The remoter west

Five months ago, I completed North Cornwall Ultra amid a winter storm that almost felt like summer after the already long Umeå winter. Though driving a rental car to the race start in Polzeath, I had first entertained the idea of taking the “Night Riviera Sleeper” from Paddington to Penzance but, as always is the case in the real world, my travel plans were constrained by work and family obligations.

Nevertheless, reading my book about night trains last night, I came across a 1910 quote by E.M. Forster: “in Paddington all Cornwall is latent, and the remoter west”, reminding me of that feeling that I often get in airports and railway stations, of what lies beyond.