Yorkshire Girl's Midlife Diary

A feeling persisted that I never should discover what I sought for unless I could travel in the wild , unpeopled parts of the world………….Clara Vyvyan, Roots and Stars, 1963

Oh……………have I got lots to tell you about, this will be a long one. What has to be the busiest half term of the school year ever, was followed by an amazing little trip and the discovery of one of the best books I have ever, ever read!

I was so ready for this break. I thought, “Where can I go where I can get some sun on my face, wind in my hair, some good food, a bit of exercise outdoors and get away from the world?”. The decision was made to walk the GR131 across Gran Canaria……………. 80.3 km in 5 days.

The GR131 is a long distance path across all of the Canary Islands and the idea is you can start in the east of the Carnaries in Lanzarote, and by walking and using only ferry to connect the islands you can walk across all seven of the islands, 560 km, in around 32 stages. I only had 8 days so chose Gran Canaria which the walk traverses straight through the middle from South to North (or vice versa) can be done in 5 days with a couple of rest days built in for relaxation………….it was a holiday after all.

I always like to have book to read while I am walking and my chosen book for this walk was ‘Windswept’ by an author called Annabel Abbs. I have to say it is the most thought provoking book I think I have ever read. I think Annabel and I might have been twins in a different life!😂The opening quote is from that book and I’ll share a few more throughout this post.

The book explores why women walk. It goes back to when women were expected to stay at home and do as they were told. But it explores the walking journeys of 6 remarkable women who didn’t do as they were told, and they walked………………alone…………….in an age when walking alone as a women was completely unheard of! It looks at the reasons for women walking and concludes that there can be many. It examines the journeys of: Frieda von Richthofen (author), who walked for ‘freedom’, leaving an unhappy relationship; Gwen John (artist) who walked ‘in search of self and solitude’; Clara Vyvyan (writer) who walked to ‘simplify life from the weight of complexity’; Nan Shepherd (writer and poet) who walked ‘in search of being and meaning’; Simone de Beauvoir who walked ‘in search of body’, to rest her brain from anxiety and reset; and finally Georgia O’Keefe (American painter) who walked ‘in search of freedom and wide open spaces’.

Now Annabel is like me in certain respects. We are of a certain age, children, married……………………….and she has this overriding urge to be in nature and walk……………………..alone. Writing this book was her way of trying to understand why women walk and why she herself had a constant desire to walk and escape. She examines what happens when you do walk, how do you unbecome what you are, and indeed why, and what happens when you become ‘Windswept’………..can things ever go back to how they were, do you even want them to or are you for ever changed.

Reading this book was a bit of a ‘lightbulb’ moment for me. I got to the end and was that little bit closer to finding me and understanding me, and I’m almost there. When I tell people I like to walk, sometimes alone, often abroad, for weeks at a time, they usually look at me a little oddly. I get questions like “Why do you do that?”, “Aren’t you scared?”, “How do you find your way?”, “What if you get attacked?”…………… and statements like “aren’t you brave”, “I could not do that”. Some people think you are odd, some see you as an inspiration and most people just don’t get it. And sometimes I don’t know the answer either……….but this book answers all those questions and more.

So throughout this walk, I read this book, which by examining these 6 amazing women, revealed to me why I feel the way I do. So as I was reading it I was thinking, “So who am I? Am I Georgia, Nan, Gwen, Frieda, Clara or Simone?” I concluded that I’m probably a bit of all 6 mixed together………….but ultimately I’m Joanne, there are many reasons for me walking, all quite normal and rational, and I’m not some freak of nature. I’m most definitely ‘Windswept’, I have changed my outlook on life considerably on my journeys, will probably not go back to how I was before and don’t want to, and I don’t think others want me to go back to being the over anxious, over thinking human being that I was. Most importantly, I now value my worth and think I’m a pretty amazing individual in my own rite……..I’m unique (most people would be glad there’s only one of me 🤭)…………..and it’s taken me a long time to realise just how great I am and be happy in my own skin!

This book is not just for women, I would recommend that every man who has a woman who walks, or one who is struggling through that menopausal life stage should read this………….it will explain why they feel the need to walk or escape, why you should let them walk and discover themselves and it will give anyone who reads it an insight into the female brain, because it’s complex 😆. I’ve said time and time again…………………………………….we are simply not the same as men, we are beautifully different and are wired up completely differently. One is not more superior to the other, we are just different………….and this walk and book confirmed that for me 100%!

So on to the walk, the GR131 through Gran Canaria. It’s amazing and should be on the the ‘bucket list’ of walks to do for anyone who likes walking. Only this one was a walk with a bit of a difference…………..I was not alone. My ultrarunning other half (Mr Fitness as he is known by friends)………..had decided this one was a step too far! Ascending to just below 1900m, very mountainous, necessitating map reading, according to Cicerone a ‘highly challenging walk for experienced adventurers’ ……….. he put his foot down and said “NO!” And he very rarely tells me “No” as he knows it’s not a word I respond to very well, as you can imagine.😂 He pointed out that in addition to the above, it is a path travelled by very few, there would be low lying cloud…………….and then proceeded to remind me about the number of times this year alone I have come unstuck and called home for rescue………………..and there was no way he was coming all the way to Gran Canaria to rescue me apparently!

With my wings suitably clipped I reluctantly agreed he could come. However, I have to point out this is our first multi-day trek together! It is also likely to be our last! 🤣 We are completely incompatible as walking partners! We are pretty much opposites in lots of ways, but in life in general that’s ok as they say opposites attract! However in walking………….and the book ‘Windswept’ touches on this subject……….you should only walk with someone unobtrusive, similar and with the same objectives as you………….which is where it sort of falls apart for us.

Now Mr Fitness is not similar to me and most certainly does not have the same objectives. I like to meander, I like coffee and cake and ice cream, I have no timeframe when on holiday, I like things to just evolve, I don’t like to rush. Mr Fitness, being a competitive athlete, has to be ‘top dog’, has a plan and a strategy, is obsessed with fitness data, has a body like a temple and has a ‘goal’ for everything. He has to be ‘commander in chief’ of any situation and likes to try and organise everyone else! And if there is one thing I’m not good at it’s being told what to do……………….it instinctively uncovers my desire to do the opposite. I become naughty!😂

Just before we set off he started trying to tell me what to pack in my rucksack, how to carry it, which of the emergency equipment I would be carrying, muttering something about a tent and a stove…………………………at which point I had a mini tantrum and called a meeting to set out the ground rules! I advised him I was going on a ‘holiday’; I would not be carrying a tent as I would not be sleeping in one; I would not need a stove as Gran Canaria has multiple coffee shops; I would be substituting emergency blanket and water filtration tablets with face cream and shampoo in my rucksack; and I, and I alone, would be deciding route, pace, stopping points and accommodation. I then proceeded to remind him I had been walking numerous times without him, packed and carried my own rucksack, walked across an entire European country and survived!! I stressed he did not have to walk with me if he wanted to walk quickly, as I was not racing him. I advised him that from time to time I like to walk quietly, and not to be offended when I told him it was time for him to go on ahead or shut up! So the ground rules were set, and off we went.

Day 1 – Maspalomas to Arteara

We arrived at the airport the afternoon before we were going to start the walk. It’s an easy 45 minute ride on the No.66 bus direct from the airport to Maspalomas where the walk departs from.

We were travelling with just our rucksacks. Mine was its usual weight packed exactly as I like it, with just things that are necessary to me. All very efficient in my colour coordinated bags. Mr Fitness’s rucksack was just as I thought it would be. After spending weeks bragging about how he would be able to get all his stuff in a small rucksack half the size of mine he looked like he was going to Everest base camp. He’d had to upsize! I’d talked him out of camping stove and tent but he had his water filtration, bivvy bag, emergency shelter and more emergency survival equipment than the Red Cross. 😂

Maspalomas was not really my ‘cup of tea’…………..I’ll be brutally honest and say I did not like it. It does have the most beautiful beach, some nice sand dunes but other than that it’s just bars, British, bars, kebabs, beer and sex (I’ll expand on that in a minute). It’s as holiday resorty as it gets and if I’d ended up there on holiday for a full week I would have been longing for escape. It’s a love or hate sort of place, and if you like it that’s fine, it wouldn’t do for us all to like the same thing would it? However the apartment was good. We stayed in a lovely little studio apartment owned by the lovely Noelia and her husband, in a nice quiet area out of the hubbub. This accommodation was recommended by Mr Fitness who has used it as a base when he ran the Gran Canaria Ultra Run a couple of years ago…………. the only one he did not finish…………….but we are not allowed to mention that.🤭I loved Noelia……….who sent him a message just after we left the following day to say it was a pleasure to meet his very pretty, friendly wife who has the most amazing skin! 😂😍😂 Thanks Noelia! I’ll stay again!

The first evening was not without mishap……………..I don’t know how I do it. Mr Fitness, training for his latest challenge, had decided to go for a run on the beach. I’d settled with my book and a glass of Pinot Blush on the patio. The evening was spent preparing, which involved a trip to the supermarket for some provisions for the day one walk as there were to be no cafes or places to get food or drinks en-route. I was in the supermarket, waiting for Mr Fitness who I’d arranged to meet, choosing some bread and snacks when I smiled and said hello to a gentleman. I only smiled! He then proceeded to chat, which I don’t have a problem with as I’m friendly, however it did not take him long to ask if I would like to go to the mixed couples nudist section of the sand dunes with him. 😦 I glanced around for Mr Fitness to come to my rescue, told my suitor that I had a date with a Magnum double chocolate and caramel ice cream and got out of there as fast as I could! Now I know I’m a bit out of touch and naïve but that will be my lasting memory of Maspalomas……….I don’t think I’ll be rushing to return or chat to strangers (I should have listened to my Mum on that one).

The following morning saw our departure from Maspalomas, apparently the departure point for Christopher Columbus on one of his voyages to America, so he obviously couldn’t wait to depart either.

We were heading for Arteara at the base of the mountains…………a steady climb. The first five kilometres are a little boring. It’s still a bit residential, flat, not very green, and just a bit bland……………………….apart from some questionable graffiti which you can’t help but notice! I told you they were obsessed with sex here!

You start by walking out of town up a long, dry river bed.

It’s not too long before you get out in the open and spot the first of many yellow arrows which seem to have become the way markers for any long distance path or Camino. You pass through swathes of palm trees, past old dry stone aqueducts and plenty of prickly pear plants. As you head further away from civilisation you start to see the mountains towering above you and start to get the most beautiful views. This was when I started enjoying the walk.

All went smoothly until we took a rather questionable route choice. We could have carried straight on over the looming hill and down into the small village of Arteara where we were staying for the night. However, we thought it would be more exciting to walk down the Barranco de Fataga – a dry reed and river bed in the bottom of a steep gorge which also terminated in the village. This turned out to be not such a good idea. The reeds were densely thick, twice my height, with the narrowest little path through them. The path seemed to go on for ever. Then it kept ending with no way out in sight, requiring a retreat backwards and a hunt for another way out. I kept getting my rucksack stuck on the reed canes and kept having to be released by Mr Fitness (much to his annoyance), I cut my leg and was pretty close to having a full on meltdown when the end of the path finally arrived. I thought I was very brave!

The final hour and a bit had been a battle. 16km after departing and over 2,000 feet of ascent and I was so glad to see the little village of Arteara and the Finca Las Tenerias where I had booked a room for the night.

I was so ready for a beer………………a large one!

I spent the majority of the evening trying to extract cactus hairs from my skin. Every time I brushed my hand against my skin I found another, and the thing is they are so painful and you can’t even see them. Down in the reed bed the wind was blowing down the gorge. They must just travel in the wind and embed themselves in you. I was covered in them. And they are so hard to get out as they are fine like hairs and you can hardly see them. You have to first find them with a magnifier and then pull them out with tweezers. I didn’t get them anywhere else on the route so if you travel this way my advice would be don’t take the reed bed route. Go over the top! I’m still finding the odd one now……..weeks later!

This was a really different overnight stay………….it’s the only place to stay in the village. It’s sort of like a little commune (all German), who live a self sufficient life off the land and rent a few rooms out and feed you at their on-site restaurant which is also open to the public. They have a little farm shop, it is in the middle of nowhere and they have some bizarre bits of sculpture here and there and an old piano. It’s sort of weird in a nice way.

The food in the restaurant was delicious and they put us in the very sweet self-contained Casa Bonita at the bottom of the garden. This is when you realise how much your world is different to theirs. The strange thing was this little house had no key to the door, anyone could just have walked in, day or night……………and for some reason this made me feel really uncomfortable. I guess there is no need for a lock there. At home we would never leave our door unlocked, even in the house in the middle of the day, we lock our doors in the UK all the time. But sleeping with the door unlocked would be unheard of.

However, I had the most dreamy peaceful night’s sleep one I’d wedged a chair under the door handle and balanced a bag of dried fruit and nuts on the handle to alert me should anyone try to enter, which of course they didn’t!😂 And that was all despite the presence of a rooster whose body clock seemed to have gone awry……….he crowed all night and was silent by morning.

Day 2 – Arteara to San Bartolome de Tirijana (Tunte)

This was a lovely walking day, so much more enjoyable than the day before. A steady uphill 13 km with just over 655 metres of ascent.

We did not need to set off early so started with the most amazing breakfast served in the farmhouse of the old finca. So much food for two people……………..and freshly baked bread rolls, butter and cooked eggs of your choice…….it was delicious.

We departed for the day and started following the arrows over some amazing mountain scenery. It’s a little bit like a moonscape with little white houses and villages dotted here and there. Cacti and prickly pear are everywhere, but fortunately none of the little hairy things from the day before. I spotted some lovely little garden ornament flowerpot men outside one finca and another even had a camel on which to rest your weary legs!!

The nice thing about this stage is that there is a halfway stop in the gorgeous little village of Fataga. It was here where we had a little downpour and where we had a little falling out, well not a falling out, a difference of objective and opinion have we to say. I was apparently ‘dawdling’ too slowly. I was taking too many photos and taking too long over them. You see the thing is when walking with someone like Mr Fitness it always has the feeling of an army bootcamp. He asks you the same three questions (sometimes worded slightly differently) over and over again. And they are:

• What’s your number of heart beats per minute? – now I haven’t got a clue……so I have to check on my watch and tell him. He then has to make sure his is a lot lower and then inform you that all is well, his is currently forty beats slower than yours, proving his superior fitness!
  
• What’s your average speed? – obviously a lot slower than his so we are still all good.
  
• What’s your VO2 Max? – no idea…………I don’t even know what that is.
  

And it goes on and on like this. Now I’m not competitive when I’m on a walking holiday so I just keep giving him the stats, stroking his ego, and sometimes I admit to even falsifying my data output to so that the fitness gap between he and I broadens into an even wider chasm, making him look far superior. Anything for an easy life.

Now, I too have three questions which I ask over, and over………………but for some reason my questions seem to rather annoy him which I feel is a little unfair and one sided. Mine are:

• Do you think there will be a toilet near here, I’m getting ready for a wee?
  
  Where and when do you think I’ll be able to get an ice cream as I need one?
  
• Are we nearly there yet?

Yes, I’ve just read that back and appreciate that it might be like taking a small toddler on a day trip so he probably does have justification in his annoyance……………..but I’m on holiday!

So we arrived in Fataga where he spotted me dart inside the door of the Restaurante Terraza. They weren’t busy and although it was too early for lunch I sprinted inside to see if they sold ice creams before Mr Fitness could stop me. I know it was raining, but ice cream is acceptable in all weathers. They didn’t sell ice creams, they are a restaurant, but the lovely waiter pointed out that if I just wanted a coffee and a warm up inside that was fine, and “Do you want to look at the dessert menu?” he said. He must have seen my disappointment at the lack of Magnum ice creams. Well, what can I say……….they say these walks ‘provide’………and they do! I partook in the most divine, warm, icing sugar dusted, chocolate brownie with hot chocolate sauce, a scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream and a fancy wafer biscuit! Meanwhile Mr Fitness sipped his decaffinated coffee (he does not do caffeine – it’s bad for the body temple) and looked at the chocolate sauce covered me like he had discovered the secret as to why he was a great athlete and I wasn’t!🤣🤣

We left Fataga suitably warmed up and headed up and up into the increasingly cloudy mountains to the village of San Bartolome de Tirijana, known locally as Tunte. There were some beautiful flowers but it was a tougher afternoon with all the ascent weighted towards the latter end of the walk. There are clear signs of recent fire devastation towards the end of the incline but recovery is in evidence and it’s still pretty.

I was relieved to see the small white town of Tunte in the distance by which time the sun had made an appearance and the blue skies were back.

Tunte is a pretty town. Flower filled balconies abound and we stayed in a delightful little studio apartment inside a traditional stone and red plaster building which had the cutest little flower and plant filled courtyard. It had the comfiest little bed and I was so tired. The same cannot be said for Mr Fitness who decided he wasn’t done for the day and went out for a training run while I had a little afternoon snooze.

The evening was spent having a look around the little town, devouring some huge home made veal meatballs, stuffed with quails eggs in mushroom sauce (these were nice!), and then having an early night as the next day was going to be a BIG day!!

Day 3 – San Bartolome de Tirijana (Tunte) to Cruz de Tejeda

This was always going to be a tough day, this and the final one, for different reasons. This day just goes up, up and up…………relentlessly, for 19km, non-stop with 1,025 metres of ascent to the highest point on the walk, Cruz de Tejeda, passing around the Rocque Nublo, the highest point on the island.

However, this has to be one of the most spectacular days of walking ever, But I have to admit, I think I would have been out of my depth on my own on this particular day. There was significant low lying cloud which I would not have been comfortable in without the assurance of someone who knows what they are doing giving me that confidence that I’ve chosen the correct direction.

It is also extremely exposed and probably not for the vertigo sufferers. I did have to check myself a couple of times and tell myself I was ok and doing just fine!

The views as you ascend are just spectacular and there are all sorts of unusual flower and fauna up on the ridge. As per usual Mr Fitness was skedaddling off, metres in front, while I was dawdling in my own little world taking pictures. This did give me the opportunity for some pretty amazing photographs though which illustrate the size and vastness of the mountain.

There were trig points, sheer drops, the hugest pine cones ever, and numerous stops to don waterproofs and then take them off again. We had all the seasons in one day.

The hardest task was deciding where to stop for the picnic. The the sky turned blue, the sun came out and we were rewarded for our efforts with the most spectacular lunchtime view of the Tejeda valley with Rocque Nublo in the distance.

The island is truly spectacular when you get away from the resorts of the coast. My parents have been coming here twice a year for the last 20 years and now they are aging I keep in regular contact with them when I’m away. Daily photographs were sent and responded to with disbelief, neither of them believing it was the same island that they visit as they tend to just stay put, being looked after in their resort now they are both in their 80’s. I must admit, my last visit to the Canaries was 30 years previous on a girls holiday to Tenerife, and it’s a place I’ve never rushed back to, believing it to just be full of resorts, but get away from those and it’s spectacular.

