Day 9 - Best day yet

Today was the sort of day that I had imagined when planning this walk. Highlights were:-

Flat terrain along river and canal paths.
Sun for most of the day and best of all NO wind
The landlord of the Globe Inn at Sampford Peverell, Roger Atkins, who organised a collection for the BHF whilst I was having lunch (and a pint!). This raised £45 and created a lovely warm feeling of generosity.
The 2 ladies cycling on the towpath who donated £5
John Adams who when I asked for directions near Wellington gave me a wonderful marching compass to help with the rest of my walk.
Clive and Susie who did the transport honours for today, and bought me lunch.
Pat and Bryan who have come to Somerset (yes I am in Somerset now !)to spend 2 days with us and who brought Jean back with them.
The owner of the Bickleigh Mill, where I left the car for Jean to collect, who couldn't understand why I needed to cross a busy road, and walk 150 yards, to where I had finished yesterday's walk, only to have to come back to the Mill. She said that no one would know that I hadn't!

I have now reached Wellington. Tomorrow the plan is to walk towards Street. The support team are planning a shopping trip to Street, so that will give me something to worry about whilst I am walking!

The only downsides today were the start of the Exe Valley Way when I wished I had taken rock climbing classes, and the footpath near Wellington which disappeared and resulted in a frustrating extra mile or two. I am used to walking on the Coventry Way paths which are excellently signposted. The paths that I have used so far in the South West have been very poor - even when it is possible to follow them they are often blocked with electric fences.

The KBW's for today are for the wonderful people mentioned above - Roger,John, Clive, Susie, Pat and Bryan.

In all of the confusion of changing location I have mislaid my list of quotes. don't worry I am sure that I will find it tomorrow.

I have now walked 160 miles which is approx 16% of the total. However I prefer to say one-sixth which sounds much further!

Cheers
Keith

Days 7 and 8 - Golf, sun and scenery

The golf on yesterday's rest day went well, particularly as the wind relented, which was just as well as Teignmouth golf club is about 900 feet up and is not far from the coast. The views from the course are spectacular and more than made up with the occasional errant shot. i was delighted that the Pro was generous enough to give me a goody bag of bottles of water and energy bars to help with the walk.The golf and an altogether more relaxed day was very welcome after 6 full days of walking.

Today was for the most part sunny with a gentle breeze. This made for good walking conditions again with wonderful views over the Exe valley. This was balanced by the route (22 miles from Moretonhampstead to Bickleigh) being more difficult than I had expected. I am SURE that the route foe the next two days will bring flatter terrain. The plan for tomorrow is to walk to Wellington.

Now that I have been walking for just over a week I thought that the KBW's today should reflect the whole of the last week:-

Adrian - Best Boy in a Supporting Role
Julie and Heather - Best Director's Assistants
Neil and Sue - Technical Support
David and Barry - Superb Locations

Adrian has been an absolutely fantastic help to me this week. He is returning home tomorrow and I can only offer him my sincere thanks.There is good news about Barry - he is out of hospital and sounds to be on good form.

The thought for today which also fits in with yesterday is - "As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round" - Ben Hogan

Cheers
Keith

Dartmoor

Unfortunately Terry failed his fitness test and so was unable to join us at Tavistock to walk over Dartmoor to Moretonhampstead. Steve made a valiant effort but sanity prevailed after about 12 miles when he decided that discretion was the better part of valour. He is doing a charity cycle ride from John O'Groats to Lands End in June - this is with James Cracknell and 650 others. I did not want him to get injured because of joining me on my walk. Our paths may in fact cross near Fort William with him going south and me nearing the end of the walk. Fingers crossed!

The scenery in Dartmoor was magnificent. I managed to add raven and cuckoo to my bird list and also saw several deer. The weather was again fine and sunny but there was of course the inevitable north-east wind which was in our faces.

Tomorrow I am having a rest day when I am playing golf with Adrian at Teignmouth Golf Club. Don't worry I have taken the precaution of arranging a buggy - I am not intending to walk an extra 5 miles!

