Kiaora; Kernow.

 So I got a week off between night shifts; organised a hire car, and headed off to Cornwall (Kernow); blessed enormously to have hit the road about the same time as the sun came out. The fields and hills were a gentle green and the mist was rising.

I got up early and had left at 6am but stupidly left my keys in the door. So 45 min into the adventure I had to do a loop back to Exeter.  I’m going to pretend that that extra travel did me good; getting me used to driving in the UK after literally months without driving at all…

As an aside; the company I hired off (Co-cars) is one of those ones where you get given a card and can unlock a car parked on the street. I loved it- a hybrid Corolla, too big for one person but offset by the astounding fuel efficiency (I got 400miles out of 30L of petrol). 

Anyway; I hadn’t really planned all that well; and the later start meant I did a lot of driving in the first day, going back and forth around St Austell- I was camping north of that sweet town, but dead set on doing a walk a lot further south. It worked out fine, but when I crawled into my Bivvy that night around 11pm I was well beat.

The rural roads in Cornwall often become single lane laneways, with solid stone/mud/tree/flower hedges rising on each side. They’re glorious, and at this time of year have flowers that reach out and brush against the side of the car, and trees frame above them like great glorious green tunnels. You’d turn a corner to find a lizard scuttling across in the sun. Or a pheasant pondering life. Or a turkey. 

Some of them are incredibly tiny- and more so than my experience in Ireland, you can end up in face offs with other idiot tourists that also blindly follow their sat navs...on my way away from the Lost Gardens of Helligan I ended up having to back the car about 500m. It was immensely stressful, the other car nudging close to my nose- and having all the sensors in the car going off as I inched backwards. The sense of achievement though as I spat out into a slightly wider path and the other car was able to pass, man: almost as satisfying as finishing a uni degree...

(For Liam - I should have known better than to go down that particular lane;  even as I went forward, the branches pressed and screeched past the window, I thought, “this hedge is fierce close, fierce close”…)

On one of the walks I did I came across a tractor who kindly stopped for me. I had to take my bag off and shimmy alongside the big tyre.

Along these farm roads were honesty boxes and booths selling eggs and jam and veges and plants. It made me happy that this is still a thing in the world, it reminded me of Taranaki. I didn’t have any change on me, so shoved a £10 note in and stocked up with jars and jars of jam and Marmalade. 

The Eden project was just stunning.

I visited an old friend in the wooded Riverland of Lostwithiel (more on that soon)

My housemate had given me a book to borrow (outstanding loop walks of Cornwall), and it never failed me. Her parents live in Newquay and they very generously drove me to the tippy tip of Cornwall so I got some time staring out the window as well, without the fear of getting lost or holding up traffic. They were armed with picnic goodies and flasks of tea and there wasn’t a moment in the day where I wasn’t fed and pampered. 

Overall, I walked a lot- and a good portion of my brain emptied out in the salty air: so much so that although I saw and absorbed a lot, I find it hard to write exactly about it. 

I have developed an exceptionally soft spot for pasties even though they’re basically just pies with a handle (perhaps *because* they’re pies with a handle?)

It was a good trip.