Day 5 - Tregolls to Jamaica Inn (Bodmin Moor)
Woke again to drizzle so didn't bother packing my coat in the backpack as I was bound to need it shortly! Marilyn kindly donated £20 to my fundraising after having presented me with a fab full English...I think people are suitably impressed with my efforts! Nice slightly undulating journey on quiet country lanes. If I hadn't been able to update my blog the previous night then I would have taken a one mile detour into Bodmin in order to find an internet cafe but as it was, I headed straight for Boscarne Junction from where a steam train runs in the summer months. This was also my joining point for the Camel Trail to the end at Poley's Bridge. It was a lovely track following the river Camel and easy to follow through woodland. Apparantely there are quite a few otters now in the area but I didn't see a single one! I left the track at Tresarrett (another Tre!) and then did a bit of walking as the hills were a little bit on the steep and long side (still, you get to see more when you're walking!). A very strange thing happened in St Breward...the village was covered with Christmas trees, lights and decorations! Apparantely they were having a meeting that night to discuss the expected closure of their post office and all the decorations backed up their campaign 'all we want for Christmas is our post office'...quite sad really. The postmistress kindly opened up just for me so that I could get a stamp on my LEJOG passport! Might be a collectors item soon! I was due to take a footpath through some fields direct out onto Bodmin Moor but it was way too muddy and there were some serious looking cows with big horns so decided to take the easier option of the road! It then started to hammer down with rain and by the time I hit the moor good and proper, was coming down like stair-rods. The route over to Brown Willy (highest point in Cornwall at 420' was pretty easy at first - straight down a puddly track. I found the clump of trees where I needed to turn off in order to get to the north face of the 'mountain' and it was there that the well-known moor mist came in all of a sudden and totally hid the top half of Rough Tor, directly next to me...could see how frightening this could get. Then it hailed! I felt like I was in the middle of a paintball battle s
o I did what sheep do and just turned my back to it and let it pelt me. Now all the footpaths suddenly became raging torrents and I was completely soaked and more than a bit cold. Managed to 'row' up the river posing as a footpath to the top of Brown Willy and locate the path down the east side which took me out to an old grass covered wall that then ran down to Tolborough Tor. I did quite a bit of running but my shoes were being sucked off my feet virtually every step. At the top of Tolborough I could see the walled lane that I needed to take but again, there was a river running down the middle of it! No pussy footing around - straight through it : I couldn't possibly get any wetter! At last I reached the bottom and could see the very welcome sight of the flags of Jamaica Inn which would be my home for the night - unfortunately it was on the other side of the main A30 so I had to take a further detour under the road to reach sanctuary and a nice hot shower! I didn't venture far from the bar and the staff put out a few buckets for loose change - I raised another £25.25 but most of this came from just two guys who were well impressed with what I was doing (one had lost his wife to cancer and was supposed to be walking the dog...turned out an expensive pint!). It's rumoured that the inn is haunted by many troubled souls and has been made famous by Daphne du Mauriers book of the same name. However, I didn't hear or see anything so I still need to be convinced!
