Day 1 Chester to Bagillt (18.7 miles)

Finally underway! I stayed last night with my sister-in-law on the Wirral (my brother is starting a cycle ride from London to Barcelona today!) and she kindly dropped me off at the station for the 15 minute train journey to Chester. I headed straight for Chester Cathedral, the unofficial start of the Wales Coast Path.
Inside, the choir was practicing and I felt quite uplifted as organ and vocals filtered out around my departure point. On the moment the bells struck ten o'clock, I took my first steps of this daunting journey and navigated towards the river footpath. It was heaving with Sunday cyclists and a few runners, but no walkers. I soon met up with my good friend from Liverpool FC, Roy, who lives nearby and walked with me for 90 minutes. 
The promised rain didn't materialise and walking conditions were ideal.My load is rather lighter (30 lbs) than when I walked from John O' Groats to Land's End and today's terrain was pretty flat, but after walking 18 miles I felt quite tired. I need to grow into this.
My old university friends Gordon and Shelley met me at the end and drove me to their house, where I'll be staying for the next few days.
My approach to the journey is to take one day at a time, so it's great to be able to tick off the first, especially having waited 3 years for it.

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