worth while

 Take those anti blood pressure pills in the early morning with a cup of coffee and two poached eggs. Poached eggs in the morning is a new delight, vinegar and salt in boiling water, and when it boils, break in an egg. Put on the toast, when finished, butter it and take the eggs out of the water with a suitable instrument.  It tastes good, and is probably just as unhealthy as any other breakfast, but not as unhealthy as no breakfast.

Decide to put on the rain pantalons, it is snowing outside and snow is wet when it melts on trouser legs. Take the walk up to the castle and through the park to the public lavatories at the car park. This is the last chance before the circuit is completed, and it is as well to  include it in the plans. It is snowing hard by the time the outskirts of the town are passed, and up on the heath the snow is blowing nearly horizontally with the wind. For a while there are no tracks to follow, but then there are more and more. There are tracks of people, dogs and bicycles.

Follow the path around the reservoir, watch all the ducks and coots and swans and cormorants. They are not really comfortable in the weather, all staying in tight groups on the water. Except for the cormorants, who perch on logs and tree trunks in the water digesting their fish. Some spread their wings in an attempt to dry their feathers.

Walk through the town, it is three in the afternoon. Because of the snow, walking was a little more difficult, and it took nearly seven hours to cover the twenty five kilometres.

The beauty of the landscape and the wildness of the weather were worth the cold.