Today everything was washed: me; all my clothes and the dog’s sleeping bag. I plan to hose down my rucksack tomorrow. My socks got washed twice and I still don’t think that was enough!

I have worked on the principal of wear one, wash one. However hand washing with hair shampoo (my only form of soap) dosen’t do quite as good a job as a washing machine.

I realise that my back has hurt first thing in the morning for the last two days. I am trying to work out if this is a response to sleeping in a soft bed rather than the hard (and sometimes flat) earth, or if carrying 20kg for 7 weeks has started to affect it.

Topsy has been quite content to laze around and re-cuperate

Happy missing the exercise. She has from somewhere, found a tennis ball, and I am presented with this on a regular basis to keep her amused. We did do a short road circuit of the house after tea at 7PM when it was cooler. I was very tempted to help myself from the fruit trees that lined the tracks and resisted thinking that some farmer had struggled hard to produce them. There has been little rain here snd the grass is dying and turning yellow. Saw two white painted signs for the GR4 and GR48. I suspect these are old ones, as on my IGN map, these do not come this way.

Cooked myself a bacon, corgette, red pepper and tomato risotto. I mention this, as this is the first time that I have prepared and cooked a meal in 7 weeks! The Uncle Bens “cook in a bag” rice that I had grabbed in a fit of panic shopping in Cognac was supposed to feed two, but did me nicely.

The cottage here is quite cool inside and seems colder than outside. On the basis that hot air rises, the bedrooms seem warmer, so have brought the dogs upstairs to sleep beside the bed, as I thought they were cold last night.