Andy's LEJOG challenge: Exmoor, Roadwater, Bridgwater, Cheddar, and to just outside Bristol

28.4.11 to 2.5.11
Exmoor lovely walking, ponies and deer. Slept in a shooting barn on a farm; Sal slept on a wide bench and fell off in the middle of the night with a bang, slightly limping, walked it off (Sal not me).
I had a birthday visit from my wife and our friends Buster and Sue, the dogs George and Milly, who drove down to Somerset for the weekend. We eventually found each other in Bridgwater (the guide book says it's not a pretty place - it's not - it's Scunny on a bad day...). So I got to stay in a B&B for a couple of nights (lovely farmhouse location, with views of Glastonbury Tor, in Cossington outside Bridgwater; the villages in the Somerset levels were lovely; the Sexeys Arms at Blackford was very hospitable and the Red Tile in Cossington was one of the best pubs and food ever). The company was good, the weather was fine, warm and windy. I got to walk for one day with a lighter pack - bliss!
And what a way to celebrate your fiftieth birthday!!! It was Happy Birthday to me on Saturday. Very special thanks to Jo and Stu for the gift - YNWA, ever, he's keeping me going, he never gets tired!
I guess Stu will be tired too - hope the rowing went well - down the Trent from Newark to Nottingham is no mean feat and for another well deserving charity that helped James as well as the Leukaemia research - Wish upon a Star; giving children with life threatening illnesses holidays and treats. There are lots of special people out there who work really hard fundraising for all charities, and even more that give generously to them - please continue, it really is appreciated and makes a huge difference. Thank you very much :o)
Sal has been very tired so she's gone home for a rest and will join me again later (probably sooner than I think because my wife says the tired dog I had is not the dog that she's got at home....but it's much easier without her as she's the only border collie that has no idea what to do at stiles and I have to lift her over). She's done 247 miles with me.
Dianne wasn't very pleased to get an electric shock during our walk on the levels - there were lots of electric fences and cattle. The tracks in the fields are invisible - no one goes walking in this area - lots of very quiet road walking and some good tracks. And George and Sal enjoyed rolling in as many smelly, muddy things as they could find.
Met hardly any people on the walking in this area and shops for food are very few and far between.
It was hard to set off walking on my own again on Monday morning but made good progress and am walking through edge of Bristol and over the water into Wales and Chepstow today to the start of the Offa's Dyke path.
That should be about 313 miles by tonight! That's 25 per cent done; I thought I was never going to get to the end of the South West coast.