The air just makes you feel free………free from everything, I don’t seem to be wanting people…………..just space………………Georgia O’Keefe

We pressed on and arrived in the little hamlet of Cruz de Tejeda after five and a half hours of walking. There’s not much there only two hotels, the most spectacular view, and probably the island’s best sunset. This is where I got into a little bit of trouble, in a nice sort of way, and I definitely got a little eye roll if you know what I mean. I think Mr Fitness thought we were pressing on to the little village of Tejeda……………………you see he has no idea where we are staying each night, he just leaves that detail to me.

So he looked a little bewildered when I started walking up the drive to the Parador Cruz de Tejeda, a castle like building belonging to the Spanish group of Parador hotels. A Parador is a Spanish luxury hotel and it’s normally in an historic building or has a scenic view. I think he thought that we were popping in a drink only for me to shout to him to hurry up because this is where the two day spa break was happening and I did not want to be late for my 4pm massage I’d booked. I think his first thought was his wallet 🤣 and then he looked all horrified thinking I’d booked him a massage too. Anyway, he soon perked up when I told him I’d sorted the bill from my ‘secret’ fund and not booked him a massage. He has this thing about being touched by a stranger……………unless it’s a physio of course……..that’s allowed! 😁

I just could not resist the bargain of a two day winter spa break offer that they had on, and I thought that if I’d dragged myself all the way up to 1836 metres, with my rucksack on my back, continually responding to questions on my performance data (or lack of it), I’d deserved it.

Well what can I say, if you walk through Gran Canaria you just have to stay here, even if it’s just for one night. The hotel, the rooms, the views, the spa, are all just amazing. So after a thorough inspection of my bedroom, a little tipple on the balcony overlooking the mountains and the most luxurious shower ever, off I trotted for my massage, agreeing to reconvene in the spa pools one hour later. The massage was fantastic and soothed some of the muscles in my legs that were really starting to ache.

The spa is pretty spectacular too. It has the most gorgeous outdoor infinity pool overlooking the mountains, a hot tub, Turkish hammam, Swedish sauna, various fancy hot and cold showers and an indoor pool and jacuzzi with all sorts of jets and buttons to press. When you’ve had enough of the pool there are heated hammock beds tucked away in a dark little room with piped soothing music and camomile tea. It was gorgeous and I knew I was going to be perfectly happy on my rest day the following day. 😁 Oh…………..and the bed was sooooooo comfy, I slept like a baby.

Rest Day – Tejeda

This was the rest day that wasn’t really a rest day because after breakfast Mr Fitness declared that it would be a shame to come all this way and not visit the very pretty village Tejeda down the hillside. I reluctantly agreed as long as we could go down and up on the bus. Anyway, to cut a long story short I missed the bus so agreed to walk down and bus back.

It was a nice, if not a bit steep, 2 mile walk down to the village but he was right, it is very pretty and you should visit. There is a lovely mirador view point, some nice coffee shops, a pretty church square, some lovely old doorways………………………..

………………..and loads of Bougainvillea, which I love.

There was also an opportunity to have my photograph with my wings outspread, confirming what we already knew, I am 100% angel, apart from the halo which I substitute with a pink bucket hat.🤣

And guess what, I spent that much time walking around and window shopping, that there was no bus back either so I had to walk 2 miles, up a very steep hill, after which a very large Aperol Spritz was required on the patio as part of my rest day recovery.

This evening’s pool spa session I’d booked for 6pm as I wanted to watch the sun set from the pool …………. and goodness, it did not disappoint. It was spectacular! One of those wow moments that you will remember for a long time.

I retired happily to my bed thinking what a shame it was I was leaving the following morning to walk the last two days when I could have stayed there a little bit longer by re-mortgaging the house. 😂 No, I joke, with the spa offer I would say although it was expensive it was good value for money and worth it for a treat………..you work hard for it and can’t take it with you! And after operating as what Mr Fitness calls ‘his amazing and indispensable one-man support crew’ for 48 hours in Mont Blanc 2 months previous to this even he agreed this was a well deserved treat……………………and believe me, he can split a penny in half! 😆

Day 4 – Cruz de Tejeda to Artenara

This was quite a short day, just 7.5 km and 549 metres of ascent. This was because the real end to Stage 4 is in a campsite in the middle of the woods, which after two days at the Parador I wasn’t doing! So I decided we’d just walk to the last town on the route, Artenara, stay there, and then walk a Stage and a half the following day to the coast and the end of the walk.

This also meant no early set off so I got to enjoy my big breakfast at the Parador before we left at around 10:30am.

I immediately thought all my Christmas’s had come at once when parked outside the hotel was a fully saddled donkey! I was so tempted to track down the owner and see if it was available for rides to Artenara with a 10kg rucksack and fully grown adult. But I reluctantly told myself that the aim was to walk and I trudged off on my way after a bit of a donkey cuddle.

The walk to Artenara is lovely. After a very steep half a kilometre uphill it flattens out and is just undulating, along a ridge line all the way to Artenara. There are spectacular views over the whole Tejeda ravine and mountain range of Gran Canaria. Then you drop down into forested areas with the tallest pine trees, with shafts of sunlight shining through the tree canopy.

I took another walk yesterday and it was the most wonderful of all …………when I find myself again lonely and quiet in a lonely quiet country, it moves me deeply………….Simone de Beauvoir

There is also a really interesting group of seven caves half way along the route. It’s quite rocky but perfectly safe to have a clamber around and look in them.

Route finding can be a bit of guesswork as there are various options you can take because I think there is some sort of competition taking place in Gran Canaria to see which town council can attach the greatest number of directional arrows to one post. 😂 Some can have up to 5 arrows all with the same place on, all pointing different directions, like the one below.

So I was a little bit relieved when in the distance I spotted the little white town of Artenara. This is a really interesting little town in the very depths of the mountains and is not frequented that much by visitors. It’s very well looked after , really clean and has some quite interesting sculpture to look around…………..some modern, some just fun and some more poignant.

As you enter the town from the mountains there are some huge modern pieces in rusted iron, one which is supposed to resemble a lighthouse and the other a boat. There are also a number of sculptures reminding you which town you are in just in case you’ve forgotten!

We checked into the accommodation, threw off our rucksacks and went for a wander. A large number of houses in Artenara are cave houses which were dug into the side of the mountain many years ago and are still inhabited now. There’s also a little chapel in a cave, the ‘Ermita de la Virgen de la Cuevita’. The chapel dates from the 18th century and contains the locally revered statue of the Virgen de la Cuevita. Its definitely a worth a little look. There is an altar, a font and even a pulpit from which I was delivered a sermon by the ‘commander in chief’ of the walk.

Then I found Jesus! You can’t really miss him, he’s the hugest statue at the highest point of town.

I like to learn new stuff and probably the nicest statue in the whole of the town is on the Mirador de Unamuno. Here there is a lovely place to sit, above and below the clouds (Artenara is the highest town on the Island). On it is a really atmospheric statue of a man gazing longingly outwards, clutching his hat, looking like he’s searching for something long lost. There is just a plaque with his name on it, Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo. “Who is that?” I thought, so I gave him a little search on the internet. Anyway, he’s a man who Artenara hold quite dear as he spent a period in exile from Spain here. He was a essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, philosopher, and latterly a professor at the University of Salamanca. He was Basque, born in Bilbao and was exiled from Spain a couple of times. He switched his allegiance more than once in his life, during World War I and later during the Spanish Civil War, ultimately turning against Franco who held him under house arrest until his death in 1936. An interesting story of an interesting man.

It wasn’t until the evening that I realised why Artenara would be an excellent place to hide out in exile. Being the highest town on the island and having house interiors that are hewn into the rock it is so cold and damp. No one would come here looking for you! I’d found one of only two places to stay. It was a little house in town and it was cute and it was clean but goodness when that sun went down it was freezing cold right through to your bones, and I had not really prepared for that. Extra clothes and bedding were piled on and there was nothing much to do except sleep deeply in the little cocoon I had made for myself.

Day 5 – Final Walking Day – Artenara to Puerto de las Nieves

With 23 kilometres and 1270 metres of descent, for me this was by far and away the hardest day. For a start it was a sunrise set off as I know it would be a long day and nights were drawing in early. In addition it is all downhill…………all the way from the highest town on the island to sea level. I find downhill so much harder than uphill.

So I have to admit I set off a little bit grumpy! It was cold, dark, damp and I was looking forward to reaching the end. A sharp left turn after the mountain rescue station and I was a little dissapointed to see there was lots more uphill, over the summit of Mount Tamabada before the downhill started.

The sun came out, the air heated up and the walk started to get better. I did not take too many photos today as I spent a lot of time concentrating. The downhills are really steep as you descent the mountain and there are some really high ledges and drop offs so I was more than happy to see the coastline open up in front of me about 4 hours into the walk. What I did not realise was that although it looked close, it was going to take me another 4 hours to get there! 🥵

By the time we got to Puerto de las Nieves and the end I had well and truly had enough of the day. This final stage and a half, with so much descent and not one coffee stop along the way had definitely got the better of me.

However, arriving in Puerto de las Nieves was such a nice surprise. It was nothing like the resorts of the south coast. It was a traditional little fishing town. The sun was shining, the beach was full at it was a national holiday, and the smell of seafood was drifting out from the nearby restaurants which lined the pretty little port.

I was so hungry and I just wanted a plate of fresh fried seafood and a beer…………nothing fancy, just that. So that’s what I had and it was gorgeous.

Just time for a quick supermarket visit and a check in at the apartment as this had been a long day. This apartment was a little gem. A recently renovated one bedroom townhouse in the small town of Agaete, 15 minutes walk from the port. It was really clean, well presented and so well equipped. It was lovely to put our clothes through a proper wash cycle with detergent and put some clean, fresh clothes on. The icing on the cake was the rooftop patio complete with sun loungers which faced west so the day was finished with a toast to a successful GR131 mission, with a beer, while watching the sun set behind the mountains. We were here for two nights and the following day was a rest day and our last full day on the island so I was looking forward to a relax and a little explore around the small town of Agaete.

The Finale

The last day was a lovely rest day in the beautiful little town of Agaete. It was a little cloudy, but warm. The town has a pretty town hall, a nice little tree lined square with a church in it, narrow whitewashed streets that you can get lost in and the all important bakery for that carrot cake and coffee stop.

It was in Agaete where I also discovered ‘the natural pools ‘Las Salinas de Agaete’. They are a little walk out of town, down above the harbour. They are three naturally formed volcanic pools, interconnected by underwater tunnels. They are ideal to swim in as they are protected from the rough sea by really thick volcanic walls, but you get the most spectacular sight of the waves crashing and breaking over the sides and spilling over into the pools. The water was a little ‘fresh’ but I could not resist a dip and once I’d got myself submerged and taken a couple of deep slow breaths I soon became acclimatised and had a good swim around.

It was a lovely little day. I declined Mr Fitness’s offer of a 10 mile training run and had a lovely me myself and I evening with a cup of tea, my book and the most gorgeous sunset. A perfect end to a lovely week.

I’ve been back for over two weeks now and I’m already missing the winter sunshine of mainland and southern Europe. It can be positively grim in Yorkshire at this time of year. Foggy, cloudy, wet, damp with not a lot of daylight…………..but still beautiful of course because it’s Yorkshire! And tonight it’s snowing and it’s not even the end of November! 🥶I’m frozen………..I don’t do cold.

But you just wear the right clothing and keep busy. And you know what that means don’t you……………..yes, one of the advantages of Autumn is that my woolly hat collection can come out. This weekend I’ve been for a lovely autumnal walk with my friend of over 50 years (we were born 1 day apart and were brought up on the same street)………one of those ‘friends for life’. My first woolly hat outing of this season.

Being Joanne and Suzanne we spent hours when we were younger singing into our hairbrushes pretending to be Joanne and Susanne from the Human League, that was before the age of gaming and social media when we used to do proper things like singing, role play, bike riding and playing out in the woods and fields to entertain ourselves. However, we never quite managed to persuade Jonathan or Robin (our sidekicks) to be our Phil Oakley!🤣 We were like the Famous 5 (minus 1). We have laughed so much at this photo this weekend. Why on earth did my Mum put a ribbon in my hair to play in the woods and climb trees? How on earth did Suzanne climb in open toe sandals?😂 Those were the days………..when crimplene flairs were in fashion and it was cool to wear your wellington boots with shorts! We were obviously on a mission on this day! 🤣🤣

Then I filled 10 garden compactor sacks of leaves and planted some bulbs, baked my Christmas cake which looks pretty spectacular, and went orienteering.

Saturday was the Padfield Plum Fair Fell race where I ran my little socks off and Lois, Helen and I won the ladies team trophy for Penistone and I claimed first place V50 lady. It’s a little tough one on the fells……….. 5.5 miles of up, up and more up, round the grouse shooting cabin, up to the Cock Hill trig point and then all the way back again. It’s a bit of a mud fest which used to be finished off with a 100 metre sprint carrying a 25kg bag of coal up the neighbouring hill. Fortunately for me, that little addition no longer happens as I’m not sure I’d have been up to that following the run. 😂

I sort of welcome my little winter hibernation though………………..I read more and find much more time to do my creative things. No adventuring abroad planned until February. I’ve just taken delivery of some gorgeous fabric to make some new bedroom curtains and I’ve booked myself on a linocut print making workshop which I’m very excited about! I first learnt about linocut when I went to the Picasso museum in Barcelona. Picasso, Matisse and Hockney all produced a number of linocuts. It’s something I’ve not had a go at before so I’m looking forward to learning a new art skill and getting messy!

So that’s it for now. Almost my favourite time of year…………………..until then, in between working, I’ll just keep wandering, exploring, making, doing, learning, living and getting up to as much mischief as I possibly can…………………………although I’m not doing too well at the latter…………….it’s been over two months since I’ve had to call home to be rescued…………….I must try harder. 🤣

How on earth did I end up up back here!? But I did and I survived……………just!

That was the question I asked myself so many times last week. After last year’s episode of scrambling up the side of Eel Crag and coming next to last I swore to myself that I would not get roped into the British Championships this year!

And we all know I’ve had a few map reading and other running incidents this year! 😂

The request was made for team members for a V40 ladies team. My strategy, with my 53 years of wisdom and experience, was to go into hiding and keep quiet………………..very quiet. 😆 We have lots of good 40 something year old runners in the club – certainly enough for me to dodge this one.

All was going to plan, teams were selected and I was rubbing my hands together with glee to not make the list and my silence go un-noticed! I would just surprise them on the day with cakes and support.

Then one by one people start getting better offers, getting injured, or probably just realise what they’ve let themselves in for and start dropping out. And that’s when I see the dreaded message on the club social media page………………”Why is your name not on the list Joanne? You’d be fantastic.”

Now which excuse do you want, I have numerous……….I’m 10 years older than the rest of the team…………I might be tough and resilient but I’m not overly fast …………….. I get hopelessy lost and this race involves maps ……………….I’m waiting for surgery…………….which excuse do you want? I could have sworn that I had sufficient excuse to get out of this one, but NO………………….apparently “You’ll be fine on the last leg…..Leg 4……on your own as it’s a flagged leg so you can’t get lost!” (Believe me when I say I can get lost on a flagged leg!) So here I was again, in the position I did not want to be in.

I got my map given a couple of weeks before and went for a little recce with a couple of friends. Five and a half miles does not seem too bad. Then I saw the altitude climb ……just short of 1,700ft…………then I have a closer look at the route and spot the appropriately named ‘Hell Hole’, ‘Trollers Gill’ and a bright orange bad weather route in case of bad visibility. This is going to be fun!

Then I have one of those weeks at work, which I could have just done without, two days prior to race day………an OFSTED inspection! But actually it just gave me something else to worry about and take my mind off the race. As is so happens the inspection went really well, so by Thursday OFSTED have left the building and I’m back to getting anxious about Saturday’s race. Then the race day timetable comes out………………Leg 4 is not running until 3:30pm! That’s all day on Saturday to get worked up into a frenzy. Not only that but Prize Giving is at 4pm!!! I won’t be back then………….I’ll still be running my 5.2 miles of uphill, I might not even be back for field gate being locked at 5pm by the farmer! 😂

So Friday evening was spent baking cakes to take my mind off it because cake is the answer to all lifes worries and always goes down well at a race. Then I remember that two of the team are vegan. I’m not vegan but am very accepting of anyone that is but I failed to see how a proper cake can be vegan so I had huge reservations as to how this little Friday night experiment would turn out. Anyway, one tin of vegan brownies and a courgette and lemon loaf later I was quite pleased with my little effort. I can honestly say that it just tasted like normal cake and I shall stand corrected and no longer make fun of vegan cake.😆 The cakes got top marks from the team.

Friday night was a sleepless one with lots of dreaming which involved me running down a deserted field in the dark with a farmer shouting at me and waving a stick because he was waiting to lock the gate. Seriously…………this is what happens when I get anxious. It’s awful.

Race day arrived with a very pleasant drive to the gorgeous little Yorkshire village of Appletreewick. It’s around 2 hours from home in Upper Wharfedale and is Yorkshire at its finest. The village has a lovely little campsite by the river and holds lots of happy memories because this is where the family tent was christened when the boys were around 6 and 4 years old. The day started a bit grim, but then the blue sky and sunshine came and the visibility was good!

Team chairman Steve was on hand at lunchtime to give me a little pep talk and reassurance. “You know why you are stressing don’t you?” he said. “Yes, because I’m not at this level I said.” This was all because I saw Jasmin Paris casually walking across the road. If you don’t know who Jasmin Paris is then I’ll tell you. She is the only woman to ever finish the Barkley Marathons in Tennessee which she did in March of this year. She is in another league to me completely and an absolutely astounding fell runner, quite possible the best of all time. She would not get lost in a wood 2 miles from home and have to call for help! If she’s running I’m going to look like a tortoise! 😂

“No, it’s not that” he said, “You are anxious because it matters! It all matters to you, the race, the team, everything. Just go do your thing and as soon as you set off you’ll be fine.” And the thing is I knew he was right. I get so much more nervous when I’m running as part of a team, it’s just the thought of letting the team down. If you enter a race on your own there’s not as much pressure, you can only let yourself down. But in a race against the country’s best as part of a six woman team, there’s a lot more at stake.

The start came. I was sufficienty fuelled………….cheeseburger and cake ………………. the food of champions!😂……….And off I went. Well, not so fast as the start was up the biggest hill imagineable! My legs were like jelly at the top and we were only 300 metres into the race.

What followed was five and a half miles of the biggest, muddiest, steepest, ups and downs imagineable. Now, it’s meant to be difficult, it’s to decide Britain’s finest, toughest fell runners. I kept having a quick glance behind me over the fields to see lots more runners. I’m doing ok I thought……..just keep going……..don’t give up…….just one foot in front of the other.

After five minutes of crawling my way up Trollers Gill on all fours I spotted the checkpoint, dibbed my dibber and carried on. By this time I was covered in mud, had inadvertently placed my hand on some thistles and stunk of sheep excrement.

