Day 4 Saturday

Only 13 miles today - to Bodmin - a relief after yesterday's 20. A very cold wind plus some rain kept us in waterproofs all day.

Day 3 - Friday 27th March

We are in Indian Queens. Strange name.
Today turned out to be quite a hard day. The estimated 18 miles was actually 20.4 and we didn't arrive at the B&B until 6.00 pm:
It's been a showery day and we got a bit damp and cold.
Tomorrow should be a shorter day.
We are about to go out for a Cornish Chinese meal - pasty chow mein I would guess.

Day 2

Sore feet and aching legs but we've completed our second day. Janet has gone home so we are unsupported and carrying everything we need.
We taked about American presidents, Abba!, Apples, Accrington Stanley!! etc. Some sort of theme here........
Andrew talked about aggregates for over 20 minutes. Fascinating stuff.
The pub we had planned as our lunch time stop was closed. We bought some food mid afternoon and ate it sitting on a wall

Day 1 - Wednesday 25th March 2009

This is it! We are underway!
We are now back in Goldsithney having walked 18 miles from Lands End. Weather fine but a bit windy.
Couldn't find our way to the coast path in Penzance because of roadworks. Asked the lady in the tourist office where the start of St. Michael's Way (linking Penzance and Marazion) was. She said, 'It starts in Marazion', and produced a book to prove it. I rephrased my question: Can you tell me where the end of St Michael's Way is?

Advice

I've been given the odd bit of advice - mainly on how to look after my feet. Advice which includes soaking the feet in salt water, soaking them in spirit (No chance! If we get hold of any spirit we'll drink it) and rubbing them in vaseline.

When I was walking to Reading today (last minute training!) I met a man in his late 50's or early 60's with three randomly distributed front teeth who asked me how far I was walking. "Six and a half miles each way" I replied "but next Wednesday I'll be setting off to walk from Lands End to John O'Groats".

"You must be one of the idiots I read about in the Wargrave News" he said. "I've done that walk and it's very good but you don't want to bother with b&b's or camping. You should rough it. A piece of tarpulin is all you need."

"Are you ex services?" he went on to ask. I wondered if I had somehow acquired some military bearing from my two years as a Cub Scout when I was 9 or 10 but I said no I wasn't. "I still think you should rough it. And you can get water in churches" he said as I backed away and continued my way along the A4.

Just in case he reads this blog I have to say he was a very nice man and I will think about the tarpaulin.

7 Days to Go!

It's been a while since the last blog. I've been busy with last minute preparations.

Yesterday I weighed everything I'm planning to take and loaded it all into an Excel Spreadsheet. At the moment the total stands at 7.5 kg excluding any food and water but I suspect this will creep up by another 0.5 kg or so. My plan is that the absolute maximum to carry should be no more than 10.0 kg including water and food.

My new MP3 player is now fully loaded with about 120 hours of music. This should help ward off Andrew's jokes.

Donations to out Justgiving web site are steadily increasing. Please accept our thanks to all who have sponsored us.

This time next week we willl be underway!

Final Preparations

Less than 3 weeks to go.

I've bought everything I need - and a bit more - which means some last minute decisions on what to take when I pack my rucksack.

Andrew and I made page 2 of the Twyford Advertiser today. Including a photo. Fame indeed!