Tuesday 21st JulyDay 3

ODO 364 - 364: 0km

RAIN! Heavy rain. So I slept.

Today I lived within a five metre radius, mostly beneath my tarp where is was dry. It rained solid and at times quite heavily near enough all day. I have been thankful for my over catered suppy of food and water, including yesterdays free roadside marrow. Did I mention the marrow?

A quaint village on a quiet country lane sat sleepy and calm. On a small road side stand stood a basket of fresh produce including among many things several good size marrow and plenty of berries. Donations. Your proceeds contribute towards the towns local plotlands. The irony of rural living without enough space to have your own vegetable patch. To be fair it did say community plot so it is possible they farm quite a large plot and all work together to reduce the work load or something.

Having extra water proved to be not quite as important today as I thought. I collected in total ten litres of rain water. Filled bottles, drank, cooked and washed with water from the sky. Going to the toilet on the other hand was a different challenge. Attempting number twos in the wild whilst it is raining is an art form unto itself. Suffice to say the smell beneath the poncho was unbearable and I could hardly see so I bit the bullet and got a little wet instead. Thankfully the trees afforded me some shelter from the weather.

I read and slept and ate and stared into space then simply repeated those things over and over not necessarily in the same sequence. The day passed but not without some thought into whether or not at this rate id ever reach Scotland before my cousins went on holiday. With hindsight how insightful I was. But at the time I knew not of how far it was or what sort of pace id be able to maintain or how the hills would effect me. Or what surprises were in store for me.

My thoughts once again returned to reducing weight. I figured even a slight reduction would be worth the effort. Things had to go! I started to put together a mental list and justify their loss to myself.

The tent - my sleep system was working well. If it were raining and there were many mosquitoes or bugs and I was in a field with no tress or anything to tie a line to it may prove difficult to erect. Therefore, I should try and avoid this situation and deal with it should it ever materialise. But the tent was an unused deap weight. Apart from being quite heavy it took up a lot of space as well.

Cutlery - My wide selection of metal cutlery could be replaced with a good pair of plastic chop sticks, a plastic spork and a small sharp knife. This meant having to stir my tea with the same spoon as the one I ate my porrdige with but I think I could manage.

Chopping board - It gets used very little and whilst it is nice to have it can be replaced by a much thinner and lighter one. Something around the same size but only a few mm thick.

Aftershave - don't even ask what I was thinking.

Fleece vest - Im sure ill be warm enough with the other clothes I have even in very cold conditions. I like the vest. I like its style but it takes up too much space and gets used infrequently. If it had zip off arms then perhaps the fleece jumper could go but it doesnt so it shall be exiled.

A book - One at a time. I don't read overly fast anyway and im not about to read two books at once. Not only are they heavy but they are bulky. If I was to feel the need for more literature I could always spend some time sitting in a library or simply hit an Oxfam and purchase another.

I did need a tea towel though. I wondered what hikers did? Do they even take one? Perhaps a very small travel towel or chamois would be multifunctional. Something I could have a look around for in the future.

It was a lovely day of rest but towards its end I became restless and concerned that sleeping through the night would be difficult after having slept most of the day. I hoped the weather would improve. I looked forward to my late night picnic spot guests which i realise i neglected to mention previously. It seemed my camp spot was also a local venue for the young and directionless to drink, play their rave music, kick a football and perform burnouts in the car park. My camp behind the trees have proven itself very well hidden and in over 24 hours only one man had even noticed my presence whilst sneaking off for a cigarette under the pretence that he was walking the dog.