Just as I was trying to run down the other side of the almost vertical Trollers Gill I could see opposite me, the side of the crag to Hell Hole looming above, with a line of fell runners crawling along like ants clawing their way up the side. I downed some electrolyte and chewed a couple of gels to give me a little boost. The climb up to Hell Hole was horrific, it was all fours up the side and then a crawl under a barbed wire fence at the top.

From that point the last two miles were not as lung busting. It was undulating, it was knee high boggy, but some sections were runnable. I finished in 1 hour and 19 with a little sprint at the end and 11 minutes ahead of my expected time, 40 minutes before the final runner and more importantly, well before darkness and the locking of the field by the farmer (who didn’t have a stick and looked quite friendly).😆 Penistone can be proud to have the 12th fastest V40 ladies fell running team in the country……………….yes, we weren’t next to last this year! I was too sick for cake at the end………..I did not know whether to cry with relief, cry with pain or vomit.

However, I did feel incredibly proud to be part of a team of such outstanding ladies and runners. We all work, we all have families and we are all trying to juggle everything life throws at us. We did amazingly well and I feel so lucky to even be able to run, never mind be on the startline of something like this. But this year will be my last……………unless we can rustle a V50 team together! I hurt so much all over my body today……………….. the V40 team will have to find someone under 50 as I’m now too creaky to pretend to be 40 …………… I’ll just donate the cakes from now on!

Here I am with some very quick weekend words of wisdom for you because this weekend I’ve been thinking! I have lots of words of wisdom……………..appropriate words for every circumstance. But these are this weekend’s words of wisdom which have led to me having a lovely weekend instead of the pretty uneventful one I had got planned! This weekend’s words of wisdom are from Mark Twain (real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens), American writer, and author of works such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He said:

“Twenty years from now you will be more dissapointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails.”

Now I’m quite good at this, I’m a bit of a doer. But this weekend I was going to be a good girl on Saturday and do all my housework, clean my bathrooms, wash my new wheels (I’ll tell you about those in a minute), do my garden, attack my huge ironing pile and just generally do all those things I don’t have time for in the week. I work all week. I leave early in the morning, arrive home after five, and by the time I’ve cooked a meal, sorted everyone else, done something for myself (usually a run, yoga or my language class), it’s time to go to bed and read my book. So inevitably at the weekend I have some jobs to do, because I refuse to have a cleaner or a gardener as I can do it myself and I would feel really lazy if I didn’t.

However this weekend was a bit different………………………………………I’m home alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My ultra running other half has disappeared on a 10 day training block to the Canary Islands to keep going up and down a mountain for 10 whole days in the hot weather…………………WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO DO THAT?😆 One child has moved down near London to work from the beginning of September, and the other, whilst back at home, was going to stay with friends.

Lots of people I know would absolutely hate being on their own. I meanwhile am absolutely fine with it! In fact I’m more than just fine. They say true happiness comes from within and you can’t be truly happy relying on other people to provide your happiness, you have to be happy with ‘you’ first. And I’m a great believer in that. I don’t know whether it helps being a bit of an introvert, or whether it’s because I’m an only child but I am perfectly happy in my own company……………..I like being with me, I’m really nice to be around! 😁 I can’t understand anyone who says they are bored on their own…………………I can think of a million and one things to do with my time. I can garden, I can sew, I can go for a walk, I can sing, I can draw, I can read, I can cook, I can bake……………………….how can anyone be bored!

So a weekend on my own sounded like my idea of heaven. You see the thing is there’s always something ‘going down’ in our house. Someone always has something they need me for and it’s often quite frantic. People rushing around, needing feeding at different times, training schedules to work around, it’s like a military operation. And I do find myself at the helm of the ship holding it all together a lot.

And it all seems to happen at once. Take for instance the other week. I was crewing for my other half and happened to be in the middle of a car park in Switzerland at 1:20am in the morning (my second night without sleep), unable to get on a crew bus to the next place I needed to be as they were all full. I’d used my initiative and managed to hitch a lift with a French lady who I flagged down once I’d convinced her I was on my own and quite safe. No sooner had I sorted that issue, I got a message from my youngest son at home having a meltdown over something and nothing which I managed to put into perspective for him. Fast forward another half an hour and I had a call that really threw me off balance from my eldest who was in South America and unfortunately had had his drink tampered with in a club and had been drugged and robbed and had just woken up 18 hours later and unfortunately three hours after his return flight!! He looked really unwell and was frighteningly incoherent, he knew I was talking to him but he was just staring blankly at at me with wild eyes and not able to have a conversation as he had no chain of thought. He was clearly not well but had managed to coordinate himself just enough to dial my number.

So there I am in Switzerland in the middle of the night……………….rushing to feed and stick together a husband who needs me in approximatley 30 minutes time. Having to put my smiley face on, cheer and pretend everything is fantastic as there was no way I was telling him the dilemma and ruining his chance of completing the one race that he’s wanted to do all his running life. Whilst at the same time I’m trying to get in touch with the British Embassy and Air France to work out how I’m going to get one quite unwell son back on the next possible flight, or at least into a place of safety. Fast forward 12 hours later ………….. I’ve one very happy other half who has just completed the run of his life, one son put on a flight hurtling towards Brazil to get a connecting flight to Heathrow, and I meanwhile have just fallen apart. Because somehow, when you need to hold it together you just do, you just get on with it, but there is only so much anyone can deal with at once and I thought I was fine, until it was all over and sorted, when I had a little tearful meltdown for a few hours! The running superhereo was extremely cross with me for holding it all in and keeping it together but I would never have forgiven myself if I’d have needed to tell him, or anyone else for that matter, as there is no way he would have finished with the weight of that worry on his shoulder, I know he would have pulled straight out of the race. And I really did not want to worry anyone else with it either. But it’s all ok………….everyone is now back in one piece and I got a Llama keyring for my car keys to say thanks for my assistance and to make up for the 10 years I think I aged in 12 hours!😂 I’m sure anyone looking in from the outside would think I was so cool, calm and collected, because I’m quite private and don’t share all the detail, but honestly, come and live with my three for a week and you’ll realise I’m a bit like a swan, I’m paddling like mad underneath the surface. 😂

So I don’t feel at all bad for thinking yipppeeee……………….I’m on my own for the weekend, because to be quite honest with you they can all be a bit of a pain in the butt at times! 😂 If I had to sum up this weekend in one word it would be CALM. Thank goodness, a few days without all of them sapping my energy and upsetting my balance.

One glance at the weather forecast after a bit of yoga showed a lovely sunny day for Saturday and a not so great day on Sunday. So that got me thinking about my little words of wisdom from Mark Twain. It’s sunny, the birds are singing, I’m on my own and what do I have planned………………………bathroom cleaning! Errrrrr I don’t think so Dora!!!!!!!!!!! Cleaning bathrooms on a sunny day is definitely one of those things that I’ll look back and regret………..I’ll regret not going on a little adventure instead, as jobs can wait until rainy Sunday. Oh, wait a minute………….I’m not supposed to be going off on my own with a map. But no-one is here to check up on me………….they’ll never know I’ve been on an adventure!! 😉

So I threw off my bowline, sailed away from the safe harbour, caught the trade wind and disappeared off with my map in search of all my favourite things. I went to Lathkill Dale, one of my favourite dales in the Peak District. And I found all the things that I love: a pre walk bacon sandwich, cows, pretty flowers, babbling streams, the elusive Dipper bobbing about on the water, chocolate brownies and beer. How can one possibly be bored in a National Nature Reserve!

I did have a slight panic when I saw an incoming Messenger video call to check I was ok from Mr Fitness himself. My background looked nothing like a bathroom and I did have a map in my hand, so I called back later!😂

So your words of wisdom for this weekend are from Mark Twain who said don’t clean your bathrooms on a sunny Saturday……………..you’ll regret it 20 years later when you could have been plodding though the countryside eating brownies and drinking beer instead!

I have cleaned my bathrooms today and washed my new wheels…………………….I have a new car……………..Calvin…………Calvin the Corsa! He’s not brand new but he’s new to me. He’s had one careful lady owner, is bright red and is 10 months old. My Mini was nearly 10 years old and appears to have been claimed by one of my children.

I hate looking for cars and I’m not really into cars. Calvin was found by me just putting some filters in the Vauxhall/Opel used car app, getting it down to two, going to look at the closest one and saying I’ll have it. He was on my drive the following Wednesday! Everyone at home seemed to think I should look around various garages, test drive various cars and waste my valuable time looking at cars………………..no way……….I have far more interesting and worthwhile things to do! If it has four wheels and gets me from A to B I’ll have it. Although I admit I really had little idea as to what I’d bought 🤣………the guy at the garage kept telling me it was ‘top spec’ but I thought “he will say that, he’s trying to sell me a car!”.

Anyway my little adventure yesterday gave me chance to have a really good look at Calvin and play with all his knobs and I think I might be in love. When I open his door in a morning he flashes up ‘Good Morning!’ When I go back to him in the afternoon he says ‘Good Afternoon!’……………..so he’s already excelling over and above the three men in my life who just grunt! But wait for this…………………he massages my butt for up to one hour at the touch of a button!😍 I might get 5 minutes at home if I ask nicely and the wind is blowing in the right direction!😂 He also has a heated steering wheel, lots of cameras and beeping sounds, SatNav and plays whatever I ask him to off my Spotify playlist. So the top and bottom of it is, with the advances in automobile and modern technology, I’m seriously questioning the need to have any other man in my life…..Calvin does it all and he’s so much easier to look after!

No, seriously though, the novelty of being on my own will wear off! I won’t get bored but I do strangely miss the comings and goings, family, laughter and eventfulness of a busy household but every now and again it’s so good to have a calm weekend in your own company, going wherever the wind takes you………just me, myself and I!

Well that’s it, another summer over!

It seems so long ago. I’m now well and truly back into the new year at work. But that hasn’t stopped me having a few running mishaps and getting into trouble!!🤭 It’s been a week of two halves on the running front really. First of all, a victory ………. the ‘Veteran 50 Lady’ bottle of wine in a local fell race! You see this was ok, because it was marshalled, and someone was stood in a fluorescent vest pointing the way. Then there was the call up to represent the Club in the British Fell running championships V40 ladies team (which involves a map), after saying “never again” following last year’s outing when I came an astounding second to last. So I have until 19th October to get my map reading and my act together and if there is no further post on here by Christmas you’ll know I got lost because I’m on a solo leg which is never a good thing. 😂This did however result in a lovely Yorkshire adventure on the hills all day yesterday with two friends and one dog from the team getting to know the area we are competing in. You can’t beat a glorious Yorkshire day on the hills with girlfiends! It was a fab day that involved a bit of mud, giggles, good times, getting lost, sausage rolls and sweets.😍

However, I proceeded my victory and team call up with a complete and utter orienteering fail a week earlier!!!! And one very annoyed husband! You see the thing is this involves me reading a map and finding checkpoints. No-one had time to come with me, so I thought, “not to worry I’ll go on my own”. But despite having attended a navigation course last year …………………. I was hopeless at reading a map before the course and unfortunately I am still pretty hopeless now!!!😂 Consequently, I have now been told I am not allowed out running on my own again when a map is involved, because it’s not safe apparently! I manged to get myself hopelessly lost in a wood, convinced myself I was on the correct path, and carried on despite cutting my legs pretty badly on brambles……………..because I don’t stop until I’ve found the checkpoint!😆 You have to give me 10 out of 10 for resilience if not for map reading!

I ended up miles away from the car, blood running down my legs, in the dark and had to call home for help and someone to come and find me and rescue me, which they did eventually, despite being a little annoyed. But I reminded them all at home how dull their lives would be without the continued adventures and mishaps of Dora the Explorer and her compass in it. They did not look convinced!😂

Anyway, I’m going to tell you about a little summer trip. I’ve been here, there and everywhere. I went to Spain walking and to visit the two Basque cities of San Sebastian and Bilbao. I went to do some running crewing over a long weekend that involved 48 hours without sleep and took in Mont Blanc and the countries of France, Italy and Switzerland. But the place I want to share with you is Crete, which I visited for a relaxing holiday at the end of July. I was so ready for this holiday! All I wanted to do was sleep, eat, read and do my puzzle book. Rather surprisingly I did achieve this for the first half of a week, but by Wednesday I had itchy feet and wanted to explore so I did alternate days. One day adventure followed by one day rest by the pool, until my two weeks were up.

The thing that I like about Greece and its islands is that you can completely wind down there. If you want to go out to eat in your shorts and T-shirt looking like you’ve just been dragged through a hedge backwards you can! It just seems light years away from the rest of Europe. People leave their cars and houses unlocked, in some places traffic is not permitted, you are still likely to see people using donkeys as their mode of transport. You can completely shut yourself off from the world and relax……………so I did. It was heaven.

I’m going to give you a whirlwind tour of the west of the island, I say the west of the island because Crete is huge. It has 3 airports. One which serves the east of the island, one the central area and Chania airport which serves the west. I flew to Chania as I wanted to explore the west of the island which is better known for its dramatic mountains, deep gorges and stunningly beautiful walking. It also has some pretty amazing beaches too.

If you want to explore this side of the island you need a car, so I picked mine up on arrival at the airport. Car hire is cheap, but don’t expect a Rolls Royce in Greece. The car will be road worthy (just), the driving is atrocious and not for the faint hearted, but just take your time and you’ll be fine! My car had four wheels, but that was about its only resemblance to a modern car. It was a Nissan Micra…………but not just any old Micra. It had 80k on the clock, more bumps and scratches than a toddler, a dodgy battery, questionable aircon……………….but it had four wheels and it worked!

The first task was to find the villa. I had chosen to stay in Stalos, but there was a compromise here. I don’t do holiday resorts for my relaxing holiday because I don’t want lots of people and noise………………I’m retreating. But we were travelling as a family with a 21 year old who does like holiday resorts and hates quiet! And the thing is it was up to me to entertain him as his Dad, being only 5 weeks away from the Ultra run of his life, had a full training schedule to follow. So it was two weeks of mainly myself and mini me. But I was not complaining as I just love his company and he makes me laugh so so much! 😂 And I think that works both ways………….although I’m sure he would decribe me as more ’embarassing’ than funny. 😆 I just love the fact that at 21 years old he still wants to spend 2 weeks on holiday with me as entertainment.

The nice thing about Stalos is that it is easily accessible and is a good base for exploring the whole of the west of Crete, but Stalos itself has two parts. There is Kato Stalos which is a beach resort full of bars, restaurants, discos, bikinis and speedos. Then there is Pano Stalos which is the old original village of Stalos around 1.5 miles inland in the green foothills of the mountains. The deal was (because I book the holidays) that the villa would be in Pano Stalos! But near enough for the youngest member of the party to get to the resort and beach easily.

Stalos has lots of ancient medieval history. Original records show its name as Talos and according to Minoan myth it was named after the legendary Talo, the giant king who protected the island of Crete by circling it three times a day. It then became know as Stalos from around 1629.

Pano Stalos (the old village) is so peaceful. There are amazing views of the sea, mountains and olive groves. There are no high rise buildings, just local houses, villas and a few apartments. There are a couple of tavernas aimed at locals rather than holiday makers but they are so eager to welcome you. Other than the tavernas and a church there is nothing ………………………. no supermarket or other amenities. It was bliss ………… just the sound of crickets, which in July in Crete is deafening. How can something so small make so much noise?!?!?

The villa was beautiful. It was owned by a lovely, welcoming, Cretan family who also owned the local taverna. It was in a really quiet area of the old village. It had two large bedrooms, both with a balcony overlooking a beautiful view, two bathrooms, a really well equipped kitchen, a swimming pool and then the most amazing shaded veranda. The veranda was probably my favourite place. It was situated underneath a large lime tree and was shady all day. There was a large table, comfy benches and cushions. I spent hours reading under the lime tree.

It was also the perfect place for breakfast, lunch and watching the sun set. So I spent an awful lot of time on the veranda. I did spend a lot of time in the pool too, but not too much time just laying by the pool as it was just too hot. It hovered between 38 and 42 degrees for the whole of the two weeks which is just too hot for me. If you don’t like it this hot, May or September time would be a much more comfortable time to visit the island.

What else do I think of when I think of Crete?…………………….Goats and cats! You have to like them both as they are everywhere. There can be goats roaming on the beach, like at Balos beach, where you turn your back and they’ve pinched your food. And every villa comes with resident cat! Ours was a lovely, cute, little female cat who took a bit of a shine to me, and waited by my sunbed every morning before moving onto the wall to sleep and laze in the sunshine.

There are so many places to visit in western Crete but here are the highlights of my stay which aren’t to be missed.

The main city in western Crete is Chania. It is a definite place to visit if you like a pretty port and some history. The harbour of the old town is Venetian in style and is so colourful and photogenic. Just behind the pretty harbour is the old town. This is filled with bougainvillea lined narrow streets, shops, and stalls selling local handicrafts. The side streets are filled with music and restaurants serving local specialities. I’ll tell you about food separately, because I love Greek food.

The harbour of Chania faces west, so it’s also the perfect spot to watch the sun set, with the fiery sky reflecting on the water and bobbing boats. It is a picture perfect setting.

Crete is also home to one of Europe’s longest and spectacular gorges, the Samaria Gorge. The people of Crete will tell you it’s the longest in Europe, but it’s not. At 16km end to end it is slightly shorter than the Verdon Gorge in France. However, its beauty has to be seen to be believed. No photographs could ever do it justice. It is truly stunning and the good thing is you can walk the full length of it in a day.

You can do this trip using your own transport but logistically it’s a bit difficult. I decided to book it as a self-guided trip from Chania, which was ideal. The tour company provided the transport to the top of the gorge, you walk down at your own pace and you meet again at the bottom of the gorge at 5pm, doing what you want in the interim period. From here the tour company transport you by ferry back to the waiting coach which drives you back to Chania. This worked really well. The hardest bit was trying to persuade a 21 year old whose primary focus is beer and babes that it’s a good idea to get out of bed at 5:15am and walk 16km in the heat on your holiday. 😂 Anyway, I managed to get him all the way from top to bottom of said gorge, with one small sulk, but not too much moaning, bribing him with sweets and the promise of a beer at the bottom. He even said he enjoyed it when it was over!

It is a really early set of from Chania at 5:45am. This is to get you to the top of the gorge for when it opens at 8am. The gorge is the most visited place in Crete and you really want to be one of the first people down to enjoy it at its best otherwise it just becomes too crowded. The gorge ends at the lovely small town of Agia Roumeli. There is no vehicle access to Agia Roumeli, the only way in and out is by ferry. It has a lovely beach and a few tavernas and apartments. I walk at an average pace and take lots of photographs and I exited the gorge at 3pm. This gave me a good 2 hours to have a long cooling swim in the sea and visit a taverna for some lunch and a beer before the meeting point and ferry back to the coach.

