John Jones and the Reluctant Ramblers: on stage at the North Devon Beer Festival in Barnstaple.
First gig of the tour!
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The advantages of playing a Beer Festival…
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…and this is what awaits the thirsty Ramblers when they come down from Exmoor… Playing a Beer Festival has certain benefits…
North Devon Beer Festival – Barnstaple Pannier Market
This is where JJ and the Ramblers will be playing later tonight.
Day 1: Exmoor – the tour begins
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And the walk is underway! Shoulsbury castle trig point. Highest point of the day on Exmoor (472 metres). Heavy showers but short & intermittent followed by bright sunlight. The ground saturated & heavy going. All 40 walkers have done amazingly well so far.
(Meanwhile, the van team – who spent the morning swapping Oysterband instruments and gear out of the van and loading walking tour gear and PA – have arrived in Devon and are having the first debate of the tour about whether the jam or the cream goes on first. Practical tests inconclusive, further study required).
JJ and the band in the Western Morning News
JJ interview in the North Devon Journal
JJ walks to Oysterband’s Bristol gig: day 4.
Sitting in the Devil’s Pulpit overlooking Tintern Abbey…We’ve walked for four hours this morning, a very tough walk but it took us through beautiful beech woods with the sun coming through the leaves and the scent of wild garlic.
Yesterday was beautiful countryside and a good walk during which we saw a hare as well as the snake.
Now we have about five miles to go to Chepstow and then a couple of miles across the bridge where I will get picked up for the return to my other life. I’ll be back with Oysterband this afternoon and I promise the Bristol audience that I will be there this time: showered, changed and on stage tonight! JJ
JJ walks to Oysterband’s Bristol gig – day 3, with serpents…
Look closely…yes, that really IS a snake…
JJ demonstrates that walking to a gig really does produce experiences that you don’t get in a tour bus…
Food on the Devon walking tour…
Just sorted out the food orders for the band, crew and core walkers (thanks to Fran for collecting numbers) for all the various pubs we are stopping at on the Devon walking tour….it came to 182 meals so far, with a few things still to arrange…If others are joining us at any of the lunch stops or any of the evening venues which serve food, it might be a good idea to book in advance as they will be busy!
JJ walks to the Bristol gig – day 2 – up on the ridge
The difficult second day! We were joined for the long climb out of Hay up to Hay Bluff by Pete Roberts and his Akita dog, Nina. We are now at 703 metres, the highest point of the whole walk. heading along one of the vast ridges of the Black Mountains. Once you’re up here, the landscape changes dramatically. The path is shale and sometimes sand, very eroded, so you have to watch your feet. In some places we are walking on vast granite
slabs, so that it feels like a granite corridor through the grass, with bulruishes coming up through the peat. Cotton grass, bilberries ansd heather are all emerging. This ridge is like walking along the back of a whale. Off to my right the five ridges of the Black Mountains like the fingers of a hand. To my left the ridge known as the Cat’s Back and further east and south the rolling landscape of Herefordshire. The path along this ridge is 12 miles long. I wonder if anyone will meet us in the Pandy Inn this evening? We’ll get there sometime between 5 and 6 o’clock. JJ
John Jones and the Reluctant Ramblers 