It would have been criminal not to have gone out walking in the gorgeous sunshine of Sunday afternoon. With longer evenings and stronger legs, I’m now able to take a more relaxed approach to long walk days – a lie in followed by an extended breakfast of cake tea and gossip, before leisurely turning thoughts to routes, maps and packed lunch.
We chose to walk along the estuary to Exmouth (and then back towards Exeter as far as Topsham). Beautiful sunshine was peppered with cartoonish little cumulus clouds, with just enough of a breeze and nip in the air that to be sitting down might be a little too chilly, walking generating just the perfect toasty body temperature. A perfect spring day, and a perfect day for a walk. The route, very popular with cyclists, is flat underfoot and therefore easy going, and without the need for heavy leather walking boots weighing us down we made good time, power-walking our way down the coast. The western side of the estuary, through Starcross and Teignmouth, is arguably more picturesque, as it runs for longer sections right next to the water, providing some fantastic views. However, there was much to enjoy on the walk to Exmouth too, particularly as we wandered through Topsham and Exton, where we struggled to decide which houses we admired the most – and whether a rotating turret would be a structurally sound addition.
Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was wearing light-weight running shoes, or maybe spring was simply in the air, but 44514 steps, 33.8km, 1813 calories and 137.4g of fat seemed to simply fly past. It was only the last 2 miles, really, that began to feel tough, and much of this can be blamed on our decision (testament to generally favourable energy levels) to jog large sections in order to not miss the train at Topsham.
Once home, I treated myself to a curry from the Nepalese takeaway across the road, and feel asleep to the dulcet tones of How I met your Mother streaming over Netflix. Tired enough to have made it worthwhile, but not so shattered that I couldn’t enjoy it; the perfect training walk.
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