Having battled my way over the hills of Cornwall and over Dartmoor I am looking forward to a few easier walking days. On Wednesday I walk to Tiverton using the Exe Way for quite a lot of the walk. On Thursday I walk from Tiverton to Wellington entirely using the tow path of the Grand Western Canal - this sounds pretty flat and hopefully it should make navigating easier as long as I remember to keep the water on the left!

Some of you are still experiencing problems sending comments. I suggest that you become a "follower" of the blog which should make the procedure easier.

Today's KBW's -

Steve and Terry - Hosting last night's meal
Steve- Companionship making the hills seem smaller
Adrian - Same as always, but still much appreciated
Jean- Organisational skills par excellence
Heather - Help and support over the last 4 days

I am afraid that the photo problem has not yet been resolved. Hopefully it will have been fixed by Wednesday.

The thought for tomorrow - "Golf is a good walk spoiled" - Mark Twain

As tomorrow is a rest day there will not be a blog. Normal service will be resumed on Wednesday.

Cheers
Keith

Day 5 - Devon at last

I am sorry that the technical gremlins have attacked the systems and as a result I have not been able to download the photos today. Hopefully normal service will be resumed tomorrow. The ones that you have missed were of the walking team (Steve, Terry and me) and our volunteer driver Adrian before we set off, and of me gleefully crossing the county border.

After nearly 5 days of walking I have at last left Cornwall and reached Devon! Luckily there was a pub just over the border so, together with Steve and Terry,we celebrated with a pint. Another landmark was reached shortly after when I reached the total of 100 miles since Lands End.If you say it quickly it may not sound very far, but it is further than Coventry to London.

The weather was again fine but still with the cold north easterly wind. My face is now starting to feel somewhat weather beaten.

Both of my co-walkers have enjoyed the walk today. But they are both facing a fitness test in the morning to see whether they are able to walk over Dartmoor with me tomorrow. I certainly found it helpful to have company and the time seemed to go quickly. Even the inevitable hills did not seem so bad with friends to speak to.

As it is out last night in Looe I think it is time to reflect on the places that we have stayed in so far. In Marazion we stayed at a lovely B&B for 2 nights, the Blue Horizon - much recommended. Tonight is our 4th night at the Grantham Lodge which has very kindly been made available to all of us by David Russell- thanks David your hospitality has been very much appreciated. Tomorrow Jean and Heather are returning back to the Midlands with Steve and Terry. This leaves Adrian and myself to move onto Teignmouth for 3 nights. We are staying at Barry Budden's apartment - unfortunately Barry cannot join us as he is going into hospital on Tuesday- all the best Barry and I sure that they will sort you out as good as new.

The support team visited Lanhydroc House today and thought that the gardens and floral displays were wonderful.

The KBW's for today are:-

Terry - for cheerfulness in the face of adversity
Adrian - lifetime achievement for driving and sandwich buying
Steve - female news presenter and flower consultant

"Make your feet your friend" - J.M.Barrie

Cheers
Keith

hills and wind

Today went very much as planned. I have reached just past Liskeard after walking for just over 20 miles today, making about 80 so far - and still I am still in Cornwall. I looked at the atlas tonight and 80 miles looks a long way! Have a look.

Yesterday I coined the phrase "magic miles" for travelling in Cornwall. This was because the mileage indicated by the few direction signs seem to be a work of fiction. This results in some frustration when for example you pass a sign showing say 5 miles to your destination, then walk 2 miles, only to find that the next sign shows that you still have 4 miles to go. On the walk today another reason occurred to me - the Pythagoras theorem (remember maths from school?). As there are so many hills a lot of time is spent going up or down hills, and the theorem is that this increases the distance walked. It also slows the walking speed as well. The photo shows the sign in Herodsfoot at the bottom of a hill that I had to ascend after having walked 15 miles today. Not a very welcome sign.

Julie has returned home today after spending 4 days with us doing an invaluable job keeping our spirits up. Thanks very much Julie. Steve and Terry have joined us and they are going to walk with me over the next 2 days. Good luck chaps. The plan for tomorrow is to walk to Tavistock so that we are in place to cross Dartmoor on Monday.

