WALES COAST PATH 2017 Chester, June 19-22

The adventures narrated heretofore (?) will, as they unfold, enlighten the reader as to the reason for the tardiness of this post. Did arrive without too much incident, “got sorted,”visited the Chester Zoo, about which more later with photographs, and then, on the eve of the second day, crises did befall. Whilst ambling about, checking the GPS, received a bad notice that the device was full. Did hasten straight way to remove data, but computer went dead and GPS froze.

Not being yet in the wilds, I harnessed all my energy to solve these problems all the while trying to suppress a sense of utter terror. An Apple Store in Liverpool. Oh joy! Liverpool 45 minutes away by train. This is doable. Arrived early, very early, to be first in line (smart move!) and Ben did set things straight. Luck improving.

On to sporting goods emporia. Nary a one carried anything more up-to-date than an eTrex. This is like telling someone who drives a 2017 Audi that they would do just fine with an early model Volkswagon. Now I must interrupt the narrative here to tell you that Liverpool is a metropolis with more HUGE shopping centers than the mind can process, and they are one next to the other. A little outpost we are not talking here. After trying hiking and sporting goods stores, the kind that are big enough to have branches in other cities, and having no success, and almost ready to have one overnighted—and where to send it exactly would be a problem because overnight does not necessarily mean overnight— one vendor did do search and found that in Manchester, an hour’s train ride away, there was an Oregon 650 available for sale.

Did extract many pounds sterling from ATM in case credit card was not happy with the purchase, and bought a new unit+map, after which, was overcome with a sense of relief so profound that I ate a peach.

Then, on train back to Liverpool, for that was the best way to get back to Chester (well, maybe it wasn’t, but that was the combination of tickets I had), I decided to look at the adaptor I had purchased at Apple—details unnecessary at this point—which cost about twice as much as it does in the Sates, and, luckily, before it was too late, did note that the genius who had gotten my computer going that very morning, had put the wrong item in the right box. Back to Apple.

Exhausted, utterly, from the heat and worry and having to find my way about, I started preparing for the next day, that being the first day’s walk. Marvelling at the fact that with so much to do, my watch was reading 5:50 for an awfully long time……..

After that kvetch, I bet you are ready for some pictures of Chester and the zoo!

This clock on the wall—Chester has about two miles of city walls that you can walk around. Some people call this going to Chester to walk. This fancy clock on the wall allows you to orient yourself, after you descend the steps, except when you are too stupid to remember in which direction you want to go or had come from, as the case may be. It is, nonetheless, a very pretty clock:

On the wall, there are doors that open and doors that do not. On which does opportunity knock?

Here is a fact about elephants. They have very sensitive skin! Who knew? This is why they throw mud on themselves and spray themselves and such. And look at the little baby:

Great big Galapagos turtles (tortoises?)

A friend of the Galapagos turtles (I made that up) who lives in an attractive house:

Shiny tiny blue frog:

And a couple of little green ones. There were some gorgeous orange, foetal looking specimens, but they did not want their picture taken, so you will have to look at the bored-looking green ones: