Short take: a beautiful day... a happy day.
So, at dinner last night the lucky hikers recounted their day. Basically, it was as good as I imagined that it was, with one difference: they seemed to lose the trail a lot. As one described it, they only looked at the map when they thought that they had gone wrong. And when this happened, as another said, they all looked at the map and came to a democratic decision as to what to do... which was mostly wrong :-). They weren't unhappy, but clearly things didn't run as smoothly as they had done on other days.
I'm just sayin' :-)
This morning I awoke with just a minor soreness in the foot and so I returned to the hike. It was a beautiful day... even nicer (because warmer) than yesterday, and the coast path was a pure delight... going up tall cliffs, down into little valleys where streams ran into the sea across beautiful little beaches, and with almost no signs of human habitation along the way once we left Polruan (the village opposite Fowey across the river, to which we went by a short ferry).
My foot ached a few times, but overall it was fine... with a bit of luck I'll be fine for the rest of the trip.
Polperro is just a gem. A small harbour, tucked in behind a headland, with narrow streets and ancient buildings. Apparently in the summer up to 25000 tourists a day visit... an astounding number... but when we arrived it was fairly quiet. Most of us are staying in an old building called The House on Props (a picture will follow), which may have a vertical wall or a horizontal floor, but if so I haven't seen them yet. It is built partially over the stream that runs into the harbor (hence the props) and right next to the Roman bridge. It is that kind of a place.
We arrived just after 3PM, and since I had a conference call that had just started, I ran upstairs and dialled in... not even changing out of my sweaty hiking gear. With no heating (it is summer, after all!), by the time the two hour call was done I was shivering. A quick shower, a game with Russell and Rochelle, dinner at an excellent local restaurant, and I'm in bed just after 10 writing this... and being thankful for having been able to hike today.
And one last thing -- we said goodbye to Jakob and Aline today... and hope that they enjoyed the hike and our company as much as we enjoyed spending time with them!
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