My part-time job as a shepherd

Only 10 days to go before I set out from Crediton to Bath. Today started dull and gloomy as I set out for my training walk to Sidmouth. You know you are getting old when 5 minutes into the walk you wonder if you remembered to close the garage door and have to walk a quarter of a mile back home just in case you hadn't. I had of course closed it. Never mind I was off on the road again and because of my delay caught up with a friend of mine who was walking his dog. Had I not gone back I would have missed him! As I got to Branscombe  the woods were full of wild garlic and bluebells it was wonderful! On leaving Branscombe I found a sheep in the road apparently lost. Traffic was coming in both directions up the narrow road and I had to stop cars and direct them round him. This went on for about a quarter of a mile until I managed to chase him round a bungalow and into a field. I then got somebody to call the farmer and I headed of to Sidmouth! On the final stretch to Sidmouth along the coastal path I met a walker who was doing the south coast path and on Sunday had walked 23 miles in the rain. Poor him I thought, but as he had also cycled right the way across Australia from Perth to Sydney this must have seemed easy. A large ice cream in Sidmouth refreshed my spirits!