The D Tour podcast is proudly sponsored by Macs Adventure

Macs Adventure specialise in self guided walking and cycling holidays for independent, active people who don't want to be part of the crowd or restricted by set dates and schedules.

Harriet has taken the first steps on her 900 mile D Tour. And most of them seem to be up hills along the South West Coastal Path in Cornwall!

In this first week on the road raising money and awareness for Dementia Adventure, Harriet is reflecting on how music and being outside intersect and create perfect conditions for creativity.

You can listen to Harriet's playlist on Spotify. Each week she's adding songs to match her mood on her epic walk!

She's also surrounded by smells - the sea, the rain, the wild flowers all have a distinct scent that draw her back to places in time and evoke memories and feelings.

We discuss how the sense of smell affects people living with dementia.

You can find out more about the fabulous bath and body products by Land and Water here www.landandwater.co.uk

If you like what we are doing and want to support the Dementia Adventure Support Fund please donate

Dementia Adventure has been at the forefront of providing fully supported, small group short breaks for people living with dementia and their carers for 15 years. Our supported breaks offer more than just respite; they provide meaningful, purpose-driven experiences that significantly enhance the quality of life for both people living with dementia and their caregivers. 

This is day one of my Land's End to John O'Groats trip and I'm so blessed to have the most gorgeous weather for walking in. I'm walking along a beautiful path between Sennen and St. Just and there are flowers everywhere. Heather, dandelions, bracken. And so the air is kind of. It smells just faintly scented. It's so delicious scented with all of these beautiful wildflowers and with a tang of salt. And that beautiful scent is being brought to me on this lovely warm breeze.

So I'm really making the most of this day because apparently we got some bad weather on the way. But right now I'm walking along, breathing in deeply and taking in the scents, the sounds and the sights of this beautiful Cornish path.

What is really wonderful though, is that this episode of The D Tour hasn't just got one sponsor, but two. Land and Water have kindly donated to the production of this episode as well. You'll find out more about the fabulous bath and body products they develop later in the episode, but I urge you to visit their website, www.landandwater.co.uk , and immerse yourself in some invigorating recipes for both the body and the soul. As you can hear, my adventure has begun and I've been taking the first steps on my detour. I'm keeping an audio diary as I go and I want you to hear the highs.

So I've reached Cape Cornwall and it's a beautiful day. It's hot and there's lots of people swimming down there and it's so tempting just to walk on, but I've got all day and so I'm going down to join them. Go and do some swimming on my walk. And for me, that's kind of why walking is an adventure, because you can be open to the opportunities that come in the moment. And I think it's important just to take them and to really be present to what a golden opportunity that is. So my golden opportunity is to have a swim at Cape Cornwall on the way to Pendeen. Going back to the theme of adventure, this, for me, is why walking is such an adventure, because you get to see amazing things. Like, I saw a grouse, a mummy grouse, climbing up a hill with, well, a cliff, really, with its five tiny grouse babies struggling up to try and follow their mum. And they couldn't. They couldn't get over the, there was like, an overhang at the top and they couldn't get over. And I kept on saying to this grouse mummy, you're gonna have to find another route. And eventually she did. So that was a nice kind of natural adventure, if you like. And then I met a gentleman who was telling me all about the industrial past of this area of Cornwall, especially relating to the tin mines, because the tin shafts and the old water pumping stations, towers are everywhere in the landscape. And that was really amazing to stand and talk to this man and to be able to delve into the past of this area and to try and imagine how it was when all these mines were working.

And basically, the hillsides would have been covered with men at work doing very dangerous work. But it was amazing just to sit and chat with him and to consider that what we're seeing here today is just one point in time of Cornwall's history. And I think that's the joy of walking. It's an adventure in the moment, but it can also be an adventure through time, as you consider what this landscape all means in terms of human and natural history.

And with every high on this journey, I'm realizing that there is probably a low as well. What goes up must come down.

