I am gradually working through the photos from our recent walking holiday in Shropshire and have finally finished those from the first full day. The reason we had picked Shropshire as a destination is that, several years ago, we were given some guidebooks to the area and wanted to try out some of the routes. The best presented one was about the Mortimer Trail and we decided to start with the five mile Shobdon Loop (actually in Herefordshire and very close to the Welsh border).

Two particular incidents will stick in our mind from the day. Firstly, there was the field of pollen. The route led us from a golf course to the margins of a field and, although there was a clear path, it was surrounded by long grasses. As I walked ahead, Jane called out to me to stop because every step was releasing a cloud of pollen. We stopped to take some pictures and then proceeded carefully on. As someone who has suffered from hayfever, I was quite surprised to find myself relatively unaffected but it could have put a damper on the day, despite the beauty of the swirling clouds of fine dust.

And then there was the horse in the next field. We treat horses with respect but this one didn’t want to afford us the same courtesy and kept coming up and trying to stand between us. We slowly made it across the field (there was no other choice if we were going to continue the walk) but would rather it had been on the other side of a fence.

Everything after that seemed relatively easy going and not quite so full of adventure, but a pleasant walk nonetheless.

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