the third day

clementine took this picture of the sunrise when she popped to the loo early in the morning at the Corston campsite.








on the third day, we woke after a much better night's sleep, thanks in part to richard's single malt whisky.


we headed out a little late again, and immediately hit a hill. the day was hot and clementine was feeling the heat. we didn't have much shade. by the time we reached the a37, we luckily found a pub, the traveller's rest.

here we stayed for a couple of hours, since clementine came over faint and had to lie down. i got her a damp towel for her forehead, and waited for her to feel better. the staff were kind and friendly. maybe we were really lucky, but all of the country pubs we visited were really friendly and helpful, bar none. she felt better after a while, and we had drunk plenty of fluid, so we headed off again.

we continued westward along the b3130, switching south onto the b3114 at chew magna, taking us along the west side of the chew valley lake.

it was just after chew valley lake that we somewhat foolishly cut westward across the mendip hills.

it was a long way up, and the tarmac on the road was melting. we walked up 140 metres along one kilometre of road, which was tiring!

we got a nice view, though, coming under some shade about halfway up.

so now we were in somerset!

the road continued up a slight incline for a while, but then we were once again up on the top of a range of hills!

we passed some fields with lots of tents in them, without stopping to find out what was going on. it looked like a festival! we later discovered that the big green gathering is on as i write this, sadly. i always mean to go to the bgg, but have never yet managed it! maybe next year, eh? i doubt that what we passed was the big green gathering, though. i always pictured it more in a valley...

turning south we went over a relatively small hill, which felt much worse than it was! but then, we came through a hamlet called Townsend, went down sharply but back up again with the momentum, and then stopped for the view.

this is what we stopped to look at!

the road went down and down and down off the mendip hills and onto the somerset levels, which are, as the name suggests, pretty flat.

there was just one more incline, up to the main road between Cheddar and Wedmore. we then ambled through Wedmore and Blackford, until we finally arrived at Splott Farm! it's always good to arrive at a campsite, but as this was the last day of our outward trip it was even better!

the people living at Splott Farm, both in the house and in the various caravans around the place were really nice and friendly. over the next few days we were made to feel really welcome at Splott Farm, and we may well return one day.

we ate that night at the white horse inn. when we arrived at the farm, we eventually met Sam, who gave us a keycard and let us in. i think Sam lives in a caravan with his family in the main part. the back part is out of bounds for children, and that's where we were to camp. we met Colin, too, who told us that the white horse had the better food in the nearest village, Mark. once we'd set up the tent we headed off to Mark on foot.

we were just pondering what time the pub stopped serving food, it being almost 9pm, when Colin screeched up and offered us a lift. we arrived at the pub just 4 minutes before their slightly slow clock said 9pm, when indeed they wouldn't have been able to serve us food.

the food was delicious! they have a good chef at the white horse inn in Mark!

here's a final picture of the sunset as seen from Splott Farm, taken that evening.