It’s overcast and rain is in the air. The forecast for tomorrow is bleak. I have underestimated the distance from Land’s End to Mousehole for tomorrow, and it will be a stern test right from the start. I’m feeling jittery and apprehensive. Veronica and I had an emotional and difficult parting this morning. And it doesn’t help that the last time I was in Penzance was just over thirty years ago when Veronica and I were setting out on our honeymoon in the Scilly Isles. This doesn’t feel remotely like a honeymoon. I need to get started to settle the nerves….
To make matters worse, the promised wifi isn’t working, so I am going to have to look elsewhere for a connection. Though, to be honest, that isn’t all bad. Over the last few days I have been reading internet accounts of other LEJOGs and what they all seem to have in common is much younger participants with a lot more experience of long-distance walking. At least I won’t be able to frighten myself even further! It will be much better when I’m on the road…
I had a long and interesting conversation with a fellow on the train from Reading to Truro. He is an Anglicised Spaniard married to an Irishwoman and is suffering all the tensions and contradictions of a two-career family living in multiple countries with very young children. Sounded all too familiar! It was so interesting how over the course of a number of hours, his initial rather business-like, if not distant, manner changed to a much more intimate and honest sharing of thoughts and experience. He said afterwards that he had benefitted from the conversation, though of course he may just have been humouring me! Still, it suggested to me the real value of experience. After he went his way, I got to thinking about how I am going to have to use all my experience to find the reserves of resilience and determination to match the youth and fitness of the successful youngsters who have preceded me on this LEJOG. It’s still hard to find someone who doesn’t think I’m crazy….
They certainly do think so here! I was sitting tapping on my netbook in this delightful pub in Penzance, the Admiral Benbow, drinking a pint of the delightfully and appropriately named Sharp’s Doom Bar bitter. The pub is apparently something of a landmark here which I stumbled upon by accident, and I was eavesdropping on a fascinating conversation amongst a bunch of Cornish rugby fanatics about the advantages of being Cornish. Difficult to argue, really, and just possibly dangerous!
They dragged me into their conversation. Turns out they are retired policemen, town planners, and artists and not one of them is Cornish of origin! Yet they were all so welcoming, uniformly positive and encouraging that they cheered me up immensely, despite jovially suggesting to me that I was, in fact, genuinely, certifiably, insane.
And yet two of them quietly confided to me in later asides that I was doing precisely what they had wanted to do, but had left it too late…..
Right! Back to business!! I have now updated the blog to include details of my planned itinerary which covers the first 500km of the journey. The details are included under the Section “Schedule” which appears on the right-hand side of the blog in the “Pages” section. I have booked into all of these B&Bs, so I am more or less committed to keeping to this schedule. If anyone is interested in joining me for any of these stages, here is the info you will need.
I really would value your company!
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