Day 8 - holiday!

After a wonderful cooked breakfast (I'm not yet bored of them!) walked the mile or so back down into Okehampton. Pam kindly offered to do my washing whilst I was out which is very much appreciated - Debs is bringing up some new socks tomorrow as with the state mine are in, even just after one week, I could quite easily see them walking home by themselves! Hand-washing just doesn't get the same results! Had a quick wander round the town - got another stamp in the passport at the local post office (I am finding that I'm getting some weird looks and the staff are asking me what I need it for!) and bought a couple of postcards to send home. Then grabbed a table and ordered a latte...first 'real' coffee for a week and it was delice! It was great to see Liz and Paul (Liz is a member of the same running club as me - Bournemouth Joggers ..there you go Liz, I mentioned the club for the first time : sorry it hasn't been sooner!) - the first recognised faces in a whole week and Liz stocked me up with flapjacks and other yummy goodies! Paul is running the Exeter half tomorrow and I'm sure he'll do really well as usual. We had a good long natter about what was going on at home (feels like I've been away ages) and what I've been up to, then had some lunch and before we knew it, we'd overstayed our welcome at the cafe! Liz and Paul headed off to their hotel in Exeter whilst I decided to be a real tourist and hopped on a bus for Lydford Gorge : so much for rest and relaxation! It was a lovely 1 1/2 mile walk through the undulating woodland path to the waterfall and the same back again, then onto the Devils Cauldron which was another 1/2 mile in the other direction. After spending a leisurely few hours thoroughly enjoying the sights, I wandered back up the (very) steep hill into Lydford to catch the bus back to Okehampton. I was suitably impressed by a guy who successfully managed to cycle up the (very) steep hill and duly congratulated him "no pain, no gain" was his response. Then, found the same guy with a friend 'slumped' over his bike a couple of hundred yards up the road "no pain, no gain" I responded to which both of them heartily chuckled! Grabbed some chips from the local fryer and ate them whilst I wandered back to Northlake...all in all I probably walked a good 8 miles today! The wind has really picked up here and according to the TV the weather isn't looking too great for tomorrow...my old friend the rain could be making quite a bit of regular appearance! Still, one thing I'm really, really looking forward to is seeing Debs, Mike, Matt and Jon tomorrow morning - the guys are gonna take my backpack for the day and Debs and I are going to run (slowly so that we can get in as much chit-chat as humanly possible!) to Crediton....I haven't seen her in a whole week so there's sooooo much to catch up on!