Day 29 – 21 miles to Martincourt

Today turned out not to be about the walking. We’ll get that over with first. A long slog today. Lots of very straight, very long forest tracks or farm tracks. And not often going south.

Two events of note – tried to multitask by walking and checking my glasses at the same time. Result = fell over and twisted my leg. Felt OK but tonight my thigh muscle is starting to throb.

Got to the campsite in the ‘recent’ guidebook – it’s been closed for 10 years. I suspect my guide writer is a charlatan, who has copied other people’s older works but not checked any of the facts.

Second event – there was a wedding party who had rented the ex-campsite for the weekend. I found a place to camp in the village, went back to the wedding to buy some beer off them. They gave me a couple of pints and wouldn’t let me pay for it.

Today’s reflections. One of the nondescript forests today had a World War 1 memorial in the middle of it. It was a bit larger than most, but I didn’t give it much attention.

A bit further on there was an information board. In this nondescript forest in 1914 and 1915, 22000 men didn’t get make it back out.

To hammer home the point, the cemetary is on the edge of the forest.

Today’s appropriate flower.