Done

 I'm in London now and done with the Path. It was raining and windy when I finished, and I was dizzy so I muffled the End of the Path monument shot. So instead, this is what it looks like looking back towards it from the ferry taking me away.

The last week on the Path was mostly rainy, like all the rest of my time on the Path. In addition to the rain, and mud, and damp, and cold, I entertained my old friend vertigo. Friends that know me well are already aware of my 'condition', where I occasionally experience persistent mild to moderate dizziness. Not bad really, but bad enough that for the last week I walked inland as much as possible, on the South Devon Ridge Path to avoid walking along the tops of cliffs. Still, there were a few that were unavoidable.

These stairs, when you're dizzy, are annoying. This vertigo thing I've had before, and it stays with me for about a month. I'd like to think it's brought on by overwork or physical exhaustion, but it's equally likely it comes from allergies or sinful thoughts. At any rate, it doesn't seem to affect cognitive ability or the heart-lung-leg machine that moves me along so I  was able to keep to schedule and get my miles done. It was just annoying.

The last day on the trail proper was especially annoying because Antoni, the first named Atlantic storm of the season, came ashore just as I was finishing the Coast Path. Antoni broke the all time recorded windspeed for August in Britain of 80 mph sustained. The gusts, I'm sure, were a little more. I had four hours of it, and recorded some of it for you.

As you can see, extremely annoying weather for backpacking.

I spent a day in Bournemouth, drying out, buying some new clothes and dumpstering the old. I had a few days on my hands before my flight home and the weather, after the storm, was turning nice. But the nice weather, perversely, decided me not to go back and walk the portion of trail I'd bussed around. My experience of the 650 miles or so of the Salt Path that I'd done had been mostly wet, mildewy, and uncomfortable. It seemed fitting somehow to leave it at that, instead of finishing off with a little ribbon of pleasant weather. Antoni, it seemed to me, had given me a proper send-off already. Besides, there were cliffs back there. And cliffs are annoying when you're walking dizzy and feeling stoned.

So where do you go in England if you're walking dizzy and feeling stoned? Stonehenge!  I took a bus inland onto the Salisbury plain to the nearest legitimate campsite, just 14 miles from Stonehenge. The next morning I walked in the 'back' way, through a tank driver training field for Ukrainians to learn NATO tanks, ultra-rich polo pony farms and estates, and finally the odd collection of illegally camped druid wannabes drawn to the Henge. Some were dancing, or shrieking, and most smelled of cannabis.  All of them looked to be like me though, dizzy and stoned.

The Stonehenge stones really are cool, and impressively big, and I took several photos. But for some reason, my phone won't back them up to the cloud so I can't post them onto the blog. Maybe the photos were taken too close to the vortex or something. So instead I'll attach a pic of tank hulks that are used for target practice in the training field.

I met Morté, also taking pictures there, and he offered me a ride. Over the next two hours driving into London, Morté and I became unlikely but remarkable friends. 

Then I spent a day with Ken, a penpal and lifetime Londoner and he showed me the 'hit list' of touristy sites as well as the old historic districts that had been the haunts of the "wharf ruffians, artists, actors, and prostitutes." We walked past the old Clink Street jail. I told Ken that we have an expression 'getting thrown in the clink' for going to jail.  The expression, Ken told me, isn't used in England at all but must have come from that jail there under the bridge on the bank of the Thames. 

My last days here I'll spend in museums, walking along the canals, and as I always do in cities, looking for urinals.  

Difficult to do when you're dizzy. It will be nice to be home again.