My first 'trial walk' at the beginning of the month revealed that my seventeen year-old Meindl walking boots were no longer waterproof.
Two days later I popped into London to get a new pair.
I hadn't walked that many miles in them before I began to feel some pain in my Lateral Malleolus. There was nothing to see on the surface; no bruising or blistering. It was like an invisible bruise and it kept getting worse. I blamed the new boots and decided that I could manage by wearing my old boots and a pair of waterproof socks.
So, from the end of last week I took a four day break from hiking to give my ankle a chance to get a bit better and then on Monday morning I popped my trusty old boots back on. I didn't even get a hundred yards before the bone became so painful that I had to give up.
At that point I had just ten days left before setting out on my pilgrimage. This was not ideal. I made a quick trip into Hemel Hempstead and got myself a pair of Merrell walking shoes. They feel great. I'd still much rather be walking in boots, not shoes, and I'd still much rather have my feet encased in leather not fabric (in spite of the fact that I'm trusting good old Gore-Tex to protect the rest of me from the elements!), but frankly it was shoes or not making the walk at all.
Unfortunately this prolonged shoe drama means that I haven't got anything like the miles under my belt that I'd like. I'm going to try and make up for that over the next three days.
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Listening to the wind outside this morning I'm very aware that a lot of the places that I'm going to be visiting over the next few weeks are getting absolutely battered by a storm right now. Keeping all those affected in my prayers.
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