The walk is not easy. If you have bad knees you need to hire poles as the first section from the top, into the bottom of the gorge is very steep, uneven and long. Once you get into the bottom of the gorge it is a lot more walkable. There is lots of water in the bottom, unusual flowers and wildlife……………it is the most beautiful place. There is fresh spring water available at various points on the way down the gorge, so it’s not necessary to carry lots of water. Toilet facilities are limited but adequate and are just a hole in the floor. I would say the walk down the gorge is a must do on any itinerary to Crete.

Our next little adventure a few days later took us inland into the mountains, to look at some of Greece’s most famous agricultural exports and how they are produced…………….olives and honey.

Not to far away from Stalos, in the village of Ano Vouves, is the ‘Ancient Olive Tree of Vouves’. It is one of the oldest olive trees in the world and still produces olives today. It was declared a protected national monument in 1997 and although its exact age cannot be determined it is believed to be around 4,000 years old. Branches from the tree have been used to make winners wreaths in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. Next to the tree is the Olive Museum, all about the cultivation of olives and olive oil, and a small café. I am glad I made a little detour to visit it, it was a lovely little place.

Not too far away from the ancient olive tree is one of many family honey farms. You will find honey absolutely everywhere in Greece and a lot of their recipes, and almost all their desserts incorporate it. A lot of the honey farms offer a tasting and tour so I followed my visit to the ancient olive tree with a visit to the Stathakis family honey farm. It was really interesting. There are so many different types of honey depending on what flora and fauna the hives are situated next to. I think my favourite was the wild thyme honey and a couple of jars were duly purchased for my Dad who adores honey!

The following day was a relax day so we decided to visit a beach. Crete has some absolutely amazing beaches and it has a beach for every taste. There are large beaches with amenities and sand, pebble beaches, little quiet coves………you cannot fail to find a beach that you like in Crete. We decided to visit Preveli beach on the south of the island. It is a beautiful sheltered beach surrounded by high cliffs. It’s part sand and part pebble. But what makes it beautiful is that it is backed by a really unusual palm forest and the Megalos Potamos river which flows down into the sea here after gushing down from the top of the Kotaliotikos Gorge.

The only easy way to the beach is by boat from elswhere. Otherwise it’s a long hike down the gorge or almost 500 steps down from the parking lot. I decided to go for the steps option from the parking lot and it was worth it as the view of the beach from half way down the steps is beautiful. Once you get to the beach there is a beach bar and some toilets but there aren’t really any other amenities as it is a protected area. It’s good to wade up the river for half an hour though, climbing and scrambling over the rocks at the bottom of the gorge and sitting in the whirlpools made by the swirling water………………….so refreshing on a hot day, like a cold jacuzzi!

If you have driven all that way to Preveli breach it would be a shame not to visit Kotaliotikos Gorge. It has the most amazing waterfalls and wild swimming spots. If you are feeling really energetic you could walk to it from Preveli beach. However, bearing in mind this was my rest day, I parked at the top of the gorge by the small chapel and walked down to the waterfalls and swimming areas. It was so pretty but the water was oh so cold. Both the gorge and the beach are definitely worth a beach day trip.

On the way back from Preveli, if you are staying on the north coast you will go past the city of Rethymnon and this you definitely must see. Just like Chania, Rethymnon has a beautiful harbour. It also boasts one of the best preserved Venetian old towns on the island. It is gorgeous, with it’s maze of little tiny streets weaving one way and then another. It’s impossible not to get lost in there but being on holiday and not having any time constraints it was rather nice to just wander. There are so many tavernas serving wonderful food that I decided not to rush back to Stalos but to stay for dinner. It felt bigger and busier than Chania, and I still think that of the two I preferred Chania, but it’s still one of my holiday highlights.

After a couple of days relaxing by the pool I was ready for another little adventure……………….and this was a lovely day. But it did not go to plan and that was part of the beauty of it. It was one of those days when you end up doing something other than what you planned and it ends up being a fabulous day anyway. I wanted to visit the small fishing port of Loutro and then do a circular gorge walk taking around 5 hours. Loutro is so very pretty. It is only accessible by boat. We drove to Chora Sfakia, from where there is a regular ferry to Loutro which takes around 20 minutes.

Loutro is the most beautiful little place. Boats bobbing in the harbour, the sea so unbelievably blue, rows of tavernas with brightly coloured deckchairs and Coco the parrot to welcome you. I’m never quite sure about African Grey parrots…………there’s one in the garden centre near home and whenever I say hello to it it tells me to ‘F*** Off!’ 😆 However, Coco was far more pleasant. Apparently he bites, but his vocabulary is very good. He says “Hello”, tells you his name and can tell you he’s a pretty boy, all without uttering a single swear word!

I managed to persuade the youngest party member to come with his swimming trunks but he kept reminding me that under no circumstances was he doing any more walking this holiday, he was staying in Loutro on the beach for the day. He’d done one gorge walk and that was his exercise for the month. 😂 Now this is where I made a slight mistake……………..I left him in Loutro with my credit card and told him I’d be back in a few hours and to get himself a drink and some lunch. I now know I need to be more specific about how many and what drinks and food are allowable on my card.

I set off on the most beautiful walk, however the track up to the top of the gorge was so steep and it was now over 40 degrees. As I started to descend into the gorge my feet were slipping on the loose rock, so sensibly, I decided to abandon my walk and turn back. This led me into the little village of Livaniana, which I would otherwise not have come to. I had plenty of water but I saw a taverna on my map. I was so disappointed when I got there as it appeared to be closed. However, on closer inspection I saw it never closes…………………you let yourself in and serve yourself! How good is that!!! I took the latch off the wire door and let myself in, onto the most beautiful vine covered veranda overlooking the blue sea down below. In one corner of the veranda was a plugged in fridge and inside the fridge were soft drinks, water and a selection of beers. At the side was a price list, bottle opener and a tub in which to put your money. This tub must only be emptied periodically as it was early morning and there was at least 50 Euros in there and not a person in sight. I helped myself to a lemon Fanta and put my money in the box.

It’s little things like that this restore my faith in this world. If that taverna had been situated at home in the UK the box would have had to be bolted down and emptied hourly to deter theft. I would doubt the drinks would have been there long either, and if someone had a car boot big enough they’d take the fridge too!!😂

After my little pit stop I them stumbled across Finika beach just around the headland from Loutro. It was just beautiful, my type of beach. A lovely, quiet, secluded little bay . The water was still, like a millpond, and bright turquoise blue. I could not resist getting in for a long swim, drying off on the beach for an hour afterwards reading my book. I thought Loutro was amazing but this was even better because it was quieter.

I walked back into Loutro 3 hours after I had left. In those 3 hours my credit card had purchased one pizza, an ice cream, some snacks, two mojitos and a beer. 😂 Lesson learned………….I will just leave him with a bottle of water and a 10 euro note next time to ward off starvation and dehydration! I never authorised cocktails!! I had very little sympathy when he went a shade of green on the boat on the way back.😂

After another villa pool day we decided to venture to Elafonisi beach on the south west of the island. I had heard this was one of Crete’s best beaches and was famous for its pink sand. It’s a journey of around one and a half hours from Stalos but we broke the journey up at the pretty little Taverna Spiliaraki in the village of Topolia at the top of the Topolia gorge in the mountains. This wins the prize for being my favourite café in Crete. It is basically the veranda of the owners house. Traditional Greek food, cakes and drinks are all it serves, all home made by the lady who lives there. The veranda has the most amazing, colourful, vine covered seating area. It has an outstanding view over the village and the gorge and there are hammocks all around for you to laze in. The traditional Greek iced coffee was delicious.

We eventually made it to Elafonisi beach. There was a bit of moaning from the youngest as the walk from the car to the beach was more than 10 metres but eventually we made it after bribing him with the promise of beer again. This was was definitely my favourite beach on the whole of Crete. It is AMAZING!!!! The water is turquoise blue, the fine sand is pink, there is so much space it never feels overcrowded, you can swim so far out and still touch the bottom. It is truly spectacular. I’m led to believe the sun sets from here are fantastic as it faces directly west, although I left late afternoon. It’s quite remote so if you are looking for a beach with water sports equipment and entertainment you’ll not like it. There are two very small beach bars and a very basic toilet……………that’s it! And that’s what’s nice about it.

The next day was the day that I’d rather forget…………………..because family holidays are all about compromise aren’t they!?! When you are 21 you just want an endless supply of Mythos beer, banging tunes, a beach sun lounger and bikini clad babes!!😂So that’s what I got in the very hip and trendy beach club after losing the coin toss as to who was going to be the unlucky person to accompany him and take up the extortionately priced second sunbed! All joking aside I did have a good day. I spent the day reading my book, the cocktails were good, I did lots of people watching, avoided the topless pool games and if anything good came out of it……………………….it was the fact that I came out of there feeling extremely glad to be 53 and not having to look for a suitable suitor from those available to choose from in there!

The next day was the final adventure of the holiday……………….a trip to Balos Beach on the very north west tip of the island. It’s gorgeous! It is a huge lagoon of crystal clear water. You can get a drink and a snack there but that’s all, so it’s one where you need to take supplies if you are going for the day. My advice however if I ever went again would be to arrive by boat from Kissamos town just around the headland. We drove and the road to the beach is horrendous. It’s a good 5 miles on a dirt track which is only really suitable for 4 x 4’s. How on earth we made it there and back in the Nissan Micra I really have no idea. It rattled and bounced all the way there and back. Then once you get to the parking lot it’s a good one mile walk down an extremely steep and uneven track. If you are not up for a bit of an hair raising adventure then take the boat!

The final thing to share with you about Crete is the food. It will come as no surprise to you that I love Greek food……………because I love all food! The only thing I will say is that I travelled with a vegetarian and the choice for vegetarians is quite limited unless you are in a resort and don’t mind fast food. If you are anywhere more remote or in a traditional taverna you will be limited to the salads and cheese based dishes of which there is not a lot of variety. Vegetarianism has not really found its way to the more remote areas of Greece yet.

So what are my favourite Greek dishes. Number one has to be Souvlaki. This is basically a grilled meat skewer or kebab cooked over a special outdoor grill, a bit like a BBQ but the meat has usually been marinated beforehand and the flavour of oregano is really noticeable. It normally comes as chicken or pork and my favourite is the chicken Souvlaki.

Next up has to be Stifado. This is a tomato based beef and red wine stew with onions. Local herbs and spices and often all-spice or cinnamon are added to give it that extra flavour and warmth. I love Kleftiko too. This is an entire meal baked in a parcel. Its is a leg of lamb baked slowly in parchment paper with potatoes, onions, lemon, herbs and garlic. The potatoes cook in the juices of the lamb, lemon and herbs. This is delicious. You can probably see now why it’s not ideal for vegetarians. A lot of the key Greek dishes are meat based and there is a heavy bias towards red meat.

That being said there are a couple of vegetarian dishes I love. The first is a greek salad……………..simply cucumber, tomato, pepper, red onion olives, feta, oregano and olive oil. Easy to make yourself and simply delicious. Another favourite is Saganaki which is fried cheese, usually graviera, halloumi or some other sheep milk type cheese.

They also eat a lot of snails in Crete which I wasn’t expecting. I’ve always associated snails with French cuisine. I have to admit that I had got to 53 years of age without trying a snail. But they sounded intriguing cooked in wine, garlic, olive oil and rosemary. My little sidekick is very adventurous with his food so we decided we’d try a portion of snails. They were really nice. Although I don’t think they’d be my first choice on a menu, once I’d got my head around it being a snail and worked out how to eat it, I thought it was really quite tasty. It was not the really slimey texture I was expecting, it was more meaty and had the feel of a mushroom in your mouth.

Last but not least ……………… desserts!!! And I love a dessert! But they don’t really have dessert menus in Greece. What they normally do however, is bring a complementary large dessert out to the table to share and a bottle of home made raki. Raki is the national drink of Crete. It is made from twice distilled grape pomace and is flavoured with aniseed or another spice like cinnamon. It is generally around 40% ABV but can be higher if home distilled. It puts hairs on your chest it’s that strong!

Now the other half of the parent duo is very good and well behaved. His body is a temple, and training for an impending major ultra marathon meant that alcohol was completely out of the question. However, my body is not a temple, and I have very little willpower when it comes to dessert and the odd tipple when on holiday, so it just descended into a little nightly raki shot drinking finale between the remaining two of us. However, I have 53 years of shot drinking experience so it normally ended with my little buddy swaying and staggering to his bed, only to resurface very late the following morning to discover I had bounced out of bed gone for a little early run before the sun got two hot. 😂😂 The youth of today just have no staying power.

In terms of dessert you sort of get what you are given but quite often it will be Loukoumades………………..and these are just to die for. Imagine a little deep fried doughnut ball, all crispy on the outside and soft and squidgy in the middle. When they come out of the fryer they are smothered in honey and they soak it all up. When they get to you they are still warm. When you pop one in your mouth you get that crispy crunch of the outside of the doughnut, the softness of the interior and all the honey it has soaked up just oozes out in your mouth. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream there is no better Greek dessert!

So that’s it……………..your very brief guide to the west of Crete and its food. I’m sure it has a lot more to offer too, but I did spend a lot of much needed time relaxing and getting away from it all. I’d definitely return here to explore more. I loved the island, the culture the people and the food.

No big ‘out of the country’ adventures planned now until the beginning of November, just little mini Yorkshire adventures at the weekend, some creative projects at home, a big pile of books to read, a national fell running competition I’m trying to forget about, and a few weeks of pressing my escape key like Steve 😂😂………………………………………

But before I tell you about those, I have one other piece of exciting news in my life which I just have to share. It’s a proud Mum moment! We have a Master of Physics with Astrophysics in the house!!! Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending Bath Abbey to attend the Masters graduation of my eldest.

It was a marvellous day for him, a fantastic day for science and an even better day for my bank account!😂😂 Yes, almost 24 years after that very special day of his birth in October 2000, I have a fully fledged adult who in theory should now be financially self supporting. I’m not sure how that will work in practice but lets see how long it takes him to come to me for a loan.

I was so glad that Grandma and Grandad got to see him too. They were so proud. So after 24 years of tantrums (including some of my own😂), back chat, dressing up outfits, table top scientific experiments involving baking soda and vinegar, one almost broken window from a self made and launched rocket, lots of adventures, time out on the ‘thinking step’……….and a whole load more ups, downs, twists and turns……………………….he made it! I am so very proud of him. And I have to say I’m a little bit proud of me. Yes, my eyes may glaze over when he starts lecturing me on particles, matter and the interactions between them but I can’t help thinking………..wow, I part made an astrophysicist! Surely some of those brain particle genes must be mine!😂

In running news this was also the week of the Charlesworth and Chisworth Festival Fell Race. Now I made the age old mistake of not checking the route stats before I entered………………I just saw ‘free flapjack for every runner at the end’, and that was me sold. 😂 It was a lovely festival……small countryside village, scarecrow competition, dog show, poultry show, brass band, crowning of the festival King and Queen (you had to be under 12 to enter otherwise I might have done…………..I’d have had more success than in the run!). Then it was time for the fell run. I did wonder why only 8 of my team mates had turned up but all was revealed on starting when I discovered the run was 1.5 miles up the steepest hill you have ever seen and 1.5 miles down again. 🥵 My goodness, the only thing that saved me was the presence of a Mr Whippy ice cream van in the festival field at the end. It took a large Ferrero Rocher ice cream sundae complete with nuts, chocolate sauce and two chocolates on top, in addition to my flapjack, to revive me! I might give that one a miss next year…………….or just come for the Mr Whippy van.

Anyway, I digress, onto the Picos de Europa. I thought the coast of Asturias was pretty……………………..but then I got to the Picos ………….and they are just WOW!! Gorgeous in a different way, but just as jaw dropping.

I can’t tell you how many times I was just speechless it was so spectacular. I had four days here, three walking and one just dotting around in the car. I didn’t stay here, I remained on the coast in Llanes because it was convenient to get to all three areas of the Picos de Europa that I wanted to get to in less than an hour.

I almost don’t want to tell you about it, as other than on a weekend when it’s crowded with locals, there is hardly anyone there and I’d like to keep it that way. It does not have that ‘fame factor’, of the Alps and Pyrenees, but believe me, having been to the Alps, I can confirm it is just as beautiful. It’s quite a small mountain range, with its highest peak being Torre de Cerredo at 1931m. The mountain range straddles the three Spanish regions of Asturias, Cantabria and Castile and Leon. It is split into five sub areas for walking and I walked in three of them Cabrales, Valdeon and Cangas de Onis. You can stay in the Picos de Europa if you want, and the main bases are Potes, Cangas de Onis and Arenas de Cabrales depending on where you want to walk.

If you want a good English language walking guide this one is really good by my favourite hiking guide publishers Cicerone. All the areas are covered and there are walks of varying levels of difficulty and distance.

My first walk in the Picos saw me in the Cabrales area to hike Monte Camba. This was a circular hike of 13.5km with 750m of ascent, so quite challenging in terms of elevation. There were some exposed sections but nothing too onerous. I chose this one because it took in views of, and passed through, two of the prettiest villages in the area Tielve and Sotres, which are the centres of local Cabrales cheese manufacture.

I was also interested in this route as it took you past a number of mountain majadas which still serve the two villages today. A majada is a stone building in the mountains from where the sheep are farmed and from where they make the cheese at source.

The route also promised little-seen views of the summits of the North East sector of the Central Massif, which included a good view of El Naranjo de Bulnes, probably the most well known peak of the Picos de Europa mountain range.

The walk starts at the mountain village of Tielve where I parked the car at the side of the animal drinking trough in the main square. It was a strange little village, almost like the village that time forgot. There were a few cars, a few animals wandering around, an old beat up tractor, but absolutely no sign of life. It looked like there was a bar, but it did not look like it had been open for a while. Perhaps it just opens in the summer when there is an influx of hiking visitors.

Nevertheless, it was a pretty little place and the steep climb out of the village soon began. I did see one farmer who gave me a wave and a shout, and one group of five Spanish gentlemen a bit older than me who looked liked they were on a lads walking day out in the mountains. They peered at me like I was a bit of a novelty (they must not see many mature English women wandering around here 😂) and were happy to be entertained for a few minutes with my Spanish before they peeled off to scale higher peaks.

Tielve was soon a speck in the distance and the views were spectacular. It was not long until I came across the first of the majadas, although there wasn’t much activity today, which was a shame as I wanted to see if I could sneak my way in for a look at it in action.

There were some of my favourite cute cows, more gorgeous views, and I kept winding up and up, through pastures and small copses of hazel bushes. Hazel makes an important contribution to the economy here. The nuts have obvious benefits but no part of the bush goes to waste. The dried leaves are used as animal bedding, the older branches as firewood, the new flexible thin branches for basket weaving and the thick branches for walking sticks. The roots of the bushes also hold the soil together and help to prevent erosion. Eventually, I came out at a road, a communications antennae and lots of lovely shepherds huts at the Collau de la Caballar at 1233m high.

At this point on the road is a statue to the cyclists of the Vuelta de Espana, as the Collau de la Caballar was chosen as the gruelling climb at the end of Stage 15 of the race in 2015. It’s hard enough walking up, never mind on a bike!

