Ruby walk

There is such a social stigma attached to wearing shoes that, frankly, I have given up the battle and now habitually don them in many public places for example when shopping.  And so, the day after my 15 mile run, I found myself obliged to wear shoes and somehow pulled a muscle - when used to going barefoot can you believe that shoes can sometimes cause injury?  I had an odd half hour to myself whilst Ali was doing her habitual shopping in Tiverton so I set out to (briefly) explore an inviting looking grassy hillside and the Grand Western canal which terminates here. This exercise to double as a pulled-muscle test. By the end of the day my foot was better so did not stop the following day's run to be described in my next post.

The grassy hill in question is above the 'O' of "Tiverton"

Tiverton from the grassy hill

The Grand Western canal (visible on the right hand side of my map) originally ran from Taunton to Tiverton but today only an 11 mile section starting (or ending) in Tiverton remains open. The Tiverton canal basin has become somewhat commercialised with a floating coffee shop and car park charges. Neither interested me as a barefoot walker. What did interest me was that the canal here ends on the side of a reasonably steep hill, with attendant substantial buttressing on the lower side. One wonders what exactly had to be transported from Taunton to Tiverton and what they did with it once offloaded half way up this hillside.

The canal basin

Floating coffee shop

And so I duly returned to the Tesco carpark at the appointed 12:30.

Tiverton main drag