Glorious Walk with Gremlins

[Razouski]

As I did a long run yesterday and had my legs aching all evening, I decided that today would be a rest day, and I would resist the temptation to join Parkrun.

The gremlin that sometimes inhabits my other half was no where to be seen or heard, so imagine my surprise when Mar R suggested we go for a walk this afternoon. The sun was shining and there was blue sky overhead so we set off for Tring, with a route around the Great a Park and Wiggington printed out and in my pocket.

We started off well, but as we entered the main part of the park, I didn't notice Mr R's gremlin returning to possess him, so when he said that the route was to our right when I was convinced we should be heading more to the left, I didn't question it, but followed where he was pointing. After a couple of km we started to realise that the instructions on the printed route seemed to bear no relation to what was around us. Had the gremlins moved the obelisk to Nell Gwynn, and then taken down a Georgian summer house?

We then tried to guess which way we should be and ended up doubling back on ourselves and following a very strange route. By the time we got to Wiggington those pesky critters had definitely got the upper hand, moving sign posts and sending us on a wild goose chase around some fields in completely the wrong direction. They then started on Mr R's knees and although he was putting. A rave face on it I could tell he was in some discomfort. We'd covered about 6.5 km by now and I decided it was time to ditch the planned route, resort to GPS and find the most direct route back to the park and then to the car.

The gremlins were definitely having a giggle as we back tracked over part of our outward pathway, but then replaced the obelisk and summer house which we were able to walk past and admire. Their final piece of trickery was to invoke a very heavy shower upon us, so by the time we got back to the car we were pretty much soaked.

MapMyRun told me we covered 10.7 km, so we took ourselves off to a little country pub for some libation ( him a pint of real ale, me a frothy hot chocolate). Despite the gremlins we had a lovely walk, not sure it was much of a rest day though.

[Maddee_6333 Graduate]

Good old GPS, it's a wonderful thing. You thoroughly deserved your libations x

[Hidden]

Hi Razouski,

What a lovely post.

You had me scanning the distance, looking for obelisks, at one time i'm sure I glimpsed what maybe was a Gremlin.

All the best.