Not long after the peak, the path starts winding back down again, and I could see the pretty village of Sotres in the bottom of the valley. I had emergency food in my rucksack but was hoping for there to be more life here and the possibility of some lunch.

Sotres turned out to be a lovely place. It got prettier and prettier as I approached it.

I entered the village into the main street and all my wishes were granted. There was a lovely looking restaurant ‘Meson Restaurante Pena Castil’ and it was open!

I must have looked like I was on my last legs as I plonked myself down at a table and peeled of my rucksack, as I was met by the round smiley face of the proprietor who in Spanish told me I looked like I needed a beer. I’m not sure that’s a good thing as I think it was his polite way of telling me I looked a bit worse for wear!😂 But I did need a beer………a big one…….and a bottle of water as I was gasping!

I saw a typical Asturian dish on the menu and thought I’d give it a try. They call it Fabada and I would very much recommend it. It is so very very tasty and just what you need to revive you after a long walk. It’s like a bean stew made with fabes de la Granja, which are large white beans from Spain. Within the stew are pieces of morcilla (a blood sausage), chorizo and pork belly. With some fresh crusty bread and a beer it’s the hikers dream lunch, even though it was now approaching 28 degrees!

I left the lovely village of Sotres, climbing uphill again, to be rewarded with some lovely views back across the valley and the village.

It wasn’t too long before the path started winding back downhill, and this is where it became quite exposed as you are skirting and zigzagging down a cliffside which hovers over the new road. It’s not too steep a drop off though and the path is quite wide. If you have a really bad fear of heights you might not like it but it did not bother me so it can’t be as bad as some of the guide books make out.

I was soon back in the village of Tielve after a beautiful day and a hike that I would recommend to anyone who likes a steeply inclined walk, beautiful views, no crowds, two pretty villages and some good food. It was a ten out of ten day.

Day 2 in the Picos was just as spectacular. This was the day I decided to walk the Cares Gorge. The Cares Gorge is a huge chasm of a gorge, a split in the limestone which divides the mountain range.

If you want to walk it in its entirety from Posada de Valdeon to Poncebos it’s 20km long and will take you between 5 -7 hours. The only trouble with that option is that it makes it a point to point walk, not circular, and unless you have someone picking you up at the other end there is no easy way back, unless you want to walk 40km and walk all the way back, which I didn’t.

An equally beautiful and viable option if you have a car is to just walk out and back from Poncebos to Cain or vice versa. This way you walk 24km, taking around 6 hours, see the prettiest parts of the gorge and finish back at your car, having walked 12km each way. This was the option I chose.

If you are going to do this walk you need to do it midweek, out of any Spanish holiday period. I’m led to believe it’s a completely different walk and different atmosphere then, as it is one of the best known walks in Spain and gets very overcrowded. This was a Tuesday in May and it was lovely and quiet.

I’ll be entirely honest as well and say this is not a walk for the faint hearted or those with an extreme fear of heights or vertigo. I have a fear of heights and I struggled with it to begin with. I thought I’d be walking in the bottom of the gorge but you aren’t. The path is cut into the wall of one side of the gorge. It’s extremely high, over 100m from the path to the bottom of the gorge in places. Although the path is wide enough, it is a sheer drop off, and there are no barriers along the length of it, it’s up to you to manage yourself. Neither are there any other exit routes, apart from one around two thirds of the way into the walk. So once you’ve set off, if you decide you want to get off, you can’t, without walking to either end of the section, which at the midpoint is 6km either way.

It’s not flat either, there are some really steep uphills and downhills on the path. That aside, if you think you can handle the height, you must do this walk, it is one of the most beautiful walks I have ever done.

I was ready for turning around 10 minutes into the walk. I’d realised the path was going to be elevated for 12km with no option to get off. I was teetering on a little path 100m from the gorge bottom, was a little bit terrified and about to have a little panic. For anyone that has a fear of heights you’ll know what I mean. I’m not scared of heights, I’m scared of falling. You can stand me on top of a mountain thousands of metres high and I have no problem provided there’s no drop off and I can’t fall off. But put me on anything high that I can fall off, like the ledge I was on, and I have an irrational fear. But I know me, and I know that if I just plonk myself down on my bottom, let that initial fear pass, and have a rational word with myself I can normally get over myself. So that’s what I did and after around 10 minutes I’d had a drink of water, nothing terrible had happened and I’d got used to being on my little elevated perch. It would have been such a shame not to press on so I convinced myself that that was the best option.

I had the most amazing walk. I saw eagles, vultures, lots of mountain goats, the most spectacular views and lots and lots of water as there is an hydro-electric dam at one end of the gorge and a channel is cut along the gorge which transports the water all along the gorge, half way up the gorge wall. It really is one of those places that has to be seen.

Once you get to the small hamlet of Cain there are a number of bars and restaurants where you can refuel before you start the journey back. I’d taken my picnic which I ate after finding a quiet spot on a rock down by the side of the river. My picnic was lacking something though………and I realised it was an ice cream! I decided I definitely deserved one so had my picnic and a chocolate almond ice cream before setting off on my merry little way back to the car.

The walk back was equally as lovely as you get a completely different view to that which you get on the way out. The climb is less too, apart from one steep section, so I seemed to make the return journey much quicker than the outward journey.

On the way back to Llanes in the car I stopped at the lovely town of Potes in the middle of the Picos de Europa. It was dropping a little cold and the cloud had come down but it was a really nice, busy little town. There is a lovely riverside walk which I had a wander down.

Pretty alleyways, houses and flower filled balconies abound. It really is a pleasant little place.

Then I made two discoveries that made me giggle. The first was a rabbit skin foot warmer! Just look at this. If I could have fitted this in my luggage I would have had this. My feet are always freezing cold. I have a bit of a love affair with my fluffy sheepskin slippers at home but this would just be the Rolls Royce of foot warming equipment. I need one in my life

Then I spotted a monument in the middle of a small square. Now it might just be me, no-one else might see what I am seeing and it was probably not appropriate for me have a giggle at it, as given the dates on it it’s probably a monument to something really sombre and sad. I have absolutely no idea but I think it is something to do with the rebuilding of Potes after it was the final town in the Santander area to be absolutely decimated and captured by Franco and the Republicans in the Spanish Civil war……………………………….so it’s no laughing matter. But seriously who designed this?!?!? Did they really think the finial type thing on the top was a good design or were they too, having a laugh? I have absolutely no idea but I have fondly named it the ‘Penis of Potes’. 😂😂 I am sure that’s not its real name but if the aim was to leave a lasting impression then it worked.

That was the end to another lovely day with just enough time for a beer before bed time. I was ready for it……….both the beer and my bed! I was so tired.

My last day of walking in the Picos took me to probably the most well known place in the area, the Covadonga Lakes. However, I did not see them at their best as it was not the greatest day weatherwise, with low lying cloud hugging the tops of the mountains. The advantage of that of course was that there weren’t too many other people there.

The road up to the lakes is open to traffic during the week so I parked in the visitor car park. On a weekend in the summer you now have to leave your car in Cangas de Onis, the nearest large town and get the shuttle bus up as it gets so overcrowded.

It’s really high up here and when I got out of the car at the top it was absolutely freezing and blowing a gale. I’d got appropriate clothing so got all wrapped up in my down jacket and off I went for a look around. There are two lakes, Lake Enol and Lake Ercina and they are both glacial lakes. In the summer they will be gorgeous but even on a day like this one, there was something special about them. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop and the mist and low lying cloud on the top of the water made it really ethereal.

I had planned a short 4 mile route around the lakes but first of all I wanted a little walk in the other direction to look at the Majada de Belbin. This one is a working majada, where in the summer the shepherds tend their livestock and make cheese. There was a beautiful view down to the majada, nestling in a sea of rolling green hills. I could see a couple of gentlemen but unfortunately my attempts to get close to the majada were thwarted by a Spanish mastiff dog who seemed to view me as a threat to his sheep he was guarding.😦 Now I love dogs, but this one did not look like it was going to roll over for a tummy rub. It was barking and growling at me and its fangs were huge, so rather than chancing my luck I decided to retrace my steps, sit on a rock and view it from a distance.

By now the cloud was really coming in low but I had my compass and still wanted to do my little walk. I set off round the edge of Lake Ercina first and climbed up and over the small peak at the far end. Here I discovered another small majada and a lovely view back to the lake.

The walk than skirted through a number of areas of woodland and rock strewn plateaus. The route was quite easy to follow and it was waymarked with the usual yellow and white footpath signs in the rocky areas where the path was a little more ambiguous. There were pretty alpine flowers even at this high level in the cold and wind.

I kept climbing upwards until I reached the Vega de Enol which is a flat grazing area, at the top of which stands the Ermita de El Buen Pastor (the Chapel of the Good Shepherd). It’s here, where at the beginning of July, a traditional festival takes place with music, dancing, food and a race to the top of the nearby mountain. The purpose of the festival is to elect the new Head Shepherd for the year ahead. A bit like Charlesworth and Chisworth festival but without the Mr Whippy van. 😁

It was quite eerie up here by now as the mist had really rolled in so I stared to make my way back to the car via Lake Enol.

By now I was really cold and the weather up here was worsening so thought it time to drive back down the winding mountain road and dip back below the clouds.

I just had time on the way back to stop in Cangas de Onis for coffee and a quick wander as I was eager to find the roman bridge there and the starting point of the Sella river canoe descent. It was a busy town and seemed to be the adventure sports centre of the Picos de Europa. Lots of hotels, bars, restaurants and adventure equipment stores. I found the pretty bridge, with the lovely clear water beneath. It would be a lovely place for a dip when it’s hot.

That was the end to three fantastic days walking in the area and your little guide to three fantastic walks too. This is a definitely a place for a longer revisit for me. Plenty more walks to do in my book, which all look equally as good.

That’s definitely all I’ve got time for now though until September. Because I am so excited, and not many grown ups do excited like I do! 😂 ……………………………. Today SCHOOL IS OFFICIALLY ‘OUT FOR SUMMER’! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY. I’m like a child that’s eaten too many blue sweets! Passport packed, first stop Crete! Bring on the holidays…………..I am so ready for them this year! Never before have I been so excited about a puzzle compendium! I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to tell you about Crete on my return because I am so tired. I have no plans other than books, puzzles, ice cream, kleftiko, and white wine soda……….all at the same time!! 🤭

I like days like this……………..I’ve had a lovely day…………pottering.

The body is a marvellous thing and over the last few weeks I’ve probably put mine through a bit more than the average 53 year old. So I decided last night not to set my alarm because today was going to be a relaxing day. I decided to wake up when my body decided it was time to wake up………………and that was 9:30am 🤭 I did feel a little lazy, but my body must have needed it as that was literally the first eye open time. And sometimes I think it’s good to just let things take their natural course. To have a day when you just let it evolve and do all the nice things that you like to do in your own time. First stop after breakfast was the allotment…………and look what I got…………..yes, it’s red fruit time…….. I love this small variety of strawberry, they are so sweet!

So then I had the dilemma of what to do with it all. I’ve given lots of it away (neighbours love me at this time of year), some has been kept back for jam making tomorrow evening, and today I’ve been doing one of my other favourite things …….. baking, as I have both boys back now and they eat a lot! Today’s bakes were a coffee walnut loaf cake and then to use the fruit up, a summer fruit pavlova with vanilla Chantilly cream. And just to prove that sometimes even I have a kitchen fail I’ve included a picture of the pavlova which collapsed somewhat! 😂

Then I’ve been for a little 10k trot around the block as I wanted to eat my baked goods so thought I’d better earn it! Then I’ve read for a while. This evening I’ve sat and typed my blog in peace and quiet while eating Pavlova as the boys have gone to the pub to watch the England match. But by all accounts, from what keeps popping up on my phone, in my opinion their time would have been much better spent staying in eating Pavlova! 😂😂 I can confirm it tasted better better than it looked in its collapsed state…….perfectly crunchy on the outside which soft, spongy marshmallow like meringue on the inside, the sweetness of the cream contrasting just perfectly with the sharpness of the fruit. 😍

So I’m going to tell you all about my trip to Asturias northern Spain. It was outstandingly beautiful………I loved it and can’t wait to go back.

I’ll tell you all about what I got up to and what I think are the things you should not miss whilst you are there.

I’ll tell you about it in two parts, because it was a bit of a two part holiday and there is so much to tell you. Asturias is home to the Picos de Europa mountain range and I spent four days adventuring there. I appreciate that adventuring in the mountains is not everyone’s idea of a holiday but it really does deserve a post all of its own so I’ll tell you about that separately.

In this first post I’ll share with you the northern coast of Asturias and what the must sees are if you want a more leisurely visit and some gentle walks, relaxation time, food and beach visits. I’ll apologise now for the length of the post but it’s just beautiful, the perfect place for me and I really did not want to come home, I could have stayed there for ever!

The closest airport to Asturias is Oviedo, but it’s quite a small airport and if you are flying from the UK, London Gatwick is the only place where you can get a direct flight from at the moment. That’s not convenient for me as it’s a 5 hour drive away so I flew to Bilbao from Manchester. You can get a flight to Bilbao from a number of UK airports and the drive time to Asturias is only two hours on some really good, quiet motorways.

I hired a car at the airport, a little Renault Clio, and it was perfect. I would not recommend anything bigger if you are wanting to visit the mountains, but yet you probably don’t want anything smaller in engine size as that might struggle with some of the gradients in the Picos.

It was a lovely drive from the airport, with the sea in sight for a lot of the way. I find driving in Spain quite a pleasure. It’s not like Portugal, Italy or Greece where the standard of driving can leave a lot to be desired and it can be quite a nerve wrecking experience. It was a really early morning flight and I would have arrived at my destination well before the check in time so I broke the two hour drive up by calling for some brunch and a little look around the pretty little coastal town of San Vincente de la Barquera.

San Vincente de la Barquera is actually in Cantabria and not Asturias. It is a lovely town to stop in en-route. It has a pretty old town, a charming harbour full of brightly coloured bobbing boats, a panoramic setting on the river and some fantastic restaurants specialising mainly in seafood. The estuary is spanned by the Maza bridge with its 28 arches and atop the hill sits the castle and the church of Santa Maria de los Angeles.

It was a lovely place to have a little leg stretch, a beer in the sunshine and sample some Padron peppers, chiorizo in cider and a lovely salad. Well, you might as well start as you mean to go on! 😝

Oh, and you have to have a photo taken in the little boat………so cute. Lunch was walked off with a stroll to the castle at the top of the hill to admire the old town and views over the estuary. I spotted my first Camino signs which always make me smile, and it was the perfect place to get into that relaxed holiday mindset. I was already getting a good feel for the place………..when you get that comfortable feeling and think, “Ah, I feel like I’m going to like it here”. Everyone was really happy and friendly.

It was only a half an hour drive from there to the town where I had decided to base myself for the 9 days………….Llanes. Now, I simply fell in love with Llanes, I adored it. It is a working fishing town and it is really busy and bustling all the time. It has an old town, medieval town walls, churches, restaurants, bars, the prettiest harbour, a busy market, just the best Confitería (cake shop) and lots of ice cream shops! There was nothing to not like about it…………….it was like being deposited in the middle of all my favourite things!😍

The town has an outstandingly beautiful setting. Not only does it have its own three gorgeous beaches of fine golden sand, if you walk a little further out of town in either direction you stumble across the most spectacular beaches ever. They are a little bit like the small coves in Cornwall with the advantage of the food and weather being better and there being no British people. 😂 And there is so much space on them.

I had booked an apartment through one of the major apartment booking portals and it very much exceeded my expectations. It was on the third floor of a small apartment block which overlooked the entrance to the harbour. It was out of the way of the main harbour, tucked away and really quiet, but had a fantastic sea view. It would have slept four, so there was lots of room for me and it was really well equipped. It felt like a home away from home rather than a holiday let, as the gentleman who owns it, quite obviously lives there when he’s not working away so it had lots of personal touches including a turntable and fantastic vinyl record collection which you were free to use! It looked like he was a child of the 70’s like me so there were some classics to choose from and plenty of opportunity for a little living room disco!

It had a chaise longue style sofa in the living room window which overlooked the renovated stone fishing sheds. I love to people watch and watch the world go by and spent so much time with the windows wide open just watching the fishing boats come in and out in the morning and evening, with all the fishermen sat outside mending their nets during the day. It was the perfect book reading and people watching spot in the sunshine.

For breakfast I had the same thing every morning…………………….CAKE!!!!! At home I never have cake for breakfast, it’s just not an English thing. I either have yoghurt and granola with fruit, or plain porridge with honey. However, when I’m in Spain or Italy I have cake! Not the same cake each day, but a different one every morning. I get out of bed, have a little stretch, sometimes a little run if I get up feeling energetic, and trot to the cake shop……..as it has to be a fresh cake. Llanes quite simply has one of the best cake shops I have ever been in, and I am most embarrassed to say that by the time I departed I was well known in it!🤣It’s called the Confitería Vega and you must go if in Llanes. My favourite was the Bomba de Crema which I can only describe as like a split, icing sugared, very light, brioche type roll filled with custard. But I also liked the lemon meringues, nut and caramel tarts, almond croissants, icing covered swirls, custard tarts, chocolate Cubos de la Memoria and chocolate cherries……………………………I tried them all!!!🤣

There’s a lovely cafe around the corner too, in the main square, where you can get an excellent coffee and watch the world go by when you’ve indulged in your cake!

My first day was spent in Llanes, wandering, because when I arrive somewhere I like to have a really good look around and just relax a little. I was also tired from travelling as I’d literally finished work and then left for the airport six hours later as I like to maximise my time away. It was a bit of an overcast day but dry.

The first thing you notice on the breakwater are hundreds of brightly painted concrete blocks. They are a permanent art installation on both sides of the harbour entrance, but obviously serve a purpose as a breakwater. Los Cubos de la Memoria (The Cubes of Memory) were completed in 2006 and are a must see in the town.

All three of the town’s beaches are worth noting: El Sablon, Puertu Chicu and Toro. They are all different. El Sablon is the busiest town beach with all the amenities close by. Puertu Chicu is a little hidden and full of locals but it disappears at high tide. I think my favourite was Toro, just because of its natural setting and the unusual rock formations all along the beach which make it really sheltered and provide a perfect back rest if you are a beach book reader like me.

On the other side of the town from Toro beach is the access to the cliff top promenade. This is a long grassed walkway along the top of the cliff. It has the most outstanding view of the town down below and is lined with benches for you to sit and rest, and telescopes for you to take a look out to sea. On a weekend and on a sunny evening all the town seemed to be up here stretching their legs. A very friendly and convivial meeting spot. It’s also perfect for that early morning or late evening jog for anyone that likes a little run like me.

By the time I’d done all the above I was hungry and tired again. Llanes has some fantastic seafood and I love squid so my fist day was finished off with a lovely plate of Calamares a la Romana (Squid) followed by a little Vermut in the harbour which made me all sleepy and ready for my comfy bed.

