LEJOG 2017

Day 3: Today is Sarah's birthday - happy birthday Sarah! Sorry I can't be there with you xx. There's a bottle of organic Merlot in the wine rack with your name on it :) The success of banging out Indian Queens to St Breward in 7 hours was overshadowed by the at times desperate struggle across Bodmin Moor. I did not intend to visit the Jamaica Inn but thats where I'm writing this. The path I was following disappeared into deep swamp that inexplicably continued all the way to the top of the Tor. I found myself surrounded by terrain I would normally class as impenetrable with no option but to climb and descend and cross the barbed wire fence again and again in an easterly direction until there was an end. In the middle of this dangerous game of twisted ankle - flooded boot a terrific storm burst upon the moors and I in my summer clothes had no choice but to do what I have done before and deploy the umbrella and face the wind, standing still until it passed by. It did...

Day 2: today is my birthday. I am 35. It's reasonable to call this half-way - which is most certainly not where I'm at with my walk. Day 2. Yesterday's challenge was rain. Today's challenge was hills. Lots and lots of hills. At least these hills all contributed to getting me to Gnome World. I passed by some famous LEJOG landmarks today. Carn Brae, Blackwater, the Plume of Feathers, Blue Anchor, Indian Queens...but Gnome World is the winner. It has showers and a legit pitch for £6.50 and the other campers have been very kind (it must be the tarp), even inviting me to tea! I completely forgot it was my birthday today; Sarah called me at 7 am and reminded me. Ive been in the 'zone'. The zone is wet and hilly. Stats: 26 miles, 9 hours 40. Boots for 6 miles, running shoes for 20. Losses: 1 worn out pair of sport socks. Mood: excellent. DAY 3 Carn Brea My companions Famous LEJOG landmarks... A note about the blog I must be the only ...

Saturday https://www.facebook.com/LEJOG.sam Full of pre-walk zeal I leave the B&B without taking a shower or having breakfast and walk along the Penzance promenade to the bus station. It's 06:20. I drop my pack and kill a few minutes photographing St. Michael's Mount on the camera I borrowed from my girlfriend's daughter but after only a few shots the device instructs me that's it's already reached capacity. I assumed it would be the battery that would give out, not the memory card. I pull it out, push it back in, turn the camera off and on, line up St Michael's Mount for a shot and - memory card full. I'm about to start a 900 mile walk with only a wide angle GoPro which is totally unsuitable for landscape shots, I need a point-and-shoot with a zoom; the camera is obviously broken or on a setting I don't know how to fix because I only used it for the first time the day before yesterday. I should have taken my own camera...now I'll have to s...

The day before... Up at 5 AM. The last few mornings have been cold so my mind's made up: the micro-fleece, merino hat and gloves are going back in the backpack. I'd rather pay the weight penalty than regret leaving essential gear in the poste restante box at home. I've spent enough nights shivering on cold forest floors to know better than that.  My girlfriend and cohorts went on holiday to Torquay yesterday, leaving the normally bustling house quiet. I'd taken the precaution of writing down instructions last night in case I suffered from early morning brain fog; this ensured everything's been charged, folded, compressed and squared away. I let the air out of the tires on my road bike and locked it away in the garage. Fed the dogs. Emptied the fridge...  Two weeks from now I might start looking like someone you'd throw change at on the street so I shaved my head to the bone.  Then came the ceremony of dressing in my walking clothes: dark blue str...

Navigating from Land's End to John o'Groats There is no official route between LE and JOG for walkers. If there was it would include the South West Coast path, Offa's Dyke, the Pennine Way, the West Highland Way, the Great Glen Way and maybe one day the Inverness to JOG trail. Those trails are absolutely fine unless you want to get the job done quickly. So all of the above are out of the question for me.  I like the DIY aspects of route planning because I can choose the most direct, efficient and safe route between two points using a combination of national trails, footpaths, lanes, minor and major roads, national cycle routes and any other footway that helps me get to where I'm going. That way I can avoid pointless ups and downs ("PUDs*"), unnecessary zig-zags** and adding unnecessary mileage to this already long distance walk.   Route planning on this scale is new to me and it's thrown up additional challenges beyond that which I have experi...

Travel light, freeze at night Distance is proportional to the amount of weight carried over time. The less weight I'm carrying the longer I'll be able to walk therefore the further I can travel. There ought to be a mathematical formula out there to demonstrate this...if you know what that is, please comment with a link.  The ruling principle of kit selection has therefore been: TRAVEL LIGHT. I really like the saying  Travel light, freeze at night . Luckily it's mid summer and I have a down sleeping bag which kept me warm enough in February when it was demonstrably colder, yet the principle of less is more is sound. A simple and effective rule is: "You can reduce the weight of an object 100% by not taking it." That includes spares of ANYTHING. There are many excellent websites and videos about ultra-light thru-hiking made by thru-hikers which are available free online, particularly from the USA* - so I won't labour the point. But I w...