Cornwall was having a fret this morning: specifically a sea fret that obscured all views of the coastal bays. This was fine by me, as it meant that as soon as we got to the hairy sections of the coastal path view, you couldn’t see much anyway, so we didn’t miss out by walking through fields today.

The fields were also bejewelled by spider webs in the mist, reminding us that there is so much wildlife that we never see normally when you get out into the countryside.

Thanks to the sea fret though, we just had a quick glimpse at Nanjizal and Portgwarra bays.

We’ve had our usual wooded paths and hills, the latter of which I might not miss for a while.

The stiles have been cool today, with a new one on us of massive stone steps that are almost a giant cattle grid made of granite.

We also walked through a farm that supplied milk to make Rodda’s clotted cream, which is a Cornish version of heaven/cardiac arrest inducing unctuous cream, with roughly the same density as mashed potato. Our taxi driver later told us that since buying out every dairy farm in Cornwall, Rodda’s couldn’t be bothered to drive down twisty little lanes to small farms to collect milk, and so they simply didn’t buy milk from most of the Cornish farms any more. Things like this are very annoying and just shouldn’t happen.

There were some lovely old buildings and evidence of human civilisation that goes back thousands of years, in the shape of standing stones all over the place.

One of the day’s highlights had to be being chased across a field by a local farmer though. Eventually we stopped and said hi and in contrast to our expectations that he was about to tell us to get off his land, he asked us where the footpaths were on the farm he had just bought earlier this year. We chatted for a while about the challenges of running a new farm in a heatwave and walking the length of the UK before we went our separate ways.

The next farm we came across had an even more special inhabitant. Apparently he’s a bit of a local celebrity and thinks he is actually a cow.

Finally though, the end was in sight,

and we entered the tacky commercial sausage machine that is the Lands End signpost.

We waited in the queue, assuming that if we wanted to take our own photo, without a “professional” pointing a camera at us, with little mismatched fonts on tiles shoved onto the signpost, we would not have  to pay the advertised £10.99 for the service. Oh how foolish were we.

When we reached the front of the queue we were told to stay behind the railing if we wanted to take our own photo as the signpost was “part of the lands end experience and they were busy running a commercial business”. We remarked that it was definitely part of the Lands End experience and having walked over a 1,000 miles to get there, we would just like to be able to take a selfie next to the signpost.

The member of staff immediately smiled, we were onto a winner, and in a much more gentle tone he asked, “that’s amazing, did you do it for charity?” We confessed that, no, we did it for ourselves as we had recently retired. “In that case” he said, “no you can’t come in, we only let charity cases in”.

So here’s our selfie, 5 metres from the  Lands End signpost where we were not disturbing anyone’s personalised, commercial, Lands End experience.

We were also allowed to photograph and, reluctantly (because we had already walked in to stand by it), touch the signpost as long as we weren’t in the photo.

The sea carried on having a fret

and we carried on drinking champagne more than 5 metres away from the sign.

This evening we’ve celebrated with food at the Old Coastguard which was lovely, but not quite as lovely as we hoped.

It’s going to be weird waking up tomorrow without having to walk 20 miles, but I’m sure we’ll manage.

Distance today 24.47km, but here’s some more fun stats that Mark has compiled on the trip:

Overall duration: 8 weeks
Active duration: 50 walking days
Total distance: 1038 miles / 1665 kilometres
Days of walking a full marathon: 4
Total ascent: 22,593 m
Moving hours: 14 days 1 hour 21 seconds
Total steps: 2,221,690
Total calories: 108,888
Days of sun: 36
Days of drizzle: 6
Days of rain: 8
Maize fields tackled: 5
Strava paths that didn’t exist: 3
Pairs of trainers exhausted: 1
Toenails lost: 1
Weight of rucksack: Far too heavy (~15kg!)
Weight gained: Too much (Not weighed myself yet, but probably at least 5kg!)
Photos taken: 963!
Launderettes visited: 5
Cooked breakfasts eaten: 41
Michelin recommended restaurants visited: 4
Most amazing hotel: Stanbrook Abbey
Least amazing hotel: Days Inn Abington AND Days Inn Johnstonebridge
Comfortable beds: Not enough Powerful showers with conditioner: 3 (not enough)
Pints of cider drunk: Way too many
Films watched (In order of recommendation):
Resident evil: Hands down, best film of the year
Coyote vs. Acme: Amazing, especially considering is was never going to be released
Minions and monsters: A laugh a second
The Invite: Wonderfully uncomfortable
The end of Oak Street: Jurassic park yawn
Death of Robin Hood: Ok
Series binged (In order of recommendation):
Shrinking on the basis I can watch Harrison Ford in anything for hours Silo
The Gentleman
Lucky
Hours of conversation: 273
Hours of silence: 112
AI videos created: 26
Money found: £20 note
Money spent:  Way too much!
Beards shaved: 2 (not enough)