Day 13 - Weird dreams continue, throat clears up, beautiful countryside

Hello again dear readers.

First up a thank you to everyone who suggested ways of solving shin splints, sore throats and lack of accommodation yesterday whether it was just 'stop whining and grow a pair's type encouragement (no wonder I wanted to shoot Mr. Wingrove on Snowdon all those years back), or proper Physio tips (Mr Harris) or genuine suggestions at solving accommodation issues (Ms. Coney and Mrs. Harper, or just the many messages of encouragement. They really do help getting my head right for the next day...Thank you.

Now, I haven't mentioned this before, but I have been having some bizzare dreams since I started this walk and they are getting weirder every night! A brief selection:

Dreamt I was back in a ticket office and the APTIS went beserk and issued a whole hopper (500) port tax tickets on it's own, I called the supervisor and Mr. Colin Stevens put his head round the door and said "stop crying about it and put it right" before disappearing with a smirk and a drag on his cigarette. Nothing too strange about that, because that is exactly what he'd have said. The strange thing is he must have been dead 20 years now and I don't think I've even thought about him in about ten years.

Another example, whilst I'm walking one day a pack of wolves appear, stalking a donkey or a hare which are close by. I watch whilst they eventually pick off the donkey and then drag it to me. They eat whilst I sit amongst them until strangers approach, when the pack goes to fend off the walkers who they see as a threat to their meal. Once they have cornered the three strangers, the leader of the pack turns to me and asks what should they do? I tell them to let them pass and the Wolves do.

Many other dreams have I had that involve people I know old and current, I won't go into detail on each, but generally they involve meeting in unlikely places, sometimes with danger involved, sometimes not.

All very strange, I'll cut down my Ibuprofen intake perhaps.

Anyway, today's walk. Some very Cornish terrain, up and down, up and down, but 90% farm tracks and forest, broken up by some very picturesque villages.

At first glance I thought I'd taken a catastrophic wrong turn!

The Mayor's office in a tiny village (not Blombay)

Nothing for miles around

I am glad to report that the throat was much better this morning and the shin splint seemed to enjoy the rougher terrain better than walking on roads.

As such, I paced myself nicely through today's 25 miles and the only disappointment was I got to my planned coffee stop too late as they closed from 1400 to 1900!

Now obviously, if the only place in a village where you can get a coffee or a beer is closed all afternoon, what do you do? Tinker with your tank obviously!

Renault tank...circa end of WW1?

Yes, two gentlemen and a lady had this beauty running and were preparing it for one of the many commemoration events of the coming weekend. Eventually a army transport vehicle came to collect it.

The church, the tank and the war memorial

Perhaps we need a similar solution in Menheniot?

Anyway, arrived at my digs just as the sun was setting, had a shower, a British Army Thai chicken soup ration pack and then settled down to write this.

Some statistics for those that way inclined - Today I walked over 50000 steps (a new record) and just beat the furthest distance walked (a bit over 25.25 miles (the steps must have been shorter than normal because of the terrain).

In the 13 days of my walk, I have travelled 479,395 steps thus far.

The distances I need to travel begin to get shorter now, as I begin to visit cemeteries again. Tomorrow I visit the grave of the last Frenchman to die in the Great War.

That's it for tonight dear friends, but before I go, could I ask that if you are going to enter my dreams tonight, try and keep it sane and, unless your my wife, clean.

Night all, sleep well.

www.Justgiving.com/fundraising/remembrance-walk