Since finishing the Via Francigena at the beginning of December it has been a month of relaxation. The weather hasn't been very nice, very cold and lots of rain, we didn't have any snow fortunately. I did some exercise by going to the gym and running the Park Run at the Greenock esplanade a few times. We had Hollie to look after on the first weekend back then we spent Christmas with Suzy, Gavin and Hollie in Giffnock. They had Gavin's family round for Christmas dinner and it was very nice. We stayed overnight on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. There was a special Park Run on Christmas morning in Pollack Park which I did. I expected a couple of dozen people venturing out that morning and was very surprised to find nearly 500 taking part. I had a good run and afterwards there was a cup of tea and Christmas pies and cake, very festive.
Before doing the pilgrimage to Rome Moira had booked an apartment in Puerto Santiago on the island of Tenerife in the Canaries. We are heading there in January for three months. It will be a relief to get there and some sunshine and warmth after the winner in Scotland. It didn't take us long to remember again why we get away for winter every year to more bearable climes.
We have also been planning what to do next year when we return from Tenerife. We have two walks provisionally earmarked. The first is the Wainwright 'Coast to Coast' from St Bees Head in Cumbria to Robin Hood's Bay on the Yorkshire coast near Scarborough. We tried to do it over 10 years ago but we were camping and got washed out the first night with torrential rain. This time we are going to take the motorhome and stay in it. This will require some detailed planning to tie in buses and we will spend some time organising it while in Tenerife. We think May would be a good time to tackle it.
There is a more ambitious walk I have been thinking about that we hope to do next autumn. It's not an official or recognised long distance route, just one I have been contemplating for some time. It's to hike from St Michael's Mount at Penzance in Cornwall to Mont San Michel near the Cherbourg peninsula in North France. On the south coast of England we can walk the South West Coastal Path from Penzance to Swanage then pick up the South Downs Way from Winchester to Eastbourne. I emailed a rambling club in Winchester and got information about a route to connect the two trails. The idea is then to take the ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe. Once over the Channel there is a GR trail,that runs along the coast to Mont Sam Michel. This walk is going to require a lot more work and planning so three months of peace and quiet in the Canaries should be ideal.
Monday 5 January.
We left Scotland and headed down to Cardiff on the first leg on our way to Tenerife. We had spent the night with Suzy and Gavin in Giffnock to get a some time with Hollie before being away for 3 months. Suzy drove us to the station in the morning and we caught a train from Glasgow to Cardiff via Manchester. It was comfortable journey and much better than going by bus, there is more room to move about.
We are spending some time with Margaret and Justin before we leave from Bristol for Tenerife on Saturday. The two boys are getting big, Ewan is into Winnie the Pooh and he has a CD with the songs and keeps repeating the Tigger song which he bounces around the floor to. Rhys on the other hand is a perfect child, he sleeps and eats and in between lies on a mat on the floor where he seems to manage to amuse himself and very rarely cries.
The weather isn't much better here than it was in Scotland, plenty of rain and its cold. Margaret was going out for a run one afternoon and wanted me to join her, but I don't run in the rain especially when it's freezing cold as well. I can't wait to get some sunshine and will get plenty of running in when we reach the Canaries, the rain there will even be warm !!
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