Back to Basics

 The first walk I went on after my cold I got very tired, so tired I decided I wasn't able to continue my LEJOG beginning of April. I couldn't return my tickets, so I lost some money, but I got more time to rest up. And now I'm back to training! I alternate short walks (5K), slightly longer walks (9-10K) and walking stairs at the hospital. I always listen to music when I walk, most of of I've chosen to keep a good pace. This week I changed things a bit. Instead of keeping a fairly constant pace I'm doing intervals, 100 fast steps and 80 slow. I haven't' timed it, but my guess is that it's around 1 minute fast and one slow. And I try to adapt it so that I always walk fast uphill. Well, as fast as I can, at least!

Until recently I've only walked one staircase up and down. From the basement it is 11 floors. I start with going to the top, then down to the basement and up again a couple of floors. Last week I met a friend who was walking up to her job on the first floor. She suggested I alternate the stairwells, so Saturday I walked two floors, then crossed over to the next stairwell, walked two more floors and kept going back and forth between four different stairwells. There are so many more, but there weren't many people around (I was there early) and I didn't feel comfortable walking down dark hallways all alone. Tomorrow (Tuesday) will be different with lots of people around.

Some photos from today's walk - 9 km with a 9 kilo backpack. It felt good, but I'm increasing the weight only slowly, so I will stick with 9 kilos this week.


    Morning mist

    Spring is coming - the Canada Geese are arriving

    Crossing the river

New Plans

 About a week ago I bought plane tickets to return to England and continue my LEJOG beginning of April. However, I'm not well yet. I was getting better, but then I got worse again. Right now I feel a bit uncertain what will happen, but I hope to be able to return in about two weeks. And I have decided to "ruin" my End-to-End attempt. I will still walk all of it, but instead of continuing from Okehampton I will continue from where I would have been, had I not had to go home. Once I reach John o' Groats I will return south for the final leg.

The main reason for this is that I need to be in Oban beginning of May for participating in the Great Outdoors Challenge. Also, changing my entire itinerary is a bit difficult and I'm still too tired to do that. This way, all I needed to change was going north to south for the final part of the walk.

Now, let's just hope for less rain and mud!

Day -: Lydford to Stockholm

March 13

Horses: 1

To me, thinking about walking /doing something like the Lejog is a bit (very) overwhelming, so I divided it into smaller parts, Land's End obviously, Lizard also fairly obvious, Frenchman's Creek, Jamaica Inn, Bodmin Moor, all places I wanted to see. Next on the list are Dartmoor and Belstone. The plan for today would be walking across Dartmoor, wild camp on one of the Tors and tomorrow revisit Belstone. The wild camp was already off, since there's live firing on the army shooting range for a couple of days, but the rest I could do (making sure to stay out of the danger zone).

When I woke up this morning I had a very sore throat and my head was foggy. Also, the weather was very poor, very windy with sideways rain. It seemed that a decision had been made for me, I'm going home. It's been expensive enough staying at hotels while walking. Just being stuck in one place waiting to get well would be both difficult and expensive.

So I packed up and checked time tables for Heathrow. There was a connection via Okehampton and Exeter at 9.53. The timing was a bit tight so I didn't dare buy the whole trip at once, but only bought the next ticket as I got to that stop. I made it all the way.

When I got to Heathrow I realized I hadn't left my room keys at the Fox and Hounds. So, off I go in search of a post office. There was one at terminal 3, not far to walk and the whole thing was sorted in less than an hour.

The only photo I took today, a cleaning robot at Heathrow airport. I must be ill 😂

After using the wrapping service to protect my pack on the plane I bought a plane ticket for the 19.00 SAS plane to Stockholm. There was just enough time to get a proper meal, I had to bring it and eat it at the gate, though, that's how late I was. I was quite worried about sinus pain or popping an eardrum because of the cold, but it was ok. I've been dizzy all day and also very happy I brought a couple of face masks. I don't want to infect anyone else.

And now I'm back home, trying to figure out how to best continue when I get well, which isn't as easy as it sounds since there is a set date when I need to be in Oban.

Day 12: Launceston to Lydford

March 12

Kilometers: 29?

Ascent: 450?

Horses: 1

Coos: 5

Today has been a strange day. It started out ok, cold and windy with some showers. 

I'm in Devon!

I was strangely tired as I plodded along, but thought the reason was that I didn't eat well yesterday. Today turned out to be just as bad, the pub where I intended to have lunch was closed. 

Just a pretty cottage I passed 

People here seem to be excellent drivers. They drive fast on narrow roads, but still manage to steer clear of other cars and walkers. Their brakes must be very good. I did see two car crashes yesterday, though, both in Launceston.

As I was walking along the road I came across two Highway Maintenance cars. One of the men started talking to me and said that I'd walked a long way, he had seen me earlier outside Tesco. We had a chat and I told him what I was doing. Only later a started wondering which Tesco? The only one I could remember passing was two days ago.

As the day wore on I got very tired and I realized I might be coming down with a cold, so I decided to change the route and walk to Okehampton. When I was 15 a friend and I went to Belstone, a tiny village outside of Okehampton, for Summer English school/horse riding camp. I remember we walked down to Okehampton a couple of times to go to the pub, but I didn't recognize anything. Anyway, walking to Okehampton would be longer, but with less hills, and I can't do hills this afternoon. Also  I could have something to eat!

I had lunch and then took the bus to my hotel for the night, hoping I'll feel better tomorrow.

Fox and Hounds Hotel in Lydford

The room was freezing, no heat on and near outside temperature 🥶. I went down to the pub, where it was nice and warm, to wait for my room to heat up a bit, which it did eventually.

I had problems measuring distance/ascent today, so the numbers given are an estimate. Maybe I can figure it out later.