WHW: Day 5 - FANTASTIC!!

Heavenly!! Today was absolutely heavenly! Started at 10:45 am after a very leisurely breakfast and chatting with other guests and B&B hosts (the perk to a shorter mileage day!) and arrived at 4:15 pm. Highlights: thus far, this was my favorite part of the walk. Stunning. And no traffic noise =). It was a brilliant day, crossing through a gorgeous valley in solitude, with a few short interactions. I absolutely loved the tranquility of being alone today. PLUS there was sunshine!! For a whopping 5 minutes! I put on my sunglasses (maybe more because I wanted than needed to) but still, it made everything even more spectacular!! And two new delicious baby food packs today =) "pumpkin-apple-carrot" and "sweet potato-carrot-brown rice." YUM to both!! Celebrating: NO RAIN (especially ecstatic about this one as a fellow walker told me this morning that the forecast for the day was "showers"), NO MIDGES, NO MOSQUITOES, NO BLISTERS AND NO CHAFING!! Tremendous! I couldn't be happier! Disappointment of the day: that I arrived at my destination!!! Today was the polar opposite of yesterday's last three miles. I did not want it to end! When I realized that I was only 3 miles away from my end-point, I started taking a lot more breaks, slowed my pace significantly and made a more concerted effort to soak it all in. I wanted it to last for at least 3 more hours!! My feet felt great, my body felt great, the sun had broken through some clouds, everything was just magnificent! Today was significantly shorter than yesterday as far as mileage goes and the path was even easier (minus my "frustration of the day," to follow...) My feet haven't felt so refreshed since the first day....I will be golf-ball-rolling daily from now on =). I hadn't before because my feet didn't feel THAT bad, but I have now decided to incorporate it every night. I was truly shocked by how good my feet felt all day. Excellent!! Frustration of the day : about 40% of the path was super slippery!! If you imagine a sort of dodgy cobblestone path, that's a rough idea of what I had under my feet, and the rocks were all really slick from rain last night (I think also they might just always be slightly humid from how wet the ground is everywhere). In any case, every few steps, my foot would slide back abruptly and it made it nearly impossible to maintain a regular walking rhythm. Frustrating because the rest of the aspects of the path would have made for setting a great pace. But such it was. I think I can get past that. =) Met some folks from London for dinner who gave me all kinds of tips and things to do and see when I make it to London. Top Notch!