My last two posts were not so inspired. Something I realized, is that walking more days puts a person more in the moments of walking and transitioning out of walking to technology is interesting. For Ric and I both, our dreams shifted to the trails and to the ocean. The feeling of walking settled into our sleep too. Still, it feels odd.

But now, walking is done and we’re heading back into full on technology, life and work. Re-entry is daunting. Just looking at email that has piled up in the last week! But before that . . .

We spent a lot of the day musing on health. How do we keep healthy? How do the walkers who are 20 years older than us do it? What is their secret?

There is a memoir written of a couple on the coast path, The Salt Path. For my friends who don’t know the book, the big picture of it is that she and her husband lose their home through an business deal gone wrong and then her husband is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Doctors say he will pass within a year. In an act of desperation, they start a journey of walking the Southwest Coast Path. Her book is their lessons. It is honest and insightful reading. But what stands out for Ric and I is that as they walk, her husband gains strength. He actually gets better. And now, many years later, he is still living and still walking. In spite of doctors telling him to stop.

A couple of doctors have told me to stop, that the stress of training (which is walking!) and working is too much. That because my migraine disease gets worse with stress, I need to cut something out.

I have a plan for migraine while we’re traveling. I also build in days for recovery in case I cannot keep on. The stomach issues and hyper-sensitivity have plagued me more recently than the head pain, but having a plan reduces anxiety around it all.

And then there are feet issues. Having arthritis in my right foot has given me trouble for the last year. It’s annoying mostly, but at times excruciating and I’ve had a lovely pain management doctor helping me build strength and flexibility in my feet and calves.

My point is, that as we walked, my feet got stronger and stronger. Ric’s knee arthritis lessened and his hips didn’t hurt like they usually do. As we walked I did not have migraine symptoms. And as we got into our last day of walking, it was my strongest day.

I hope that we will never have to face a diagnosis of terminal illness. But whatever we face as we age, I believe that walking is critical and valuable medicine. Even when there is pain. You don’t have to be pain-free to walk. Walking is the way to pain-free, or at least managed pain, even if it it slow progress. Ric was joking with me that he better stay healthy. If he doesn’t, then I’ll be dragging his butt up and down hills with the ridiculous vigor that I do everything else. And it is true!

All of that, and there is still this breath taking, astounding section of trail we walked in glorious sun and rain. And the last hill we came up, a rainbow was revealed over Porthcurno Beach, the most beautiful beach in England.

Aside from the weird little touristy area around Lands End “the end of England” the trail was much more secluded. And edgy. We traveled closely along the cliff sides for much of the day.

We stopped for long rests at two places. The two most beautiful places along the entire trail: Sennen Cove and Nanjizal Beach.

First Sennen Cove, the beach and the village. Goodness, it was amazing. We shared ham and cheese toasted and a long cup of coffee.

Then a couple of miles up, we came upon a little cove, just one couple of their dogs playing on the beach. As we made our way down, we realized it was heavenly. So heavenly.

Truly just indescribable beauty. And wind, waves and perfect sand. Just like walking into and sitting in a painting for a few moments, knowing you could not stay, but how can you move on from the perfection? Ric kept saying “I want to spend my childhood here.”

But we did move on, having to cover another 4 miles in record time so we wouldn’t keep our driver waiting. And still I could burst into tears at how amazing it felt.

There was a few other highlights of the day, passing several Poldark filming sites. Our driver, who told us many stories about how he took the Poldark actors around the countryside was very informative about all things Poldark!

So as we wrapped up our walk, we totaled 98.5 miles. Feels like we just missed the mark! But our driver was waiting and we couldn’t say, we have to get on another mile and half so our tracker shows 100! We just have to accept that we were close enough.

And now we will start considering our next walking adventure. Until then, back to work!