When planning and thinking about this hike I tried to compare it with Alpine hikes I/we have done before and suggested that the key difference was likely to be the absence of a big daily goal or achievement such as a peak or a pass. That has definitely proven to be true... and although many small ascents and descents are physically easier, I find, they are for some people psychologically more difficult. For them, I think, the ups seem pointless... because they don't add up to something like a peak or a pass. Instead height gained and lost becomes like distance... just something that you do on your way to the end of the day. Only the ascents are more strenuous than distance... and are thus resented more.
Another thing I left out was the weather. I've talked about the wind, but I didn't talk about the drizzle / fog that we had yesterday and, looking out of the window, today. Classic English weather... at least classic for me having grown up in Newcastle in the north east of England where my memories are that it was like this three days out of five. You don't really get wet, just damp, so it's much better than rain, but it is much worse than sun. Coming around Morte Point yesterday late afternoon it was heavier so that my hair and clothes started to drip, but usually it just makes you damp. Great for moss, less good for visibility and morale.
No Internet in the B&B last night, and minimal phone reception... which is why this post and the last are appearing (I hope just) one day late.
Bipolar B&B by the way -- Victoria House in Mortehoe. Our bedrooms and the common room/lounge are elegant, neat, clean, and spacious... top notch. The private areas of the house, however, based upon what we have been able to see through windows and partially opened doors, are incredibly messy: they look like a bomb has hit them. Very surprising.
Off to breakfast... more later after, perhaps, today's hike. "Perhaps" because I haven't yet seen the state -- physical and psychological -- of the troops... it may be that today's hike will be either truncated or (horrors!) even called off !!!
