A memorable stay

LEJOG Days 4-7

I am currently walking from Land's End to John O'Groats, raising money for St Mungo's.

I camped at Bretons Farm near Toldish at the end of Day 3. I had the site to myself and the owners were very hospitable and even donated the camp fee to my fundraiser. The only downside of the site was the A30 within earshot but I was too tired to notice.

I realised at this point that the replacement gas canister I had just bought did not work with my stove, so I started Day 4 without a proper breakfast and aimed to have a full meal at a pub a few miles into the walk. Unfortunately, it was around 1pm when I finally had something to eat as the waitress had failed to put my order through. The lack of food combined with patches of very sunny weather gave me a headache, and I was conscious of being very delayed.

I had originally hoped to get to the Jamaica Inn (made famous by Daphne du Maurier) that night, but that was now off the cards and anyway they were charging £136 for a single room! I ended up wild camping at the edge of Bodmin Moor after another day of route adjustments and hearing a lot of the A30 (which by this point becomes a motorway in all but name).

I got moving very early the next morning to navigate the Collingford Reservoir, and made it to the Jamaica Inn for breakfast. The staff were reasonably friendly considering my dishevelled state but the place seemed very gimmicky and overpriced. As I set off, it started raining properly, and there was some kind of fell running race in the opposite direction. Despite the rain the next stretch was my favourite so far, heading north east off the moor, with plenty of sheep and cattle for company, grazing very high up on the moor, and then quiet back lanes to Launceston.

After the wild camp and getting wet, I felt ready for a B&B, and after trying literally all the other hotels, I reluctantly booked into the most expensive and worst reviewed option in town. My stay was worse than I could have imagined; by far the worst hotel I've ever stayed at. The hot water tap did not work, the shower was a trickle with an intermittent temperature, there was no heating (someone brought a small portable heater after 3 hours), the hallway was half-decorated and uncarpeted, the tea bags were unsealed and therefore stale, the UHT milk was well past its use by date, the cups were dirty, there was no rail in the wardrobe... I could go on. I highly doubt it would pass a "fit for human habitation" test. A further examination of reviews suggests the owners are widely disliked in the town and have a habit of not paying their staff or their tradespeople (hence the half-completed work). Breakfast was fine. I negotiated a reduction on departure (though still paid too much) and resolved to give some TripAdvice. The rest of the town seemed pretty run down and full of NPCs.

I fled Launceston, crossing the Tamar into Devon, but was feeling low-energy and there was yet more rain. I was finally on some kind of established trail (the Two Castles trail), but it seemed barely used and the signage was either non-existent or confusing, so I went wrong a couple of times. Later in the day the trail took a substantial detour compared to the main road to Bridestowe. I opted for the shorter walk but it wasn't an enjoyable stretch due to a lack of verge. Things improved with the Granite Way cycle path along a disused railway (including viaduct) into Okehampton. Okehampton does not have a campsite and its youth hostel was fully booked, so I opted for the wetherspoons hotel which was cheap and what's more, my room had a bath!

Day 7 was the most enjoyable hike so far, once I had left the A30 behind for the final time (and once it had stopped hailing!). The inland landscape in Devon seems slightly more undulating than Cornwall, and provided more views. A long gradually descending footpath took me through a muddy wood and onto back roads through Yeoford and into Crediton. Blisters were unfortunately starting to affect my enjoyment at this point, though not my pace.