Day Zero: travelling to Penzance

Tuesday, 24 April

The final part of the lead-up to the start took us from Worthing across to Penzance by train, or rather, three trains – Worthing to Salisbury, change, Salisbury to Exeter, change, and finally on to Penzance.

There’s something quite special about train trips, particularly ones that bear you on to somewhere new, somewhere that’s the start of an adventure. There’s also something quite special about British trains and the train system. Not just that you can book an entire route online, quickly and simple, but the trains themselves. Our favourite is the second leg, Salisbury to Exeter, on a sleek modern and comfortable South Western railway train, gliding smoothly and almost noiselessly through a very rural part of southern England. But they all had their charms, and being able to look out at the ever-changing landscape, completely relaxed, made the eight-hour journey pass by.

We leave Worthing under a cloudy sky and a chill air. As we head west the skies lower, turning to mist and drizzle west of Exeter, a gloomy outlook indeed. We pass through and occasionally stop at places we’ve never heard of but of course have their own rich history and meaning – Totnes, Redruth, St Erth (whoever knew there was a St Erth?) and on to Penzance, end of the line both physically and metaphorically, the train disgorging its passengers into a grey, drizzly and cold late spring afternoon. Odd to think that we are at the very end of England, just a few kilometres between us and the wide Atlantic, just about as far from the centre of Britain as it’s possible to go.

So we walk up the hill in the drizzle, hoping tomorrow will be a better day, and find our B&B, a very nice place called the Pendennis. We meet our good friends Angie and Paul, in the oldest pub in Penzance, the Turks Head, some eight centuries old, a place of low ceilings, nooks and crannies, and great ales and ciders (and yes, we did share a scrumpy!) Just the thing to start our adventure with! Even better, as we walk out, the rain has gone and Venus is shining brightly in a largely cloudless western sky. A good sign? We can only hope.