Sun 17th Sep - Defford

The amazing thing about living in Worcestershire is that within just a 20 minute drive you can be out in the countryside, away from cars, fumes and noise pollution.

Entering the forest near Defford I glanced around to see a ghostly apparition in the trees - someone had staked out some plastic in the shape of a person.  Catching sight of this at dusk would probably have set the heart racing.

For this walk I'd dropped my backpack down to 10kg.  The previous weight had served its purpose in reminding me that I really do not want to go carrying such a load over hills in Nepal.  From this point onwards, 10kg and plenty of miles is what I've planned.

Navigation was a lot easier this week, as the paths were generally much more regularly trodden.  It's always hard to tell when planning a route on the map.  What looks like a popular bridleway on paper sometimes turns out to be nothing more than an historic route, with no markings on the ground. Sometimes the farmers take no notice of such pathways, and the choice is to either cut across their crops or circumnavigate a large field.

Luckily on this route the farmer had considerately left an extra-wide path through the middle of his cornfield.  It is possible (and I've had to do it) to squeeze through the standard between rows of corn, but I'd rather not have to.

There was some impressive sights on this walk, including views across to the Malverns, and of Croome court.  A nice, easy 15km walk.