Day 4: Truro

Distance: 12.8 miles
Sprints: high
Today was a reasonably short and straightforward day, a few miles into Truro, a few miles wandering around Truro, and a few miles to the west. All the walking was on pavement, mostly very quiet lanes, but with a couple miles of B-road, and even a small section of A-road. We didn't get lost and made good time. Here's Dawn just as we are starting out. The background is the grounds of the Chycara house, our B&B last night. They have a lovely property with ponds, gardens, cats, friendly people, and a hot tub.




Some of you (Larry, anyway) have noticed that the mileage in our plan is not lining up with the miles that we are recording in the blog. The plan called for today to be 10 miles, but somehow it ended up at almost 13. I'm not sure exactly what's up, but it's a disturbing trend. The road miles in the blog (and the elevation gain stats) are taken from the garmin we are carrying with us. It's the newest bestest hiking garmin gadget (etrex 30) so it should be accurate. The map miles in the plan were worked out using one of those thingamajigs with a little wheel at the bottom that you run along the map. I think that there are three things going on. One is that we are adjusting our route based on how deep the mud is, or whether we're lost, and that has added some distance. Two is that the garmin takes into account every little squiggle in the path; the whiz wheel just cruises in a straight line. Three is I think sometimes the wheel/paper friction wasn't just right, which probably led to little bits that were missed in the plan. Oops. I'm a bit concerned for the days with the twenty mile plan.




The weather has been fairly gray since we started, but mild (low 50s) and dry. Great weather for walking. Next week the forecast calls for more of the same. But today we had our first bit of rain, nothing major, just a little drizzle, but enough that we had to use our plastic map cover and put the pack covers on.




We got to Truro well before noon, and with only a short few miles from there to the end of the day, we took some time to look around. Truro was called the "London or Cornwall" back hundreds of years ago, but it didn't really hit the big time until 1877 when Queen Victoria made Truro a City - to this day the only city in Cornwall (suck it, Falmouth!). She did this because the year before the Anglican church put a bishop at Cornwall. The bishop needed some place to do Bishop stuff, so from 1880 to 1910 they build a kick ass cathedral in the medieval tradition. We spent an hour looking around, while the organist played awesome Baroque music - inspiring and uplifting!




Along one of the walls was a crypt for some dude who died in 1615 and his wife.


To get the full effect, you need a close up


After the cathedral, we enjoyed lunch at cafe nerro, and headed out of town.


We got to Spring Cottage, our B&B, early, about 2:00, and enjoyed a nice leisurely cuppa tea in vintage 1977 Silver Jubilee teacups. Nice to relax. Tomorrow it's on to St Austelle, home of St Austelle brewery.

Location:Probus, near Truro,United Kingdom