Day 26: Lamorna Cove to Penzance

Weather: Mostly sunny with a cool breeze

Distance covered today: 10.0 km (6.2 mi)

Last night's B&B: Little Pengelly

% Complete: Cumulative distance:46.4 %: 471 km

Total Ascent/Total Descent: 223m/ 212m

GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 26(click!)

After yesterday’s energetic antics, I was pleased that today’s route was essentially a half day’s walk. My knees are now both in poor condition from the continuing pounding they have taken on the sharp ups and especially the downs of the trail. Still, today was very pleasant. After another episode of cove-hopping, I found myself in a lovely nature reserve called Kemyel Crease that had once been a series of tiny fields for growing bulbs such as daffodils and during the war, potatoes. Trees and shrubs provided shelter for the bulbs. Now the coniferous forest has taken over and it is unique in this area and provides a familiar landmark to passing vessels. The path gradually improved, becoming a track and then a road as I approached Mousehole (pronounced “Mowzul”). This is familiar territory. On my LEJOG expedition, I walked from Mousehole to Penzance and repeated the walk today with nostalgia, while it also allowed me to think tangentially about a problem that had occurred a day or two ago, that I have yet to mention.

On the edge of a cliff somewhere on the peninsula, I looked at my gadget to properly locate myself and was shocked to discover I was out at sea! More precisely, the detailed Ordnance Survey map which rolls along under the GPS positioning cursor had disappeared, to be replaced by a schematic and undetailed map provided by the gadget manufacturers. As a geeky cliff-hopper, this got my full attention instantly!

My first instinct was that I had inadvertently pressed a sequence of keys that had switched off the OS map, but this was not the case: the OS map had disappeared entirely. I sank to my knees on the cliff edge and started fiddling with the gadget’s innards. My concerns were not justified by my circumstances. I always take a paper copy of my route map with me, and on this trip I have two. In addition, I have an app on my mobile through which I download OS maps at the most detailed scale. I was also walking along a way-marked national trail on the coast of Britain. It would be close to impossible to get lost under these circumstances! On the other hand, I wouldn’t be your ambulatory geek if the failure of one of my gadgets wasn’t a matter of intense concern to me!

This crisis occurred in the midst of the much more serious digital crisis affecting the NHS and many other organisations across the world, which was all over the news, but which has affected us personally. The ransomware attack that paralysed major parts of the NHS caused my younger daughter’s operation on her broken collarbone to be postponed. They simply phoned her and told her not to come into the hospital until further notice. As it turned out, they finally managed to accommodate her and she had the necessary surgery yesterday, and is currently trying to cope with a painful recovery at home, having had to cancel a business trip to New York as a result of the delay.

The ransomware attack is not unexpected. I have personally observed many NHS practitioners still using Windows XP, though Microsoft stopped supporting XP with security patches back in 2014. In fact Microsoft stopped supporting XP’s successor system, Vista, earlier this year, causing me to have to buy a new PC. The popular computer press has been full of stories about ransomware over the past few months. The scary thing is that even if the cash-strapped NHS had upgraded their systems, this alone would have been no guarantee that an attack would have been prevented. This particular attack used a flaw in the operating system, but it is easy enough for ransomware to access files on hard drives through other mechanisms such as spam emails or dodgy internet sites.

Once it has infected a system, the software encrypts all files on the system and presents the user with a ransom note to undo the encryption. Even if you pay the ransom, there is no guarantee that the crooks will undo the encryption, and there is almost nothing a user can do to fix their system, short of formatting all their hard drives (deleting everything), reinstalling the operating system and restoring files from backup. The key point here though is that even if a user has been diligent in backing up all the data on their PC on a regular basis, if the backup disc is attached to the PC at the time of the infection, the backup will almost certainly be encrypted as well! It is essential therefore that backup discs are disconnected from the system at all times other than when the backup software itself is running! This is something I try to do myself, but have so far not managed to convince anyone else to do the same!

My own digital crisis on the cliffs was much more easily resolved. I discovered that the micro-SD card in my gadget that contains the data for the OS maps had become dislodged, presumably by an over-energetic leap from one rock to another with an undignified jar on landing. I reconnected everything and the system was perfectly restored. If only all our digital problems could be solved so easily!

By now I was being jolted out of my reverie by my arrival in Penzance well ahead of schedule. As planned, I headed straight for the Admiral Benbow pub to down a pint of Doom Bar ale in celebration of the completion of the second series of my South West Coast Path walks. The significance of the Admiral Benbow was that this was where I first had a pint of Doom Bar before setting out on LEJOG.

Tomorrow Veronica and I are off to a party with good friends before returning home. Thank you for accompanying me on this adventure and I hope to have your company again in about a year’s time!

Looking back at tranquil Lamorna Cove

More difficult paths to cross the next headland, Carn-du

That's Lizard Point, way over the sea!

Once around the headland the path improved immeasurably

The lovely Kemyel Crease Nature Reserve

Kemyel's trees recede

Arum Lilies growing wild

The path gradually becomes a track

Out of the wild: the first houses of Mousehole appear

The lovely fishing harbour of Mousehole

St Michael's Mount over a bunch of Mousehole chimney pots under a gathering sky

Innovative allotments!

One doesn't normally expect political comment from graffiti! 

Newlyn comes into view

This read "Anyone who hasn't made a mistake hasn't tried to do anything"

The last acorn of this series of walks....

Newlyn today has the largest fishing industry in England

The bicycle track to Penzance

There appear to be many "Meaderies" in Cornwall

Penzance Harbour: next stop the Scilly Isles

The Admiral Benbow

My celebratory pint!!