So there’s the proof that we started at Land’s End this morning. It was windy and cloudy, but ok. We met a man as we were taking our photos who said his wife, who was just getting out of their Land Rover, was about to walk from End to End. She was going by herself over three months, camping as she went. She had just retired, and this was her gift to herself. Makes what we are doing seem quite sane.

The reason there are no other photos is that a few minutes from Land’s End it started to rain, and it rained all day, with quite an accompanying wind. Still, it was lovely to be cycling through Cornwall, and much better than the circuitous training days around Kent and Surrey when we never really got anywhere except home.

We managed the ups and downs and stopped for lunch at a pub in a tiny village. Not a day for a picnic. Arrived in Veryan pretty much wet from head to toe. The shoe covers aren’t waterproof, the waterproof gloves aren’t waterproof and the waterproof jacket isn’t (very) waterproof. My Cubs hat under my helmet kept the rain out of my eyes and off my face to some extent. The helmet did a very good job of anchoring the hat in the wind.

We used to come to Veryan when the kids were younger, mostly during the May half-terms, so it is a bit of a diversion for sentiment’s sake. The room is warm and we are hoping everything will dry before the morning, which is meant to be overcast but not raining.

So, first day and we’ve had the worst of the weather, some of the worst of the hills (though plenty more to come) and we are warm and dry in a spectacularly beautiful part of the world. No complaints.