking 8 hrs to York. It's my 2 nd time there and I think it's my favourite UK city.
It rained of course, was freezing, and even hailed when I was at Castle Howard which is the most marvellous stately/ country home I've seen. It dates to 1699.
I want to see every stately home in the UK now !
I went to Evensong at the Cathedral, as I did 4 yrs ago ( one of, if not the best Cathedral in the world) to hear the boys choir. The main choir was off travelling and this one was the training one for next yr. Fabulous!!!
The next day I dashed off to the Railway Museum, which was also fabulous. Admittedly I haven't been to many others but wonder if this is also the best in the world. It has a Japanese bullet train, a Eurostar,earliest steam trains, the Flying Scotsman, Royal trains etc.
I also walked the City Walls, visited so many medieval buildings.
I love York !

Then off to London yesterday.
I'm near Paddington station, never stayed here before and it's great. Hyde Park is around the corner so I walked through it and saw the memorials etc near it for 3 hours.
Today I walked 1 hr to the Chelsea Flower Show. Thank goodness I got there early as it got ridiculously busy.
It wasn't what I expected.

There was a central pavilion tent , full of flowers, mainly of stalls by growers, often selling plants or seeds. They were often clumped in colours or varieties.

There were a few displays , one of orchids by Thailand,a few Carribean countries with plants similar to North Queensland and Birmingham Cathedral had a display to celebrate 300 yrs.

It was lovely but quite business orientated.

On TV you see the made up gardens. There were about 10-15 of these, clumped together, hard to see as so many people. They all seemed to focus on 'Natural ' country garden type flowers and water features.

Then there were 100's of stalls displaying or selling anything and everything to do with gardens.
So it was like 50 garden gift shops together. Mowers, ladders, sculptures, boots, wellies, raincoats, everything imaginable with flowers painted on.
All very nice, but not worth the $100+++ ticket.

After I'd had enough I walked to the Victoria and Albert Museum and had a quick look about.
I ate lunch on the steps outside then saw the amazing church next door, then went to the Royal Geographic Society which I'd noted had a special exhibition on of a poorly excavated Roman town in NE Italy. Interesting.

Then as I said I sunbathed in the sun.
I came back up Edgeware Rd which had numerous Lebanese shops and cafes with men smoking sheesha pipes.
I had noted in Hyde Park that there were many women in full Burkas walking in it and sitting in groups so they obviously have communities nearby.

Tomorrow I am off to Southampton to relatives, to leave my big bag, and on Saturday get the train to my starting point for the 8 week 1041km walk I'm starting Sunday.
I'm actually not looking forward to it. My feet are still sore from last week and it's colder than I'd expected ( which means I'll have to carry more than I'd planned).
However I'm doing a shorter daily mileage than in Scotland so may survive!!

I hope everyone is well, and warmer than me.
Carol.