Log No 248. Mon 17th Feb 2014 - Bridgwater to watchet, 20 miles (3778 miles walked)

Things didn't go according to plan today, we caught the first bus okay at 08.00 but roadworks delayed the trip to Taunton by 75 minutes, more than double the journey time, and we eventually got to Bridgwater at 11.00.

We had 20 miles to do and the only bus back was at 18.00, in theory we should manage it okay but with miles of footpaths it was going to take more than 7 hours and we couldn't afford to miss the bus.

We were going to have to miss out the headland at Steart at the mouth of the River Parrett.

Leaving Bridgwater we stayed on the roads to Combswich stopping for some lunch at a bridge over a small stream. When we got up to go Mick's mat that he had been sitting on blew into the stream. He was lucky it was just in at the edge and he was able to pull it out.

The weather was lousy, nothing new there, the showers in the morning had become persistent in the afternoon and we decided to walk inland a bit on the road instead of a wet & muddy coastal footpath.

Road signs said the road to Shurton was closed and to follow the diversion signs but we carried on hoping to be able to get through, we didn't want to have to take a detour. Expecting it to be closed by a flood we found it was just road works and there was no problem.

Passing through Shurton I was surprised to see a sign closer to home.

We finished off our lunch in a bus shelter then continued along the minor road to join the busy A39. With no verges and high hedges this was stop-start until West Quantoxhead where we could get onto the minor road to Watchet.

We got to the bus stop in Watchet at 17.35, the next bus to Minehead was due at 17.36, this was coming from Taunton but with all the road works we didn't expect it to be on time. We couldn't believe it when it arrived on time but the driver told us he had left Minehead for Taunton at 13.00 but when he still hadn't got there after 3 hours had turned around to return to Minehead.

A wet 20 miles.