Welcome to the spring of 2022, and suddenly no-one's talking about Covid anymore – instead, all eyes are now on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which although unimaginable a year ago, has nevertheless been grinding on and shocking Europe out of its sense of security since February.
On the home front, we're now officially "living with Covid", since the winter Omicron wave made it clear that no amount of lockdowns and liberty-sapping restictions would prevent the spread of the ever-more-pervasive virus; only vaccinations will keep us safe now.
And so, amist a very different turmoil from that of the previous two years, we head west once more to pick up our journey from Newquay. This time we'll be heading through my childhood stamping grounds of west Cornwall, so I'm well aware of the hills that will be coming our way. I'm not sure whether this is an advantage – but as our slow train from Par pulls into Newquay, the sun is shining, and that's a good start...