Total mileage : 22.8 with moving time 5.21 and stopped of 1.03
Day 6 - Jamaica Inn to Launceston
Guess what...it's raining AGAIN! Decided last night not to venture back onto the moors again this morning (whilst an experience yesterday, it really wasn't something that I would rush back to repeat!) so kept to the side roads and then a footpath through a farmyard that led out into fields. Unfortunately with all the rain recently, these turned to bogs and it was quite a puzzle trying to find somewhere a little bit firm and dry to put my feet each step! You'd think it would dry out the higher up the hill I got but it didn't - infact at the very top there was a gap in a stone wall where the footpath was telling me to go, but this was where the cows also went and it was just a huge quagmire of mud and cow muck! Then, running down a side lane into a forestry plantation I came across a sheep and lamb who had clearly got out of the field thinking the grass was greener on the other side - the ewe was definitely a candidate for the olympics as she cleared the fence a good 4' high...her lamb couldn't follow and I was then the big bad human scaring the poor little creature....talk about rabbit in the headlights! Back onto quiet country lanes and through villages / hamlets still with the 'Tre' prefix! Some of the footpaths are really well marked re the direction to go in but the actual terrain is a lot less desireable! Many a time I climbed over the stone walls to find a field clearly used for cattle which had huddled next to the footpath 'landing site' - I'm getting quite adept at my monkey swings from conveniently placed tree branches and my 'leaps of faith' from the stone stiles in an attempt to clear the deluge of foot deep wallowing mud! John thinks it would be quite funny if I lost my balance and fell backwards - clearly I don't feel the same way! I reached Lewannick from where there was just one track down across the river : unfortunately a sign told me the bridge had been closed since 2006! It was all downhill so if it truely was a 'no-go' it would be a mega climb back out of the valley...still, nothing ventured, nothing gained so I decided to follow the track despite not knowing if the bridge was still there. Luckily it was, so having climbed out the otherside, it should have been a relatively straight forward route all the way into Launceston...not so! Not being able to find the footpath through the farmyard, I asked directions from the farmer to be told that it was a bridleway and certainly I could follow it...how you could get a horse down there I'll never know - the farmer had parked his van right next to the only gate and that didn't open anyway without a fight! Then the track through the woods was completely flooded (becoming the story of my trip!) but it was the right way and eventually I ended up on a lane leading to a road. Followed this all the way into Launceston and although I got a little l
ost in the town itself and ended up going right round the Norman castle, I eventually found my night's B&B at the other side of the river. Once I'd done the obligatory washing of my muddy clothes (socks and shoes are gonna start running themselves soon!) I went back up to the castle for a closer view. Going to try out the local pub tonight
Today's facts : short(ish) 13.2 miles with moving 3.08 and stopped 47.03. The batteries were low in my GPS so unsure if these are the 'true' figures
Woke again to drizzle so didn't bother packing my coat in the backpack as I was bound to need it shortly! Marilyn kindly donated £20 to my fundraising after having presented me with a fab full English...I think people are suitably impressed with my efforts! Nice slightly undulating journey on quiet country lanes. If I hadn't been able to update my blog the previous night then I would have taken a one mile detour into Bodmin in order to find an internet cafe but as it was, I headed straight for Boscarne Junction from where a steam train runs in the summer months. This was also my joining point for the Camel Trail to the end at Poley's Bridge. It was a lovely track following the river Camel and easy to follow through woodland. Apparantely there are quite a few otters now in the area but I didn't see a single one! I left the track at Tresarrett (another Tre!) and then did a bit of walking as the hills were a little bit on the steep and long side (still, you get to see more when you're walking!). A very strange thing happened in St Breward...the village was covered with Christmas trees, lights and decorations! Apparantely they were having a meeting that night to discuss the expected closure of their post office and all the decorations backed up their campaign 'all we want for Christmas is our post office'...quite sad really. The postmistress kindly opened up just for me so that I could get a stamp on my LEJOG passport! Might be a collectors item soon! I was due to take a footpath through some fields direct out onto Bodmin Moor but it was way too muddy and there were some serious looking cows with big horns so decided to take the easier option of the road! It then started to hammer down with rain and by the time I hit the moor good and proper, was coming down like stair-rods. The route over to Brown Willy (highest point in Cornwall at 420' was pretty easy at first - straight down a puddly track. I found the clump of trees where I needed to turn off in order to get to the north face of the 'mountain' and it was there that the well-known moor mist came in all of a sudden and totally hid the top half of Rough Tor, directly next to me...could see how frightening this could get. Then it hailed! I felt like I was in the middle of a paintball battle s
