Day 1 Land’s End to St Just

It was a momentous and emotional day for us today as the gun finally went off and we set off on our journey from Land’s End to John o’Groats. If all goes to plan, we hope to arrive at the north-eastern most tip of Scotland in 75 days from now, in the process clocking up our longest walk at about 2000km.

We set off from London on the 06:37 train to Penzance, leaving the metropolis as it was just awakening and starting to stir on a cool and clear spring morning. The train journey was a surprising treat, spoiling us with vista after vista of the beautiful landscapes and countryside of the South-West of England. We saw green fields broken up by hedgerows that have changed little since pre-roman times, hidden valleys with little villages clinging to the steep hillsides, and ancient woods where the trees are just starting to spring back into life after winter.

After Exeter, the trainline gave up its most spectacular scenery as it ran along the rIver Ex estuary and then right beside the sea for many miles before turning inland. It then traversed the southern flank of Dartmoor before taking us high above the city of Plymouth, over the river Tamar, along another estuary and then deep into Cornwall.

Five hours after leaving London we arrived in Penzance in the far south-west of Cornwall. An onward journey on a bizarrely open-top double decker bus (weird because it was quite cold and no one wanted to sit outside) delivered us at last to Land’s End at about 13:30 after a circuitous and perilous journey down tiny country lanes with steep banks that were not designed for double decker buses. 

We met our first fellow LEJOGgers on the bus, a couple who are doing the LEJOG in stages over several years and who will start the first week tomorrow after staying at Land’s End overnight. It was great to chat with them and hear about their planning and the stages they were walking. We wished them the best as the bus dropped us in the carpark of the Land’s End Tourist Park.