Day 42; Confidence

After a night of talking our way through storms as we couldn't sleep, Kate and I were up for 7 excited so see our Uni friends, Emily and Kila, who were meeting us at 9 to join us on todays walk. And as you had guessed, it was still raining! To cheer us up what we didn't know was the girls had decided they were carrying our bags for the day- and although we refused and resisted these stubborn little ladies were out to win. So Kate and I spent the day smiling to ourselves with the happiness of being surrounded by such good friends. Thank you girls! 

With 18 miles to walk all I could ask for now was a little sunshine. We were heading for Wadebridge- Kila's home town- crossing a lot of footpaths along corn fields and dairy farms, and then along small windy roads with tall hedges and no paint to spoil their country look (only problem was the moments when one car met another car and we were in the middle of it- our rucksacks had to quickly become friends with the hedges). 

The hills were enormous today, and steep. Really steep. I was happy on the up hill, Emily wasn't really appreciating the extra load at these points, and then my knees kicked in on the downhills while Kate was enjoying the Achilles recovery moment. Kila just powered through all of it- she was a machine, and her pain free feet made me more jealous with every step. At a happy pace and enjoying the sunshine we had just a mile to go until lunch where we were heading for a local pub that Kila could happily recommend. 

Then without warning the heavens opened; Kila and I were ahead by some way, so I wrapped up while Kila insisted on doing it the Cornish way and just walking on as if it was a perfect summers day. We reached the pub, soaked. Kate and Emily arrived drenched. With only 6 miles to go we decided to have lunch here and enjoy the warmth. 

In our final stretch we crossed one particular dairy farm which had cows surrounding the entrance gate. Me being nervous (as always) cagily walked towards the field. Kila being the unbreakable woman that she is lead the way and just demanded to the cows to leave by waving her arms in the air and gesturing 'go away'. I was in awe. She showed such confidence and the cows left immediately; clearing the way for me to quickly follow Kila across the field- I was like her shadow, and refused to leave her side. Amazing! 

I was so impressed with her completely fearless approach. Hey maybe I'll be like that next time (or not). After reaching our campsite where the girls were grateful to drop the bags, we pitched our tent and drove in to town for a drink where we found ourselves in enormous bean bags outside drinking Rattler cider, feeling completely relaxed. 

It was so lovely to have the girls here with us! We parted once we knew our clothes had finished washing and it was time to cook dinner. We crossed the 1000 mile line today... only 6 days to go now!