Farewell to Brum

Day 9 saw us taking to the canals again at the famous Gas Street Basin and making our way out of the city. We walked underneath Spaghetti Junction, that 60s icon, where we found the very appropriate wall art shown in the picture.

Then into the suburbs, but the route followed a welcome thread of parks almost all the way, culminating in the massive Sutton Park - remarkably wild in places. Cliff joined us for a 3-mile walk in the park, and within minutes we met our first proper bog of the journey - Paul’s boots may never be quite the same again.

Our sole diversion was due not to navigational error (honest) but to the closure of a right of way that dates back to the Romans. We recovered from that and from the glare of the security cameras as we walked past the footballers’ houses (we presume) in Little Aston; then we faced our biggest challenge of the day in the form of a huge patch of nettles. We bolted the stable door of our itching bare legs by donning waterproof (and sting-proof) trousers about half way through. We were back in the country.

So, farewell to Birmingham - it’s our only big city on the route, and was well worth the trip. Farewell too to Ozzy Osbourne, 70s icon,

who provides our Track of the Day with “Road to Nowhere” - we’ve seen a few of those along the way, and I am sure there will be more.