The best plans! I carefully chose to do the walk from South to North because the prevailing wind is from the west. However so far the wind has been exactly the opposite ie from the North-East, so that today I spent the whole day with a cold wind in my face. Still I am sure that it is good for the soul.

The Support team visited Polperro, home of Jonathan Crouch and Angela Brazil (whoever they are - look them up if you are interested). They tell me the sandwiches at The Blue Peter look amazing - I am sure that they spend all day thinking about food!

Today's KBW's:-

Heather and Adrian - Catering and washing up Award

I understand that there is some difficulty in making comments on this blog. Neil is looking into this and hopefully will be able to solve the problem.

"An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day" - Henry David Thoreau.

Cheers

Keith

Day 3 - 52 birds and a grass snake

The photo on the left shows the Looe Support Coalition (from left to right Heather, Julie, Jean, Adrian) the only thing that they have agreed on so far is their policy on Cream Teas - they are all in favour! They cannot agree on who will be their leader but are sure that it will not be me. See below for my comments on the snake.

Today was fine and mostly sunny despite the weather forecasts which predicted heavy showers. Possibly encouraged by this I have managed to make up for all of the lost time yesterday. I walked over 25 miles so that I am now just north of St Austell, which in fact is slightly ahead of schedule. the encouraging thing is that my legs and feet felt strong with no problems worthy of report. The route was excellent over the beautiful but hilly Cornish countryside, with all of the roads being fairly quiet and of good quality. Even on the rare occasions that I had to use the A roads there were wide fringes or cycle paths which made for easy walking.

There were no navigational problems today . I was very careful to study the map at every junction. I must have looked like an expert navigator because a group of French students asked me for directions in Truro!

Most of you know that another hobby of mine is birdwatching. I have therefore been keeping a list of species that I have seen on this trip. Today the total reached 52 which is pretty good considering that I am concentrating most of my efforts on the walking. I also saw my first ever grass snake and managed to take a photo of it. The photo may not be the best but it was an exciting thing to see.

I expect to return to the birdwatching theme later in the trip as my lifetime list is 999 and I would love to make the 1,000 in the next few weeks. Possibly a Ptarmigan in Scotland?

I estimate that I used about 3,000 calories walking today. Several of you have told me that I will lose a lot of weight doing this walk. Well I weighed myself on Tuesday before leaving home and I will update you on the efficacy of this "extreme diet" when I spend a few nights at home in about 10 days time.

I regret that I am still unable to send emails.

The KBW's for today:-

Adrian - for Transport Services beyond the call of duty

Sue - Props Award ( see poster in photo)

Heather, Julie and Jean and Adrian - Services to the Cornish Cream industry

The plan for tomorrow is to reach Liskeard which I understand is still in Cornwall - how big is the county? If all of the counties are this size I will never reach John O'Groats.

"One step at a time is good walking" - Chinese Proverb

Happy walking

Keith

Monster Raining Loony Party

I apologise for this photo being sideways - I couldn't manage to get it the right way up!

Election Day - which is very appropriate as I took the opportunity to enrol for membership of the Monster Raining Loony Party, and yes I do mean "raining". The day dawned grey and wet and carried on in that fashion until about 1.00 pm. Jean took the attached photo just before I set off - this explains the "loony" part of the title. Despite the rain the morning consisted of lovely walking along quiet country lanes with primroses in the hedgerows.


As thought yesterday I went inland to Porthleven. Leaving the town I thought that I would not see the sea again until I reached Scotland. However I did not allow for my lack of a sense of direction and inadequate map reading skills which resulted in me arriving at Penryn (next to the sea) instead of just south of Truro. I must work on improving these skills!

As you can see from the photo I was wearing a yellow safety vest which led to me being mistaken for a canvasser for the Liberal Democrat party. At least I wasn't mistaken for a Labour candidate - apparently there has not been one south of the Tamar bridge for decades.

The KBWs for today are:

David Russell who is hosting us for four days - Best Location Award

Cousin Julie for IT and telecommunications advice together with Neil and Phil - Best Technical Team

Adrian and Heather - Catering Logistics Award

I would really be pleased to receive any comments you have on the blog or any other feedback you would like to leave.

Must go I have to brush up on my navigation skills.

Cheers

Keith