o I did what sheep do and just turned my back to it and let it pelt me. Now all the footpaths suddenly became raging torrents and I was completely soaked and more than a bit cold. Managed to 'row' up the river posing as a footpath to the top of Brown Willy and locate the path down the east side which took me out to an old grass covered wall that then ran down to Tolborough Tor. I did quite a bit of running but my shoes were being sucked off my feet virtually every step. At the top of Tolborough I could see the walled lane that I needed to take but again, there was a river running down the middle of it! No pussy footing around - straight through it : I couldn't possibly get any wetter! At last I reached the bottom and could see the very welcome sight of the flags of Jamaica Inn which would be my home for the night - unfortunately it was on the other side of the main A30 so I had to take a further detour under the road to reach sanctuary and a nice hot shower! I didn't venture far from the bar and the staff put out a few buckets for loose change - I raised another £25.25 but most of this came from just two guys who were well impressed with what I was doing (one had lost his wife to cancer and was supposed to be walking the dog...turned out an expensive pint!). It's rumoured that the inn is haunted by many troubled souls and has been made famous by Daphne du Mauriers book of the same name. However, I didn't hear or see anything so I still need to be convinced!Total mileage : 22.8 with moving time 5.21 and stopped of 1.03
Day 6 - Jamaica Inn to Launceston
Guess what...it's raining AGAIN! Decided last night not to venture back onto the moors again this morning (whilst an experience yesterday, it really wasn't something that I would rush back to repeat!) so kept to the side roads and then a footpath through a farmyard that led out into fields. Unfortunately with all the rain recently, these turned to bogs and it was quite a puzzle trying to find somewhere a little bit firm and dry to put my feet each step! You'd think it would dry out the higher up the hill I got but it didn't - infact at the very top there was a gap in a stone wall where the footpath was telling me to go, but this was where the cows also went and it was just a huge quagmire of mud and cow muck! Then, running down a side lane into a forestry plantation I came across a sheep and lamb who had clearly got out of the field thinking the grass was greener on the other side - the ewe was definitely a candidate for the olympics as she cleared the fence a good 4' high...her lamb couldn't follow and I was then the big bad human scaring the poor little creature....talk about rabbit in the headlights! Back onto quiet country lanes and through villages / hamlets still with the 'Tre' prefix! Some of the footpaths are really well marked re the direction to go in but the actual terrain is a lot less desireable! Many a time I climbed over the stone walls to find a field clearly used for cattle which had huddled next to the footpath 'landing site' - I'm getting quite adept at my monkey swings from conveniently placed tree branches and my 'leaps of faith' from the stone stiles in an attempt to clear the deluge of foot deep wallowing mud! John thinks it would be quite funny if I lost my balance and fell backwards - clearly I don't feel the same way! I reached Lewannick from where there was just one track down across the river : unfortunately a sign told me the bridge had been closed since 2006! It was all downhill so if it truely was a 'no-go' it would be a mega climb back out of the valley...still, nothing ventured, nothing gained so I decided to follow the track despite not knowing if the bridge was still there. Luckily it was, so having climbed out the otherside, it should have been a relatively straight forward route all the way into Launceston...not so! Not being able to find the footpath through the farmyard, I asked directions from the farmer to be told that it was a bridleway and certainly I could follow it...how you could get a horse down there I'll never know - the farmer had parked his van right next to the only gate and that didn't open anyway without a fight! Then the track through the woods was completely flooded (becoming the story of my trip!) but it was the right way and eventually I ended up on a lane leading to a road. Followed this all the way into Launceston and although I got a little l
ost in the town itself and ended up going right round the Norman castle, I eventually found my night's B&B at the other side of the river. Once I'd done the obligatory washing of my muddy clothes (socks and shoes are gonna start running themselves soon!) I went back up to the castle for a closer view. Going to try out the local pub tonightToday's facts : short(ish) 13.2 miles with moving 3.08 and stopped 47.03. The batteries were low in my GPS so unsure if these are the 'true' figures
1 comment:
This challenge is certainly testing you at the moment but I know this will only motivate you even more. Weather for the weekend is looking better so you can start to dry off. If you keep collecting money at the rate you have done so far it will add another £2500 to the kitty. Wow!!
Pat
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