LOST, AGAIN

Once again--can you believe this--we managed to get totally lost, this time in the woods adjacent to our hotel.  This was the walk for which we had failed to find the trailhead on our first day in the New Forest, and we had been assured that it was clearly marked and easy to follow  The paths were broad and nicely graveled...

... and there were landmarks like this lovely stream...

... and this upturned tree.  There were even little markers at intersections, with little arrows for pedestrians and bikers.  Impossible, you would think, to get lost.  But we did.  We found ourselves on long straight stretches like this one...

... with absolutely no sense of direction.  Somewhere, we must have missed a turn, to taken a wrong one, because we soon realized we were not approaching out destination, nothing looked familiar, and the paths, at every intersection, stretched out toward infinity.  And for most of the time there was not a single fellow human being in sight.  We had planned on an hour's walk, intending on a quick breakfast and an early-ish start on the next leg of our journey, to Cheltenham, for a visit with my sister.  The hour stretched into an hour and a half, and it became really quite frightening, the prospect of endless paths, all leading nowhere.  Finally, in the far distance at first, we spotted two shapes that seemed to be approaching us.  As they grew nearer, they turned into a couple enjoying a morning's bike ride and, once hailed, they pointed us in approximately the right direction.  "It's complicated," they said.  They wanted to complete their circuit, but promised to find us further along the route and bring us to the place where we had left our car.

What a relief!  By this time, we were both body-weary, much humbled by the experience, and grateful to have finally found some help.  A good, Buddhist lesson about the uncertainty of our lives!

So we finally did get our breakfast, packed, and set out on the long drive through Salisbury (we regretted not to have time to visit the cathedral, but admired it as we sped past), Marlborough and Swindon to Cheltenham, whose rather elegant city center with its nest of pedestrian-only and one-way streets offers plenty of opportunity to those with a propensity to get lost.  We did.  Don't ask.  But eventually found our B&B, the Hanover House, a Georgian row house conveniently located near the hospital where my sister underwent surgery a few days ago.  We found her in remarkably good spirits, full of gratitude for her family, her medical staff, a life well lived--even though with a now uncertain future.  A lovely reunion, in less than happy circumstances,

On the way back to our B&B a little later--we got lost!  But managed to be back in time to meet up with our niece and her son, Hugo, who just yesterday turned 18 years old, and went out, the four of us, for a pleasant dinner at a local Jamie Oliver joint.  Today, we hang out in Cheltenham and make another hospital visit; and tomorrow, hit the motorway for the trek back to London...