Sunday 5 April 2009

Day 1 - Lands End to Hayle

The day dawned clear and sunny with a southerly breeze - perfect conditions for walking, and it stayed that way. Yolanda gave us a good breakfast, and we were off at 8am on the 30 minute drive to Lands End, where we were met by 6 friends who had come to see us off along with John's son Matt, and Daugher Christina - a lovely send-off.
We found a path labelled "Easy route suitable for the elderly and pushchairs." and duly followed it along the coast for about a mile before heading East across the fields. Everything was sparkling, and the views clear as crystal across the Cornish plateau and beyond to the sea. Every so often, you descend into a hidden valley with a stream at the bottom. These are heavily wooded and there are lots of wild flowers - we saw masses of primroses, celendines, wood anenome, daffodils of course (they grow them in huge numbers in fields here), a few early bluebells, stitchwort, red campion plus the usual gorse in vivid yellow bloom, daisies, buttercups and so on. We passed through many farms where the way marks had been removed and paths ploughed over or blocked by farmers, but also met a delightful 80 year-old named Trevor Rogers who donated £10 to our charity, Precious Lives (see www.justgiving.com/johndrinkwater).
We did 22 miles in exactly 8 hours, passing through St Buryan, Sancreed (beautiful church yard full of wild flowers), Madron, stopping for a lovely pint of Doom Bar in the pub in Gulval.
No problems so far, and legs only a bit tired. Tomorrow's forecast is for rain or showers.

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