In terms of places to eat and bars there are just so many to choose from in Llanes and the surrounding area. There are numerous Siderias where you will get the traditional Asturian dishes and cider, then there are tapas restaurants, pizzas……..you name it and it will be there. When I fancied a change I even found an excellent Mexican to satisfy my need for a Tequila cocktail because when you are on holiday you just have to have a cocktail don’t you?!😂

The following day I was ready for a bit of an explore. The good thing about being based in Llanes is that it has a little train station. But it’s not just any old railway line. They call it the FEVE and it’s a little narrow guage railway line which runs all along most of the Northern coast of Spain. The train only comes a couple of times a day and it’s extremely slow! It chugs along, hooting at every road crossing, and goes from small village to small village all along the coast. Some stations it stops at as a matter of course, and others, in small villages, you have to request it to stop. It is so scenic as you trundle along through the villages and fields of animals, with intermittent glimpses of the sea.

The railway line follows closely the route of the Camino del Norte and I love to walk so I had a little plan to get on the morning train to a small village called Pendueles around 15km from Llanes, pick up the Camino path and walk all the way back to Llanes on the Camino. So off I went with the orange rucksack to catch the little train. Pendueles is a request stop so I made sure to tell the conductor when I got on that I wanted it to stop there.

It was a sleepy little village but it had that all important little village café in which to get that café con leche before starting to walk.

This must have been my slowest walk ever! It took me all morning to walk around 5 miles. Not that it was difficult, anyone could have walked it. It was just so beautiful! I just had to keep stopping, taking photographs and just absorbing my surroundings. Spring is surely a beautiful time to visit…………..so very green, lots of wildlife and so many beautiful flowers……………..just like the world is waking back up after hibernating for winter.

I just wandered along following the yellow arrows, through fields and woods and the path kept leading me from one beautiful beach to another. And when I say beautiful I don’t just mean a little bit beautiful but outstandingly beautiful. Turquoise sea, golden sand, big blue skies, fluffy clouds, the sound of the waves on the rocks and absolutely no-one on some of them. They were deserted………….it was stunning. So the book kept coming out and I just had to keep stopping. But there was no rush, I was on holiday and that’s what holidays are for!

I then accidently discovered my best find of the day. I was hungry so looked on my phone to see where I might be able to get some food. As if by luck, around 1km off the path was a village called Vidiago. It was 1pm by now, but it said there was a place called Sidreria Casa El Rubiu that was open. I walked through the very pretty but quiet village to reach the other side where I could see a number of cars parked and I could hear lots on conviviality going on. Well this really was my best find of the day. I was warmly welcomed and sat in a lovely flower filled courtyard and taken through the menu. I said I wanted to try something local but I was hungry so the waiter suggested I might like to try a small Cachopo. He explained it was two thin fillets of veal fried in breadcrumbs, but sandwiched between the two pieces of veal are cheese and dried cured meat of your choice. He said his choice would be with Cecina (a dried, smoked, cured beef from around Leon), and Cabrales cheese (a cheese local to the area of Asturias). So that’s what I ordered and where my love affair with Cachopo began…………………it is delicious! It came with potatoes and peppers and filled the hungry hole in my tummy. I was also informed that if I wasn’t driving I had to have it with cider as a Sidreria is a ‘cider house’ so that’s the menu…………………cider and traditional cooking.

However, I have to inform you that I poured half my cider on the patio!😂 And it was not by choice. In these parts they pour the cider into the glass from a great height and just a few mouthfuls worth at a time. They drink that bit and then pour a bit more into the glass. This is because it creates effervescence and foam which helps to release the cider’s aromas and taste. So I had a little lesson, was poured my first few mouthfuls, and was then left on my own to practice! It did not go too well but I reckon I drunk about half of the bottle and shared the other half with the floor but by the end of the meal my technique had improved significantly! And I have to say that by the end of the week I’d drunk that much cider I’d got it off to a fine art.😆

So I bid them a farewell around 3pm and carried on my way. The afternoon involved more flowers, more beaches, animals and coffee stops. I also discovered the ‘Bufones de Arenillas’! These natural rock formations sounded fantastic but you would have to come on a stormy day to see them at their best. Basically water comes rushing under the sea cliff and escapes up through the holes with the water pressure shooting the water up in a 20 metre high column. The photos of it on the information board looked fantastic but it was a calm day so on that particular day you could only hear the thunderous roar of the water but there was not enough pressure to force it through the hole. The noise was still impressive though.

I rolled into Llanes at around 8pm just as the sun was falling in the sky and just had time for a little nightcap (alcoholic drink) before retiring for the night as I had deserved it after all that walking!

The following day it was dull and overcast, the perfect day for a city visit so I drove to the city of Oviedo, just over an hour away from Llanes. It’s a really nice, compact city and you can definitely see the main sights in a day. If you make your way to the tourist information office in the old town they will arm you with a map and show you the main sights to visit.

It has the lovely cathedral of San Salvador in the Plaza de la Catedral that is worth a look at. Around the corner is another lovely square called the Plaza del Fonton. It is a lovely old, arcaded square with a number of cafes and restaurants and is also where the market is held on certain days. It has lots of lovely old buildings with flower filled window boxes. It is really pretty and a good spot for a coffee.

One thing I did notice about Ovideo was the abundance of statue castings in the streets. There are so many dotted all over the city. There’s one of La Gitana or ‘Gypsy Woman’, one of ‘La Bella Lola’ sat on a bench in Plaza Del Fonton, La Pescadera in one square and one of the Milkmaid in another. There’s also a statue of Woody Allen and I could not quite work out why Oviedo would have a statue to him. Anyway, it turns out he fell in love with Oviedo and set part of his film Vicky Christina Barcelona there.

There’s also a lovely park on the edge of the city which is worth having a walk around. It’s called the Campo de San Francisco. There is a band stand, more statues, lots of lovely planting and it’s just generally a lovely peaceful place. It also has a much loved and visited statue sat on a bench……………that of Mafalda. She is a well known 6 year old little girl cartoon character from an Argentine comic strip……………..have a little look and sit with her……she’s cute!

So that was my little whirlwind tour of Oviedo. It did not even take a day so on the way back I called at another fishing town, Ribadesella. It’s ok there and I can imagine it gets very busy in summer as it has a lovely beach………….but I did not like it as much as Llanes. It seemed to lack that buzz and atmosphere, but maybe it was because the weather was dull and everyone was inside.

I did however, spot an interesting monument of two men in a canoe. The Sella river enters the sea at Ribadesella and apparently a very popular pastime it to descend the river right from the roman bridge in Cangas de Onis in the mountains, 20km away, to Ribadesella. In fact it’s that popular it is an annual international canoeing event and the statue is there on the winners promenade to mark and celebrate the fastest descents of the Sella river.

Four lovely days in the Picos de Europa mountains followed which I’ll do a separate post on, as there is so much to tell you about the Picos, and mountains are either your thing or they are not, so I’ll not bore you with my mountain adventures now.

After my three days walking and exploring the Picos de Europa I decided to have a little running adventure. But when I say running I mean more of a jog………that way I could cover more miles than walking but not tire myself out. I decided to catch the FEVE in the other direction, west, and get off at a village 16 miles away called Nueva. Then the plan was to jog back the 16 miles to Llanes, taking all day with regular stops.

It was another beautiful day and the 16 miles west of Llanes is just as pretty as the 16 miles East. There were more cows, beautiful beaches, big cloudy skies, cool rock formations………….

………………then some scuplture, more pretty flowers and a very good lunch stop in Niembru at ‘La Parrilla del Cuera’ where they made me a delicious tuna salad.

On leaving Niembru you come to a really pretty estuary and on an outlet sits the very photogenic church of Parroquia Nuestra Senora de los Dolores. Then there were more beautiful beaches and donkeys.😍 Fortunately I did not get lost. I was following the Camino in reverse so there were no signs going in my direction. But it was quite straightforward………..just up and down winding lanes which ran close to the sea. There were more cows and I discovered a unique talent I have for talking to sheep………I baaaa ……….and they all baaaaa back………..it’s the little things that amuse me! 😂

Then I came to a fantastic spot to watch the waves crashing on the rocks………………I could have sat here for hours as I just love that sound.

I started to get a glimpse of Llanes ahead of me, sat on the clifftop. It was not before time as I was starting to get a little weary. It was nice to see Llanes from a different angle though. A birds eye view of the town tucked behind Playa de Sablon.

Just time then for a quick shower and change of clothes ready for a little wander around town and a well earned beer!

Just one day left to enjoy and I suddenly realised I’d come on holiday, and although I’d had a big mental rest, I’d not really had much of a physical rest other than first thing in the morning and the evening, as there was so much to see and do. So I made it in my way to have a rest day in Llanes. The day started as it always does……………with cake!

It was a lovely sunny day so I sat on a cliff top bench, using my beach towel as a cushion, for a few hours to read my book.

Then it was coffee time in the square because I can’t sit for more than a few hours without moving. 😆

I spent the afternoon on my favourite beach……..Toro……….reading my book and watching the contrasting storm clouds roll across the mountains, whilst I sat in the glorious sunshine on the beach.

Then every beach visit has to be enhanced with a cool beer and a packet of Lays!

All that was left to see of Llanes was a little walk up to the hill top castle like church of Ermita Virgen de la Guía to watch the sunset on a fantastic week away. Oh…….I just had time to slip in another Vermut!

I left for Bilbao the following morning for my afternoon flight and this time I broke up the journey in Santillana del Mar. I was only there for two hours but this was such a pretty medieval town for a walk around and a coffee in the square if you are ever in the area. There is some pre-historic art in some caves nearby but I did not have time to look so that will have to be something for next time.

So that’s Asturias for you……………..well this little corner of Asturias anyway.

It’s outstandingly beautiful and I just have to come back this summer during my month in Spain and surrounding areas. I’m going to do some walking but I also have this little plan to ride a little bit more of the FEVE and just stop at random places along the route to see some more little coastal towns and go with the flow. I also need to come back for cheese!!! I fitted as much Cabrales into my carry on as possible but I’ve eaten it already! I just love cheese and in Northern Spain and Basque country you can get fantastic cheese. In fact that very British supermarket with an M and an S in the title have now become aware of the gorgeousness of Basque cheese and have started stocking a DOP Ossau Iraty French Basque cheese and it’s really nice if you want to taste what I’m talking about. I came back with a large quantity of Idiazabal from Bilbao last summer, with it all bulging out of the top of my rucksack.😂 So the objective this summer will be to travel a light as possible so I can export as much cheese as possible from Northern Spain and Basque Country for my own consumption! You’ll smell me before you see me at Bilbao airport!😆

Anyway, my summer is fast approaching, when I leave the country for over a month and don’t have much time to write. I’m going to some familiar places, some new places and am really excited about making some more exciting memories and learning some new things to tell you about.

There will be some time in Crete too, a lot of time in Spain including a very well known festival and a Camino. And then a really exciting short trip to Chamonix Mont Blanc in the last week of August where something very exciting is happening (it’s a secret) which I will be able to tell you about in September. I’ll be back later in the summer or in September, if not before, so watch this space and have fun.

The city of love and romance! That’s where I went at Easter. It seems such a long time ago though as so much has happened since. Firstly I have a child back home for summer! I have them both back home for the weekend, but one is here until September and I love it when they come back. The novelty did wear off a little bit when he was left home alone for a week while I went to Spain. Let’s just say it looked like he’d had rather a good time in my absence. 😆 But the damage was minor and I can let these things go, in the grand scheme of things, as they are not that important…………..well except the lawn damage. I have a little chunk of plaster missing from a wall due to a small accident he had with the weights during a workout …………………… but during his boys back garden BBQ gathering, a patch on my lawn has been used as a toilet! Because you know how difficult it is to walk from a garden to a toilet (when you have 4 to choose from) when you are 20 years of age. So now my pride and joy……….my lovely green and striped lawn is complete with a couple of circles of dead yellow grass. 😂 But it will grow back and I’m not going to sweat the small stuff, I don’t do that anymore!

Other than that I’m just trying to avoid all things general election. I’m not affiliated to any political party but will cast my vote as I think it’s important that you do. I read the news so I will just choose who I think will be the best person going forward and I’ll probably not decide until a minute before I vote. I haven’t got the time in my life to listen to a group of people having a live argument and slanging match on TV for one hour and taking up valuable airtime night after night until 4th July. Honestly, it’s like standing out in the Key Stage One playground at work for an hour. And you just never know who to believe. Anyway, off my soapbox and onto my little trip to Paris.

It was a trip with a bit of a difference……………I’d gone to run the Paris marathon so I don’t know if that skewed my perception of it a little, but here I am, still in one piece, to tell you about Paris. I’ll do a separate post on the Marathon as I’m still processing my thoughts on that, and what I felt about Paris and what I felt about the marathon are at bit of a juxtaposition.

I arrived on the Wednesday after Easter Sunday, mid-afternoon and had three full days to spend in Paris before the Marathon and my return on Sunday.

However, going as a tourist and going as a marathon runner do not sit well together, as I now realise. I did see a lot of the city but tried to limit my walking miles and use the metro as the objectives of those three full days were to acclimatise, sleep a lot, feed well and mentally prepare myself.

Being in a city as big and vibrant as Paris made that quite difficult, certainly the sleeping, resting and mental preparation. Paris is not the place to do that!

I might be in the minority of people when I say I probably would not return to the city. It was ok, but for me there are much nicer cities. I’m not a fan of the huge cities, I prefer smaller ones. I found it overpriced, overated and far too chaotic and busy for my liking…………but like I say, that might be because I was trying to get myself into a place of calm and focus and I found that hard here. It’s just my opinion, and millions of people love it, so don’t let me put you off, I just don’t think I was in the right frame of mind to enjoy it properly. It’s still definitely worth a visit.

There were, however, elements that I loved………….I didn’t dislike it all so here goes………..my whistle stop tour and opinion of Paris.

First of all, getting from the airport to the city…………cheapest and most efficient way I found was the RER B rail line which runs right from the airport to the city centre and links with the metro. It’s a 30 to 40 minute journey and will set you back 11 euros. More expensive than the transfers in other cities like Madrid for instance but lots cheaper and quicker than a taxi which would no doubt get stuck in the traffic and will cost you at least 4 to 5 times the price. The inner city metro in Paris is very similar to that in London, it’s a cost effective way of getting around the central city, but like London it’s very overcrowded, extremely old and is filthy dirty………….I hated it but it served it’s purpose.

In terms of accommodation I absolutely loved where I stayed. I’m always looking for that bit of peace and quiet in the middle of the throng of the city and I found it……..my little oasis. I did not want to be in the middle of the hustle and bustle and noise. In the middle of the River Seine there are two natural islands. One of them, the Ile de la Cite is quite large and contains the Notre Dame Cathedral so that one is quite busy. However, next to it, over a bridge, is the much smaller and very cosmopolitan Ile Saint-Louis.

It is so quaint, quiet and pretty. Full of gorgeous old architecture, nice cafes, restaurants, independent shops, a pretty park, small boutique hotels and best of all………with hardly any cars or traffic. It is like a little haven in the middle of the city.

I loved it on the island and I particularly liked the hotel I stayed in which was Hotel Saint-Louis L’Isle. It was a nice small hotel but the rooms were so lovely, spacious, spotlessly clean and the bed was so comfy. There were the usual tea and coffee facilities in the room and lots of lovely toiletries. It had a lovely 24 hour reception staffed by really helpful and friendly staff. The only minor improvement would have been the addition of a bathrobe and slippers as I do like to lounge around in a fluffy bathrobe and slippers on a night 😂 (doesn’t everyone, or is it just me!?), particularly as I was trying to get into my calm and relaxed pre-race state. But it’s a minor thing and I’d definitely recommend the hotel.

The hotel offers breakfast but not dinner. It’s quite cost effective to have breakfast and they serve a really good continental breakfast in a basement breakfast room. Each table has a huge dish of pastries and the self service buffet offers eggs, meats, cheeses, cereals, yoghurts, cakes, fruit juices and a selection of tea and coffee. It was a really good arrangement and good value for money as Paris is not like Spain and Italy where you can nip in a café and get your breakfast for less than 5 euros. I don’t think I bought one cup of coffee alone that cost less than 5 euros in Paris.

The island is full of lovely restaurants, and fortunately there are all sorts of different nationalities of food available. I’ll tell you more about restaurants when I tell you about my marathon as unusually I was not that adventurous and stuck to Italian as decent portion sizes and carbs were my priorities. I love French food and I love seafood, but neither would have fulfilled the objective and would have been a bit of a risky strategy. So unusually, this post is not going to be my usual foodie post telling you all about the local food.

It was also slightly different to my usual trips in that I spent 4 and a half days in total in Paris and not a drop of alcohol passed my lips! 😂 I absolutely love a drink or two when on holiday and 4 days of questionable quality coffee and carbonated water took it’s toll, I was quite tetchy by day 4!

Wednesday night consisted of a very good pizza in a restaurant on the island followed by an early night in my very comfy bed.

Thursday I had planned to do some sight seeing as I was still 3 days away from the race. The one place I definitely wanted to go was the Louvre art gallery so I booked a ticket and walked there as it was just off the island and a little to the left. Now this was the day that it rained so hard all morning, so a good day to visit an art gallery, but I got soaked on the way there. What did I think to the Louvre? A bit of a mixed bag really.

Building wise it’s impressive, the iconic glass pyramid is striking both from the outside and the inside. You definitely need an advance ticket or you would spend most of your day in a queue, the line is enormous. You also need an audio guide, although the quality of the audio tours when compared to that of the Prado in Madrid are poor. The directions around the museum aren’t that easy to follow, the console is not as user friendly and the GPS jumps around.

In terms of artwork there’s some good stuff, but again, nothing that gave me goosebumps and there are far better pieces in the galleries of Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Florence and London. The Mona Lisa is disappointing, well it was to me. It was much smaller than I expected and there is nothing particularly unique in that painting that you cannot find in many more.

However, there are some lovely frescoed ceilings and some gorgeous sculpture in there. I’d always choose sculpture over a painting and I can walk around and look at a sculpture for ages. Some of them I find just breath-taking…………I still can’t comprehend the skill it takes to take a solid piece of white marble and end up with such a perfect, reconstruction of the human form, including the muscular profile, veins and proportion. But what astounds me even more is the sculptors ability to portray emotion in the face. Take for instance probably my favourite piece in there, ‘Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss’ by Canova. It has to be one of his best works and depicts the mythological duo engaged in a loving gaze. How do you sculpt a loving gaze!?!? I’ve no idea but Canova a has done it perfectly, somehow making a solid form fluid and human.

The light filled Grande Galerie is also quite impressive and leads to another one of my favourites ‘The Sleeping Hermaphrodite’ by Bernini. He is my favourite sculptor and the genius behind ‘The Rape of Proserpina’ in the Borghese Gallery in Rome, which if you like Italian sculpture is an absolute must see.

