By the time we found the turn that led out of the forest and along the river, I was ready for a change of scenery, and Nesbit had walked far enough for a seven-month-old puppy. I slipped him into the dog sling that I’d borrowed from Yasmin, grateful that the cows who lived in the fields had congregated far enough away that he didn’t spend the whole time trying to wriggle out and introduce himself. We reached the pub only an hour or so behind schedule, and, in keeping with Joan’s warning, hadn’t once needed to leave the track.

Is there anything better than sitting in a pretty pub garden beside a river on a warm summer’s day, sipping on a glass of cider, trusty canine snoozing at your feet, watching the boats glide by as you wait for your chicken and leek pie?

Right then, I couldn’t think of it.

An older couple stopped to chat for a few minutes when their Labrador said hello to Nesbit, and I couldn’t help noticing that a group of men at another table had definitely noticed me, but instead of feeling self-conscious, sitting here alone on a Saturday lunchtime, I felt proud of myself. Proud, confident and maybe the teeniest bit tipsy, once I’d decided to treat myself to a second cider.

It may have been the cider that resulted in the afternoon route proving, shall we say, a little more complicated. Maybe it was simply down to being in unfamiliar countryside. Either way, I have to confess that a hot, tired Nesbit and I, while keeping on some sort of track, definitely abandoned the one I’d planned for us to walk on, until I had no idea where we were or where we were meant to be going.

I might have retraced my steps back to the pub, except that it felt like an age since lunchtime, and I had no clue how to get back there. I’d lost phone signal three wrong turns ago, and on this current route, in a dip between two hillsides, there wasn’t another person or potential dwelling place to be seen.

My back was aching from the puppy sling. There was the beginning of a blister on one heel and I really, really wanted a cup of tea.

‘What do you think?’ I asked Nesbit, who I’d removed from the sling while we sized up the options. ‘Turn back, or keep pressing on?’

Nesbit cocked his head to one side.

‘Try that footpath up there? I hadn’t even seen that one. Now you’ve made things even more complicated.’