Day 4: Hay-on-wye
0 miles. Laundry and a relaxing day strolling Hay-on-Wye. We had separate rooms, which means Shari didn’t have to listen to my snoring and I didn’t get jabbed and told to roll over.
We had a leisurely breakfast with a Canadian couple who were biking, in reverse, a route very similar to ours. They too were traveling independently, something which is apparently a bit unusual here. A discussion about Marmite came up, and of course Shari just had to try the stuff no matter how we tried to convince her otherwise. By the time she got round to opening the little tub all eyes in the dining room were, unbeknownst to her, upon here and laughter rocked the room when she tasted the stuff and immediately grimaced. She shoulda’ listened when we told her the stuff is nasty!
Hay is a pretty town, filled with bookshops – it’s the used book center of the country, and people come from allover just to shop. It’s also a hub for outdoor activities; Anna from the cycle shop, who graciously helped us find our lodging, even suggested we go canoeing if we wanted to use some different muscles!
The rest of the day was spent casually exploring the town, catching up on email and blogs, walking just enough to keep our legs stretched. The night we arrived my feet had red, bumpy blotches all over them, rather like a non-itchy heat rash, as well as some darker colored blotches on the top of them that I blithely assumed were part of my Keen’s tan I’d gotten in Nova Scotia. They also seemed swollen but i thought this likely was just my imagination; the entire foot hurt so i didn’t concern myself with the particularities. By last night I realized the dark splotches were actually swollen bruises going across my foot, presumably from having too little cushion on the top of my socks. So, I need to make some fit adjustments to my footwear else I’m likely to have an uncomfortable 200 miles of walking! Shari’s foot soreness seems more likely related to hard surfaces than a fit problem, and will hopefully pass in a day or two. Lucky wench…
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