So there are a few good exhibits in the Louvre and it’s definitely worth going, but I do think it is overrated, is not as good as the galleries in other major cities, and in terms of it’s organisation, it was far too busy and chaotic for my liking.

The afternoon was spent doing marathon things. I had to travel to the outskirts of the city to collect my race bib, register and have a look around the Run Experience Exhibition. It was open Thursday through to Saturday, but attracting around 60,000 runners I wanted to get it out of the way on Thursday when it wasn’t too busy as mentally, I was starting to panic about the whole thing, and just wanted to collect it and then try to forget about it for a few days.

The evening was spent in a lovely little Italian for some pasta, and then a wander over the bridges of the island to look at the Seine all lit up at night.

Friday morning I got up and I just could not face sightseeing. To be quite honest I was in a bit of a state. I cried into my croissants, and filled with self doubt, my marathon demons were getting the better of me. “Snap out of it”, I told myself! I’m normally quite upbeat………I just needed peace, quiet and calm to get my balance back. So where did I go………………..the cemetery!! Yes, I spent half a day in a graveyard!😂 If there is one place you can guarantee peace, calm and serenity it’s in a graveyard. Paris has a huge one called Pere Lachaise. It spans 110 acres and is full of green trees, maze like paths and birdsong. It houses a rich ecosystem which includes includes cyclamen and orchids. According to Wikipedia the cemetery also hosts a population of foxes and 100 species of birds, including flycatchers and owls. It’s a really nice space and is the chosen resting place of more than 1 million people.

I downloaded a map and went on a bit of a grave hunt………………….a bit like a treasure hunt but for dead people. 😆 It’s most famous residents are Edith Piaf, Georges Bizet, Frederic Chopin, Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, Olivia de Havilland, Sarah Bernhardt, Jim Morrison and Sir Richard Wallace, along with a memorial to Maria Callas, whose remains were there before they were stolen, recovered, and scattered in the Aegean Sea off Greece. It was a really interesting and peaceful morning and I would definitely recommend a visit there if you fancy a quiet, interesting stroll away from the chaos. I was in a much better frame of mind afterwards.

On the way back I walked through an area of Paris called Le Marais. There you will find pretty streets, lots of independent boutique shops, the Jewish quarter and an ice cream shop! Just like a small child……an ice cream always makes me feel better! Outside the ice cream shop is the very lovely Place des Voges where Victor Hugo once lived. It’s a very lovely green, grassed square, with chestnut trees in the middle, a perfect ice cream eating spot. 😋

I then had a little job to do for the architect student of the family. That was to go to the Pompidou Centre and get some photographs. It houses a centre for art and culture but I was just tasked with getting pictures of the outside. It is a quirky building designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, and is one of the iconic architectural masterpieces of the 19th century. It is instantly recognisable for its unusual design, in that a large part of its infrastructure, such as the lifts and utilities, are on the outside of the building. There are four primary colour coded colours visible on the exterior: blue for air flows, yellow for electricity, green for water circuits and red for pedestrian flow (escalators and lifts). Anyway, pictures duly taken and sent by WhatsApp, my mission was accomplished.

Most people when they visit Paris go up the Eiffel Tower, but not me! Being scared of heights I went for a little look but decided this was a definite ‘NO’! I could see it just fine from the ground! I would be running past it on the Sunday, and whizzing almost 300 metres up a man made Meccano set in a glass lift, and having to part with £50 to do it, is not my idea of fun! It would have been a complete waste of time, similar to the time I paid to go in the cable car in Barcelona and spent 10 minutes laid on the floor in the bottom of the cabin until I was ejected at the top gasping for breath.😂I have some lovely pictures of what it would be like and you’ll have to make do with those. The Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees are also very much worth a visit.

If you want to visit when it’s a bit quieter, night time is also good as they look wonderful lit up with laser lights emitting from the top.

Friday night involved more pasta and another alcohol free early night. Like I say, not my usual holiday night out!

Saturday was a gloriously sunny 24°C day and I’d promised myself I was not leaving the islands and was having a very easy day. I had a quick early morning walk over to the other island before it got too busy to look at Notre Dame Cathedral. It is huge, but sadly closed at the moment following the fire a few years ago. Renovation looks behind schedule and it does not look like opening is imminent. There is a nice viewing platform and lots of information boards to read about the renovation.

The remainder of the day I spent on Ile Saint-Louis. I wandered around the little shops. There was a pretty flower shop, the most inviting and colourful fruit and veg shop where I bought some home made fig roll biscuits, a delightful little sweet shop and the smelliest cheese shop. I love a cheese shop, the smellier the better. Top prize though went to the antique puppet shop, a very eccentric shop with some of the wierdest wooden puppets I have ever seen. Some of them were really old and some of them were really creepy. The shop appeared to be manned by a real life Geppetto…………it was honestly like walking into Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio but in real life………….I was mesmerised!

I had a couple of little coffee stops and watched the world go by and made my way to the park at the end of the island where I had a couple of hours chilling with my book, a little cat nap and ate my fig rolls.

The final carb load followed, with yet more pasta, and before I knew it my sightseeing time in Paris had come to an end. Just time to organise my little piles for the following morning: running kit; measured out piles of race nutrition, race bib, emergency pain killers; first aid; post race bag and warm dry clothes. Just 12 hours remained which was plenty of time for me to have a restless night and a pre race meltdown! 😂

So that’s my whistle stop tour of Paris. I’m sure there is so much more to do and see but the remainder of my time was given up to the primary purpose of the visit which was the marathon, which I’ll tell you about another time. Like I say, Paris is probably better than my experience portrays it, but marathon running and sightseeing don’t go together, both physically or mentally. So my advice would be, if you want to see Paris properly and enjoy it, don’t run the marathon, just stick to crepes, croissants and Cabernet Sauvignon! 😝

You know what they say don’t you…………………”better late than never!” I’ve only been back three and a half months but I did promise to tell you what I thought of my day trip to Toledo.😆 Then I’ll tell you about Paris and the marathon, and then I’ll have another trip to Spain to tell you about as I’m going on Friday for 9 days because I’m off work for a week. I have some exploring to do, and I need a little break, because summer term is oh so very busy in a school, and a little rest will just nicely revive me ready for the final push to the big summer holidays, when I shall depart the UK for a whole lot longer!

But first a little bit about this week’s diary. To say it’s been a sad week would be an understatement. I have time to tell you about Toledo because I’m having a very quiet, calm weekend in hiding because I need one. One where I can spontaneously cry when I want to and it really does not matter! You see the thing is, on Friday, 2 days ago, I lost a friend, a bestie who was very dear to me and I am absolutely heartbroken beyond words. She was one of my wing men from the ‘A’ team on my wedding photo, mum of Spencer the dog from my previous post and just generally a beautiful, courageous, kind, amazing lady the same age as myself. We knew this was imminent, hence my visit a couple of weeks ago, when she made the very brave decision to cease her treatment after over a decade of battling MND/ALS and also, for the past 18 months, cancer.

But even though you know it’s going to happen it’s tough all the same when you lose someone, and even tougher if you don’t know it’s going to happen. You feel for her family and you also feel that very strange sense of loss, bewilderment, loneliness, and overwhelming sadness yourself. So this weekend I have been in quiet spaces, doing positive things which makes me smile and seen only a couple of people who surround me with love and hugs. And for anyone that’s grieving that is important, to give yourself time to process the thoughts, to have a good cry, to be angry, to be sad, but also to be thankful. Because there were fantastic times too, before all this……….holidays to Greece together, having our children close together, lots of parties, lots of laughs, lots of love and lots of memories which no-one can take away.

So on Friday, the day it happened, all I wanted to do was be alone and cry, and it’s important to do that and let it all out. I’m unable to suppress my emotions so it does all have to come out. Shares in Kleenex tissues will have rocketed this weekend as I’ve got through boxes of them.😆 So I made a picnic for my dinner and and I went alone, up to one of my favourite spots 5 minutes away, the windmills, to watch the sunset, cry and reflect. There was only me there, hundreds of skylarks, complete silence apart from the birds, and it was lovely in a strange sort of way. I felt at peace with the world.

On Saturday I surrounded myself with my garden and flowers. An early morning coffee in the sunshine under my wisteria, which always makes me smile.

Then I planted my planters for summer, assembled my hanging basket and made stripes on my grass because that always cheers me up. 😂 But why do they make those environmentally friendly slug pellets bright blue? Aesthetically it really does mess with my head, I’d like dark brown pellets please.

Then I went to visit my Dad and that always cheers me up because being a true Yorkshireman he’s so funny. Always in his blue overall bottoms, when you ask him what he’s doing his response is always…..”Oh, I’m just pottering, getting out of your mother’s way!” 😆 Well on Saturday, he had a list of pottering jobs that Mum had given him but I caught him having a sneaky little nap on his deckchair in his garden! Well, when you are 85 you need regular breaks! Now, I’m daddy’s girl, like two peas in a pod and it became apparent to me on Saturday where my obsession with lawn stripes comes from, this is the man who has taught me everything I know about lawncare!😂I think his stripes might be straighter than mine and that actually looks like a little criss-cross pattern he’s been experimenting with. That’s one for me to try next week!

Then today I’ve ventured down the road for a lovely coffee and brunch, and a another little cry, with another lovely girlfriend. And then I’ve had a few hours of peace, quiet and calm this afternoon so I thought I’d try and recall a bit about Toledo, because memories of travels always cheer me up. That’s what life’s all about, not the material things but about making memories.

So, Toledo……………..very easy and cheap to get to on the high speed train……………36 minutes from Madrid Puerta de Atocha-Almudena Grandes station, which is walkable from the City Centre (so no metro mishaps 😂). Toledo has a nice little station, very Arabic in style with swaying palm trees outside. If you did not know you were in a Spanish station you could be mistaken for thinking you were in Morocco.

From the station it’s an easy 15 minute walk, uphill, across the Alcantara bridge which spans the Tagus river, and through the gate in the old city walls.

Its quite a majestic looking city from the other side of the river, as it sits up high on top of the hill. You have to remember it was February when I was there so I am wrapped up like a snowman as it was cold, even by British standards!

Toledo is a UNESCO world heritage site and is often known as the ‘City of 3 Cultures’ – those being Christian, Muslim and Jewish. If you like history there is lots for you as it’s a City that everyone has had a turn at ruling!

You will keep walking uphill once you pass through the city walls and eventually come to a smaller Moorish style arch, in front of which stands a statue of Miguel de Cervantes clutching his book. If you don’t know who he is, he’s an Early Modern Spanish writer, author of Don Quixote and whom many regard as the greatest writer in the Spanish language. I’ve never read the book myself so I can’t give you my opinion on whether that is a worthy claim, it’s subjective I guess, like all these book and film reviews are. I’m the only one in our house who thought the recent Amy Winehouse film ‘Back to Black’ was fantastic, and yes I did cry, what a poor tortured soul she was. But I have yet to stay awake though a screening of any of the Star Wars films. 😂 I don’t really do far fetched make believe, but my two at 21 and 23 years old can still watch them over and over again.

Anyway, have yourself a selfie with Miguel, and keep going uphill through the archway and you emerge in the Plaza Major. It’s quite a plain, more modern square, but pleasant, so I sat for a while and had my breakfast and a coffee.

Even as I’m writing this I can’t tell you whether I preferred Segovia or Toledo if you only have time to visit one of them. Neither compare to Salamanca, which I preferred to both. Segovia has the Aqueduct and Alcazar, is much more compact, better from a foodie perspective, and has a friendlier feel to it. Toledo has a much better cathedral, that’s the star of the show in Toledo for me. Overall, I would say the buildings are nicer to look at than in Segovia, as is its setting on the river. It’s also easier to get to from central Madrid. But once you get there it’s much more spread out and does not have as friendly a feel as Segovia. So take your pick, it depends what you are going for because they are neck and neck equal for me.

I thought I’d wander through the streets for a while to look at some of the buildings and walk towards the Manchego cheese museum, yes………they have a museum for cheese………….and I love cheese, including Manchego. It has over one thousand five star reviews on Tripadvisor………………..so imagine my disappointment when I got there and it was closed for a holiday! It sounds fantastic though so I would say go, they do pairings with wine and it sounded just like my sort of thing.

I saw some lovely buildings whilst wandering around. Because Toledo is built on a hill, some of the streets are a bit undulating but I kept getting a glimpse of the very imposing cathedral spire down the alleyways.

Most of the buildings are of a golden stone, similar to Salamanca, and if you look at the carving on them the Muslim influence becomes clear with lots of intricate Moorish designs.

I was, however, still sulking about the closed cheese museum, so seeing as a bit of blue sky had made an appearance, before I went anywhere, I thought I’d cheer myself up with an ice cream.😆There’s an ice cream shop with a few outlets called Martonela and it’s good. Pistachio, Turron, with a wafer, chopped nuts and chocolate sauce put the smile back on my face and any cheese museum disappointment was soon overcome.

Onwards I marched, to the cathedral. This is the must visit whilst in Toledo – Saint Mary of Toledo is its official name. I think out of the four cities I visited on this trip to Spain, this was by far and away the best cathedral. It’s not quite up there with Burgos or Seville in my opinion, but I do think it has the edge over Salamanca cathedral, just because of its ostentatious bling inside! It’s bordering on being over the top, there’s just so much of it.

From the exterior it is absolutely beautiful. It’s really imposing and the bell tower and spire is really pretty. It also has a really ornate door covered in Camino shells.

Then you go inside and it is just a WOW moment. It has it all. Huge barrel vaulted ceilings; lots of gold; beautiful stained glass windows; possibly the most ornate choir stalls I have seen anywhere; carved red marble columns; the most amazing white marble and gold altarpiece.

It also has a beautifully frescoed ceiling, not on the same level as the Sistine Chapel but very beautiful all the same. The highlight for me was an altarpiece called El Transparente. It has a painted cupola with a window at the back which lets the shafts of light shine through and illuminate it, giving it a ‘heaven’ like appearance. Then around the perimeter are various carved figures which look like they are peering down at you from heaven. It it very ethereal.

There is also lots of very valuable artwork. Perhaps the greatest piece in there is by El Greco entitled ‘The Disrobing of Christ’. Not really my thing but if you are into religious art there are some must sees in here.

Toledo’s cathedral also has a very pretty cloister which should not be missed as it is really well tended. One corner of the cloister is also where they store Los Gigantes when not in use. These are giant figures on wheels that they parade through the streets as part of their festivals in Spain. So you can have a close up look at these. Some of them are downright creepy, and I think as a child I would have been absolutely terrified of them. I think it’s the eyes.

I’d seen the Muslim and Christian influences, time then for a little wander through the Jewish Quarter to the other side of town. This was a really pretty area with a number of synagogues and I ended up, after a long walk, at the other side of town at another gate in the city walls. This one is the Puerta del Cambron , previously called the Gate of the Jews. Just to the side of here you can get a good view from the top of the city walls down the River Tagus, very picturesque.

There are some lovely gardens and in general this is a much calmer, more peaceful part of town if you need a little sit down and a break. It just so happened that when I arrived for my sit down it coincided with the arrival of Toledo’s answer to a boy band! 😂 So there was an opportunity for a little sing and dance along …………….. very entertaining.

What else is Toledo famous for…………………..ah yes……………marzipan! But I mean proper marzipan, not the bright yellow stuff you buy in the supermarket in the UK, over processed with preservatives and almond essence. This is the authentic marzipan made quite simply with eggs, ground almonds and icing sugar, toasted brown on the top. Obviously, because it’s not full of flavourings and preservatives it does not have a long shelf life so you might have to eat it before you come home, which I did not find a problem. 😂

The most delicious looking marzipan was in a marzipan shop called Santo Tome, so I bought a small box from there, all nicely wrapped in pink paper and a ribbon. The marzipan comes in all different shapes, and some even have almond nuts and pine nuts on the top. For certain festivals and at Christmas they also make marzipan snakes and eels, which were on display, all curled up in their box with candied fruit adornments and intricately decorated with marzipan. I thought eating a full snake prior to departure back to the UK might be a bit greedy though, so I just settled for my small box!

Just one more place left to visit before my return to Madrid………………..the Alcazar. However, if you are hoping for it to be like Segovia Alcazar you’ll be disappointed. It’s imposing from the outside and visible for miles around…………………it is the huge four towered quadrangle you can see atop the hill as you approach Toledo. However, it is not fully accessible to the public and not maintained as an Alacazar museum. It mainly houses the army and military museum, which isn’t really my area of interest. But it is also home to the public library on the very top floor. In my guidebook it said that entrance to the library was free to anyone, and that there was a library café which had the most amazing views of the whole city. So off I trotted up the many steps (there is an elevator too) for my little caffeine fix and a lovely view. And the guidebook wasn’t wrong, the view over the city in all directions is amazing, worth the climb to the top floor for a coffee and a peek.

So that’s your whistle stop tour of Toledo. Glad I made the effort to come, for the cathedral, marzipan, ice cream and my moment of glory in the boy band………………………it was worth it. It is well deserving of a day trip from Madrid!

So next up, when I return from Spain, will be my verdict on Paris and marathons, I will make an effort not to leave it three and a half months like this one!

Oh, how many times have I wanted to say that. 🤭

Today there aren’t too many words in my blog………………..but there are lots of pictures. Because yesterday I went on the most amazing walk, a bit of training for summer trekking with the orange rucksack. And this walk was just too amazing not to share, you must do it if ever you are near here in the Springtime. Northern England at it’s finest! But why did I go on my walk………………because I wanted to scream the above!

If there are two groups of people that can drain the living daylights out of me they are ‘gobby’ extraverts and negative people. I like to give both a wide berth. But sometimes you can’t escape them and the result for a positive, quiet, happy little person like me is the need for a day like this. ‘Gobby’ by the way, is northern English dialect for someone who likes the sound of their own voice and talks too much!

And why did I want to scream the above!? Because I’m an introvert! Possibly one of the most misunderstood group of people there are………………….if you don’t know what one is then you need to read this book.

The book by Susan Cain is called ‘Quiet’, it’s an amazing book I read years ago ……………………. basically it explains me…………….. if you were ever wondering what makes me tick or you think I’m a bit odd, read it. It only took me around 45 years to work myself out and realise it was just cool, fine and ok to be like me.

If you are an extrovert and have any introverts in your life please read it. Because you may just understand them better…………….they are not sad, they are not depressed, they’ve not fallen out with you……………they just want you to get out of their face and shut up for a while because you might just be ‘doing their head in’! Be quiet!

What you might find as an introvert is that throughout all your professional life……………mine was in banking……………you are surrounded by extroverts who recognise your intelligence (introverts are often highly intelligent), put you on a leadership and management programme, and then spend all their time trying to make you an extrovert! It won’t work however, it’s a bit like square peg and round hole……….if you are an introvert, you are an introvert. They are still trying to force me in that round hole now and have not yet realised that it’s just not going to work! 😆

Can an introvert be a leader? …………………….Yes! A large proportion of leaders are extroverts. Why, well just because they talk a lot really. Even Harvard have now recognised the power of the introvert. There have been many amazing introvert leaders: Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Isaac Newton, Ghandi, Chopin, Barrack Obama. Why do they make great leaders………………………they listen instead of talk!

