Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
grannies, as it means they get an extra present on their birthdays and at Christmas.' Her
face was filled with happiness as she looked out of the window, her eyes welling up as she
spoke.
'And what about her father? Has she managed to track him down? Are you still in con-
tact with him?' I asked, eager to find out more.
'No,no.Shedidtry,butIdon'tevenrememberhisname.Infact,Idon'tevenremember
which soldier it was that got me pregnant. There was more than one Canadian soldier dur-
ing that time,' she said with a smile. Neither of us quite knew how to respond to this.
'Oh, I nearly forgot. We got some cider for you from the food festival last night,' I said,
fishing it from my rucksack.
Monica was delighted with her cider and pleased that she had gone with her instincts
and allowed us both to stay.
'I'm the one that should be thanking you. I feel like I've made two new friends,' she
said.
After a lengthy search we found Andy and Alison's hotel - the glamorous-looking Din-
ham Hall Hotel.
'They've checked out already, but they left this helmet and this box of energy powder
with me and said you would be calling past to pick it up,' said the man at reception. He
handed over the kite-surfing helmet, which was basically a full crash helmet, but without
the visor part, and half a box of powdered Lucozade (other energy drinks are available).
If Ben was going to look like a prat in a crash helmet, at least he would be a prat full of
energy.
'Mr and Mrs Jacobs told me about your challenge,' he said. 'It sounds like a great idea.
The hotel would be happy to offer you both breakfast.'
'Thankyou,ifonlywe'dknown.We'vejustfilleduponcerealandtoastattheplacewe
stayed,' said Ben. 'Thanks very much for the offer, though. We really appreciate it.'
On the way out of the hotel we bumped into Andy and Alison in the street. Not literally.
That would have been very clumsy.
'Ahhh, there you are,' said Andy. 'We thought we might not see you before we left. We
were just having a last look around town.'
WethankedthembothforthehelmetandLucozade,andAndyonceagainreiteratedthat
he thought what we were doing was 'life-affirming.' The more we heard it, the more we
liked it. He was pretty much saying that we were like modern day Mother Theresas.
It was 10.30am by the time we left Ludlow. Shrewsbury was 25 miles away, and we
were due there for lunch.
We covered those 25 miles in about two hours, which was one of our fastest sections
of the entire trip.The route climbed gradually for the first eight miles along beautiful little
country lanes, and we cruised through the villages of Culmington and Pedlar's Rest.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search