Tourists for the afternoon.

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The luggage arrived, along with a £268 taxi account that you know who does not have to pay. Lucky girl Sarah for a while I was ready to sell you into the white slave trade. Then it’s hang out wet socks and jocks that have been zipped up in the case for the last 2 days. Not a pretty sight or smell. So as much wet and damp clothing as possible has been hung out to air and dry and apart from looking like a Chinese laundry all is fine and dandy again.
The local bus to Totnes cost about £6, where is the Cornwall all day bus pass for £5 when you need it? It it got us there and back. Totnes Castle was closed for some obscure reason, not due to the death of the queen. Sorry I didn’t break that news in a more gentle manner but it is true. The flags in Totnes were not even lowered to half mast or raised to half mast if they were down completely! First time we’ve seen this. Everywhere else it is really flags down and tucking at forelocks and bending at the waist and standing at attention for god save the king (deliberately punctuated that way, to upset my religious, monarchist sister (well some licence there)). We’ve seen people on the TV in tears and photos and corny epitaphs in shops. I’ve got into the act and decided to collect coins and notes with QE11 images on them! Even more surprising is the manner in the media is portraying the new king. It’s as if they don’t realize its Charles. He has been absolutely lionised here (get the ironic reference to the British Empire as well!) I know even irony isn’t funny if you have to point it out, right Bun?

The 2 Moors Way formerly starts tomorrow and the biggest challenge tomorrow will be navigation. The path is not as well marked as the SWCP and across the moors which lack identifying landmarks we will have to be careful and alert. Google says the path is OK, the guide book doesn’t really agree so it will be interesting. I have been surprised by the variation in altitude gains across the sources of information I use. I use the guide book, an app called ‘Outdooractive’ and Julie‘s phone. But they are indicative and the gain/loss is not want we have become accustomed to so it’s not too scary for us. The challenges are simply deprioritised. Navigation, distance, elevation, terrain, weather, mud and rocks simply get reordered.

More tomorrow, caio for now.

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