How do you know if you are an introvert and not just odd. 😂 Well, you are likely to do all these things (I do them all in abundance, there is no doubt whatsoever that I’m 110% introvert if that’s possible):

• I prefer one to one conversations
• I’m more likely, and I prefer, to express my inner most feelings in writing
• I crave solitude
• I hate gossip and chit chat but will spend hours in an in depth conversation with someone about things that matter to me: books, nature, art, music etc.
• I celebrate things on a small scale………………NEVER throw me a surprise party, I’d hate it! I have a close knit circle of amazing friends
• I’m the world’s greatest listener and am extremely softly spoken, kind and compassionate
• I’m not into wealth, fame or status………………I just like love, hugs, animals, cake, books, wine, and chocolate (in any order) 😆
• I dislike conflict in every walk of life………..I don’t hate anyone, if you not my type or you’ve upset me I just walk away, I don’t waste my time fighting
• I get engrossed in what I’m doing……….focus and dedication is my middle name
• I’m ultra sensitive – I feel everything on an emotional level, I have empathy overload! I’m usually to be found either crying or laughing!
• I love a night out and a party, so long as I’m not the centre of attention, and I really enjoy myself, but afterwards I need a day like today to recover from people, noise and extrovert overload
• I can spend 10 minutes in the company of someone and that’s all I need to know them better than they know themselves! I see through everything………..my boys hate this…………….you can’t lie to Mum!
  

So if you do just some of those things you might not be as odd as some people think you are. 😂 You might just be an introvert. But chill because that’s just fine. You can still be a leader if you want to be, you can still be brave too. Introverts are more likely to be brave………….bravery comes from self confidence and facing fears………..nothing else. An introvert will have to draw on their self-confidence and face fears every day in a predominantly extrovert world. An extrovert however is often gobby and talkative because of the need to be heard and a lack of self confidence and bravery.

So here you go…….photos above and below (in order of walking)…………..the High Wheeldon, Parkhouse Hill and Chrome Hill circular. 14km and 700m of ascent just to prove that Northern England is truly gorgeous in the Springtime. But don’t tell too many people……………….let them all go South to London and leave this little corner for introverts like me.

There were lambs, flowers in abundance, cows, beer, cake, Yorkshire tea, roast beef sandwiches from home, a book in my rucksack, mud, blue sky, green fields, views, tinkling steams, clouds…………………………………an absolute introvert’s paradise!!!

This introvert has batteries fully recharged and is ready for this next week’s onslaught of ‘noise’ and extroverts! Enjoy the photos!

It’s taken so long to process this and write my thoughts on it. One reason being it takes a few weeks for everything to settle, to return back to normal routine and to actually work out what you thought to it. The second reason is I’ve been busy having a new bathroom and working in my other role as glorified, unpaid personal assistant, also known as ‘Mum’. Because everyone turns to the organised, reliable family member (me😁) when they need something doing and want it doing properly.

Next week I’ll just have time to tell you about Asturias, and after that you might have to wait for the Picos de Europa update until September because I’ve run out of time and I’m having my usual two month hiatus from writing because I have lots of summer exploring planned and I don’t like to take my laptop or tablet, and don’t think I’ll have time to write. If I’m quiet and don’t have time to post, worry not, just like Arnie “I’ll be back”, hopefully with tales of some adventures.

So in ‘other news’, this week I have the eldest child back. There was me thinking he’d returned because he was missing me only to learn that he just needed a full time personal assistant for the week, one that he didn’t have to pay, fed him, did his washing and acted as taxi. 😂 It only took him 10 minutes to blurt out that he was going travelling and needed someone to help him plan his trip to Peru and Bolivia! He has two months to travel post University before he starts work so he’s going to explore a little more of South America.

Who is he going with…………………..just himself! He’s been to Ecuador with a group of friends before, fell in love with South America and is eager to return. Myself and his Dad are fine with it, but Grandma (my Mum) is mortified! And apparently, according to her, like most things, it’s dangerous and it’s all my fault for taking him travelling from being tiny to places like the Arctic Circle. 😂 But for me travelling is the best way to teach them and expand the mind. I’ve taken them both to all sorts of places. You can teach them history in a classroom I know, but I will never forget their little faces when I stood them in Tyne Cot cemetery to show them the reality of what war looks like, the true cost. So here I am, assisting in the planning of a trip to Peru and Bolivia, secretly proud that I have brought up a fellow explorer that is confident enough to embark on such a solo trip and has such a thirst for knowledge of other countries and cultures like his Mum, and secretly a little bit jealous because I want to go too!!!😂😂

In other news…………….I’ve had a new bathroom, so that’s taken a little of my time up. I’ve lived in the same house for over 20 years and never had a new bathroom. It was looking really dated and was falling apart. I got fed up of fixing the shower door which kept dropping off and what with the loss of friends recently I thought life is too short and you can’t take it with you, so have your new bathroom! So now, if I’m not busy doing anything else, I’m in my shower fiddling with my shiny knobs and lights. I love it! 😍😍 I’ve never been so clean!

I’ve also been doing my usual running which this week has included a 10k PB at just over 50 minutes which I’m quite pleased with at 53 years of age; a trophy for the Boundary Relay Race 1st place V50 Ladies team; and a silver medal for being the second placed ladies team at another race. So quite a good week for running, and therefore an appropriate time to tell you what I thought about marathon running!

Right then, the Paris Marathon. Am I glad I did it?……………….A resounding YES!

Would I do another?…………………ABSOLUTELY NOT……NO WAY! It’s not for me!

Everyone said “Oh you’ll get the marathon bug and be entering another”, but honestly, there is no way I would do it again.

The main reason is it just takes over your life. If I’m doing something I’m doing it properly and committing, I’m not the sort of person who can do anything half heartedly. So as soon as I signed up for it I took it seriously. But the only thing I can liken it to is having a baby. It’s nine months of nurturing and preparation, a good few hours of extreme pain and pushing yourself to the limit, then at the end out pops the medal and t-shirt! 😂

If you are hell bent on doing one, definitely do one in the Autumn. It’s five nights a week of training and doing that through the Spring and Summer has to be better than Autumn and Winter. I wouldn’t do another simply because of that. I have lots of hobbies, interests and friends, and having to put those on hold for months made me realise how important they all are, and I’m not willing to make that sacrifice again.

I did it in the first place as a personal challenge…….one of those bucket list items when you get older, when there’s that little niggle in the back of your mind which keeps saying “I wonder if I could?”.

I chose Paris simply because I hadn’t been there before, it’s quite close, fitted with the school holidays, I don’t really like London, and it’s easy to get into Paris marathon…..there’s no ballot.

Can anyone run a marathon? ………………………I believe so yes, as long as they have no underlying medical conditions which means they can’t. I now realise that a marathon is only 30% physical………..70% is about mental strength and resilience. And this is the race that very nearly broke me in that respect! 😂

So first thing………….training! What a complete bore! I just run to enjoy. I bumble about, don’t care how fast or slow, and eat cake! I have only one speed really, and smile while I’m running. But forget that if you are training for a marathon. People start throwing words at you like form, strides, fartleks, intervals, splits, core training, nutrition…………….WHAT?!?! So, armed with a training plan, which I googled and found on ‘Runners World’, the first task was to find out what all these foreign words were and mix up my training plan. So Monday was interval training and speedwork (my worst day as I don’t have a ‘fast’ speed), Tuesday just a steady 10k, Wednesday was core training, Thursday was my favourite steady trot around the block, Friday was 5k or 10k as fast as I could (another horrid day), Saturday was rest day (my favourite day 😆) and Sunday was long run day (ok providing it was planned around a café lunch or cake at the end!).

I hated this regime! Believe me I can throw a better tantrum than a 2 year old you’ve just taken sweets off. If I’m cold, wet, hungry or in pain I’m horrible…….there’s no other way to describe me, I’m not the best version of me. Being in a running club and having runners in the family, I have a few running heroes in my life. Those running heroes have led me on training runs, been brave enough to point out my wrong doings and resilient enough to ignore the shit and abuse I’ve blurted out at them when 16 miles into a training run and I’ve lost the will to live. 😆 So to those people I would like to say two things……………….thank you and sorry! You definitely need people like these in your life as part of your training plan, who know what you are going through, have been there, and won’t take it personally!

Second thing…………………….food. I don’t think about it…..I just eat it! But I can now proudly declare that I can reel off the carb content of numerous items without looking. I can tell you that 4 Bassetts Jelly Babies contain 20g, a pack of Shot Blocks 50g, a Soreen mini malt loaf 20g………………I really am that sad! I know that I need 50g of carbs per hour to prevent the onset of a tantrum 😆, I learnt at my expense to take some caffeine free things. I spent many runs trying different foods, working out which didn’t upset my stomach and which were the most efficient to carry, being small in size and high in carbs. Never in my life did I imagine it would be so technical!

Third thing …………………. injury! I already have a small stomach hernia which meant I’d had to adjust and cut out some core weights training. But step up the distance and the speed on tarmac at 53 years of age and you will most likely pick up an injury. In my case the onset of piriformis syndrome and some general wear and tear and aggravation between my third and fourth vertebrae. That entailed, quite literally a pain, in my ass, lower back and down my left leg as my sciatic nerve was impacted. So January saw me visit the physio for the first time in my life when it got so bad I was in pain all the time, not just when running. So what followed were fortnightly visits to the physio for three months, half an hour of exercises twice a day every day, and a colour coordinated display of kinsio tape all over my back. I have to say though, I’m not complaining because when you get to a certain age a fortnightly bottom massage by a young male physio is a highlight! 🤭

So all this was going on for months………………training, nutition, physio. Everyone except myself thought I could do it. The only self doubt was my own. It all sort of fell apart about a month before the race.

Physio and training were going ok and I realised I was actually going to make it to the start line. So I had a little plan. I decided to raise a little bit of money for my chosen charity………UNICEF. Now this is where the 70% mental strength comes in because this is where the wheels fell off for want of a better term. I’d now gone and announced to everyone that I was running a marathon. Very few people knew until that point. Much to my delight the sponsorship money for UNICEF came flooding in. However, what I had done was just apply a huge amount of pressure over and above that pressure and self doubt I was already piling on myself. I started to fall apart mentally.

I’m normally Mrs Positive Pants! But I don’t know what happened. I’d had an horrendous training run…….my last big one, just over 20 miles in three hours twenty minutes. I had been in terrible pain for the last few miles. I’d kept going but tears were streaming down my face. I completely fell apart. On that particular day there was no way I could have run another 6 miles, I was absolutely broken. I also knew that I had run out of time to get another long run of that size in. I had a physio appointment the following week and he worked so hard…………..massage, acupuncture, taping………..everything.

So the time had come to depart to Paris on the Wednesday before the Marathon on Sunday and the marathon demons had well and truly taken over. “I know what I’ll do”, I thought, “I’ll have my nails done!” 😂😂 Because that was really going to help wasn’t it?!?! Well actually it did because every girl likes a little pamper……………….I’m no exception to that rule………….. and having my nails painted a lovely positive pretty pink for Paris did make me feel better. A bit of self love never hurts.

The journey to Paris went to plan and I thought I might settle a bit when I got there but I didn’t. I was so anxious. Anxious like I have never felt before. I’m not a road runner, I’m a trail runner. Trail runners are a different breed. We forget to stop our watches as we don’t really care about the time. Road runners are obsessed by time…………I wish I had a £ for everytime I’ve been asked “How quick do you want to do it?” or afterwards, “What was your time?” So I’d just mumbled that I hoped to do it in 4 hours 30 minutes, I’d completely made it up as I didn’t even know if I could finish. I just wanted to run it all without stopping and finish! That was the goal.

But then you become obsessed. I started googling “What is the average marathon finish time for a 53 year old women?” But then something really interesting popped up it said “The average 50 year old women does not run a marathon, you’ll be faster than the 99% of the population that have never run a marathon.” So very true! “Pull yourself together”, I thought.

So I spent a couple of days wandering around Paris which I’ve already told you about. But it was a bit like being on a roller-coaster. I cried into my breakfast every morning, then I got myself together, then I fell apart again, and so it went on. Carbohydrate loading in Paris was good. I think my favourite was the galette with stewed apples, caramel sauce and ice cream. I did get into trouble when I asked for a ‘crepe’ though. I got a little eye roll and that “she’s obviously British look”. But it looked like a crepe to me! Apparently a galette is made with buckwheat flour, not regular flour like a crepe. How was I to know?! At least I didn’t ask for a ‘pancake’ which is what we call them at home, that would have really been the end of the straw for the waiter I think, and confirmation that the Brits are in town! 😆

Anyway…….the day of the marathon arrived. I’d slept quite well, forced some breakfast down, had my protein porridge, taken some anti- inflammatories and been to the toilet arout 15 times! 😂That’s quite usual for me………I have a very intense flight or flight response. The hotel was around 4 miles from the start and unfortunately all the roads were closed by now, I couldn’t get a taxi and the metro was heaving. So I had a cunning plan………I downloaded an app, unlocked one of those city bikes complete with bell and basket and and off I went whizzing through Paris on my bike like Mary Poppins. I only had to run 26.2 miles so a 4 mile warm up on a bike wouldn’t hurt! 😂I’d not anticipated the cobbles and arrived at the start a little shaken (literally). I was a bit early so dashed in a café to grab a coffee, sort myself out and use the toilet (again!).

I arrived at the start in a complete and utter mess, there is no other way to describe it. I’d been in every portaloo from the entrance shute to the start line, felt physically sick and had tears streaming down my face. I have honestly never been so terrified in my life. I don’t think I’ve ever felt like it before and I hope I never feel like it again. I’m not 100% sure what it was, I think it was a number of things. The thought of not finishing, the thought of not running it all, the thought of the pain, the thought that everyone was tracking me (I’d had to turn off my phone the night before), I just hate being the centre of attention but you can’t raise money without telling anyone what you are doing can you!😆 It was the most bizarre feeling and so out of character because I’m normally very brave.

And then you start looking around and everyone else looks like they are an Olympic runner. They’ve got all this equipment on and all these accessories strapped to them and all these fancy food supplements. I’ve got half a sharing pack of Jelly Babies, some Soreen and my calf sleeves on (which the lovely girls at work bought for me for my birthday because I kept getting cramp😍). And then they all start stretching and doing a workout routine, at which point I need the toilet again!

So I had my last visit to the toilet, started my watch, and set off. I can’t explain what happened but as soon as I went over the start line the anxiety just lifted. It was just the anxiety of anticipation. I’d got my strategy, it was so well practiced, I just had to stick to it. And I think that is the key to running a marathon for me……….have a strategy, make sure it’s your strategy and no-one elses, and stick to it. Everyone will run a marathon differently and I think that was my problem, there were so many people telling me all different things and I was getting myself in a real panic as I did not know who to listen to. But they key is………listen to you and no-one else………because only you knows you the best!

So what was my strategy:

• To run no faster than a 9:30 mile pace, but to run it consistently for 26.2 miles. I knew from experience that to run faster would mean my pain would start sooner. Running at this pace I knew I should be relatively pain free until around mile 18 and would have a better chance of running to the finish.
  
• To eat 25g of carbs every 30 minutes and take them on board 1k before every 5k aid station.
  
• To take a little water to wash down my carbs every 5k and make sure I stayed hydrated without drinking to much in one go and having it all sloshing around.
  
• To take anti inflammtories again at 15k then they’d be working by 20k and would give me 3 hours of reduced pain.
  
  To try and enjoy it and shut myself off from the ‘negative Nellies’ and all the ‘noise’.

So that’s the key………………….RUN YOUR OWN RACE!

That’s what I did. I trotted around Paris and tried to enjoy it as best as I could. I entered this rather surreal parallel mindset……..call it a zone, a focus, call it what you want, I’m not sure. It’s written on my face in most of the pictures…………………I think it must be my ‘race face’. 😂 I am completely unaware of my surroundings…………………….I ran 26.2 miles without speaking to anyone and missed all the sights including the Eiffel Tower! 😂 At one point, around 15 miles in I even felt quite giddy, excited and out of my own body. I can’t really explain it and thought it might have been too much caffeine. I explained it to a friend who suggested I might have experienced a ‘runners high’. 😂 We both found that absolutely hilarious because the last person you would expect to get a ‘runners high’ is me!!!!! I’ve had plenty of ‘runners lows’ but never a ‘high’!

When I look back now I realise I had no need to be nervous…………………I was so well prepared. I was unprepared for cobblestones, and as a result my toe nails have taken a bit of a beating but other than one blister on the ball of my right foot I was pretty unscathed. It is an uphill marathon from 35k which is not the best place for the elevation to start gaining, but it’s not uphill by Yorkshire standards. My pace slowed slightly between 35k and 40k and there were a lot of people walking but I did not notice the hill too much. My splits were pretty even and I’m pleased with them.

You will see some people in some real states of difficulty. I never realised how much roadside vomiting occurred in a marathon! 😂But pace yourself and you should keep everything in your tummy. I look a bit pale and green in my finish photo and I did feel sick but my final 3k were my fastest and I was in a huge amount of pain, which I think is what made me feel sick. I was exhausted but I sprinted the last kilometre as fast as I could because to be quite honest with you, I just wanted it over with, I’d well and truly had enough. I don’t think I realised at the time how much I was hurting but the photos from the final kilometre do tell the tale, I’m not at my most photogenic!! 😆

So it is done…………….4 hours 24 minutes and 36 seconds……………..not that that matters to me at all, but it seems to matter to everyone else! 🤭

I can see what people mean now when they say that courage is not running a marathon, it’s getting to the start line. For me the four day lead up to the race was 100 times harder than the race itself.

So I might have lost 5 toe nails in total and 5 months of my life. But I got my medal and more importantly UNICEF got almost £800 which was my priority.

Oh and even better (better even than the medal)………………….I got cake! I have the best work team ever! A cake waiting on my desk on Monday morning! 😍 But even the opportunity to wear my slippers for work and eat cake won’t persuade me to do another! My marathon days are complete!

I also learnt a lot about me too as it’s been a bit of a journey. I learnt a lot about resilience, about positive thinking, about the power of the mind over adversity. I don’t think I realised how strong I was mentally or physically. It was also never far from my mind how extremely lucky I was to be there, running. All through the marathon, and particularly when the going got tough, I thought of my two lovely friends, who sadly are no longer with us and able to run a marathon. So as always, in addition to being for UNICEF, this one was for Karen, as was my first ever 10k for Cancer Research all those years ago, I still miss her so much. And for Gill too………..who at the time was still fighting……..my pain was nothing by comparison and I realise that. And for my boys too ……… I hope that the crazy lunatic of a mother that they laugh at and torment daily has made them proud and taught them a little about resilience ……………I’ll shall be racing them to the pub when they are home………………last one there buys the drinks and it won’t be me! 😂