Wow. Today has been long, and I kept on losing the path. And right now, if you could see me, I'm walking through, like, shoulder height bracken. And it's rained, so it's making my trousers soaking wet. But never mind, they dry really quickly, so I feel like I've been walking for ages. And it seems like forever ago it said St Ives, three and a half miles. I think that was about, I don't know, one and a half hours ago. These paths, because they're so up and down and they're so rocky, they just,it just takes so long, you know, normally three and a half hours. Sorry, three and a half miles would take me an hour. But the amazing thing is, she says, going through more soaking wet bracken. The amazing thing is, and tripping up, that I have got my first glimpse of St Ives. So I'm not there yet, but I can see its golden sands and houses and civilization. So that means I have nearly reached my destination. So, yeah, you know what got me through this last bit was I passed a farm where a boy was selling flapjacks. I seriously don't think this is the right path.

I'm literally having to fight my way through now. This is ridiculous. Anyhow, this boy was selling flapjacks and I bought a flapjack, which I have just eaten, and I think that will give me enough energy to. To get past this jungle and to reach St Ives. Over and out. Day three and this is the song that has come into my head as I've started walking and I'm singing it as I walk along. Me and Bobby McGee. Kris Kristofferson, I believe. A big favourite of my dad's. Probably one of my dad's favourite ever songs. And actually, I came to St Ives with my mum and dad just as my mum was developing dementia actually. She didn't have a diagnosis and I think this is the case with many people.

Here's another song I've just made up. So there's lots of. There's lots of steps to get round the bay at Carbis

Here's my song. I love climbing steps with a 10k backpack on. I love climbing steps when the day's begun. That's it. Hello. Wow. Sounds like a parrot. I can't see what it is.

I love climbing steps with a 10k backpack on I love climbing steps, when the day begun.

On my journey, I'll create a playlist of music that connects me with my travels, and I'm really looking forward to sharing that with you. This week, I've chosen a Fleetwood Mac song, Albatross. I don't know if you remember that. It's kind of corny, I guess. But whilst I've been walking along the cliff tops in Cornwall, I often see the seagulls and kestrels wafting on the air currents below me. So they're not albatrosses, but they really are gorgeous. The other track I've chosen is the Java Jive. And that is because, well, two reasons. Firstly, it's a song that my dad used to sing to me. And secondly, it's all about coffee. And I kid you not, I really do not function without my morning coffee. So every day, the first thing is, where am I getting my morning's coffee?

So I'm just thinking about how music and walking and nature intersect, and I guess there's two ways. When you're walking, especially if you're walking over a long distance, you have a rhythm. You walk in a rhythm, don't you? You can probably hear my feet now. And that rhythm itself can be, for me, the inspiration for a song. So the rhythm just suggest something somehow. But also music and walking, for me, kind of perform the same function. They're a way of expressing myself. They're a way of releasing emotion.

So when I write music, I get totally caught up in the music. It's a totally, 100% mindful experience. Time stops still, and you're just in the composition, and walking can be like that, too. Sometimes when I'm walking, time stops still. I'm just kind of almost on automatic, and my mind kind of goes into some blank but very, very peaceful flow. As soon as I set out on the coast path today, I saw the coastline stretching before me, and it immediately brought a line of a song to mind. And I really find that walking is so great for my creativity, not just in songwriting, but in this case, it really is about songwriting.

So it was just that view, thatidea of the coastline stretching on and on, and how it's always there, and what a friend it's been to me over these past five days, and that's inspired a song that is called Coastline. And I think I've been walking for about an hour and 20 minutes, and I've got all three verses and a bridge and a little sing along chorus. So, basically, the song is written. I just need a guitarist or something to help me kind of turn it into a song. But the lovely thing about walking, and there's a lot of science to prove this. When you walk, your entire nervous system calms down, and this actually allows greater connectivity between the different sides of your brain. And certainly, when I'm walking, my brain feels very big, if that makes sense, it feels like it can expand into the space around me, and in that space, there's no pressure. So I don't worry about getting anything right, getting anything wrong.

I just meander along today, meandering along with the wind and looking at the beautiful heather and the incredible wild Crocosmia that grows everywhere in Cornwall and the sea, of course, and the cliffs, and I'm just meandering along, and my brain is just turning over, turning over ideas consciously and unconsciously, and it's come up with this song, and I'm just so happy.

It's day six of my walk and amazingly, I've walked well over 100 km already this week and to be honest, I feel like I deserve a break. I was amazed, actually, when. When I realised that I'll walk about 34 marathons back to back in 90 days. So a couple down and 30 or so more to go. Anyway, I've taken the opportunity in beautiful Newquay to rest and recharge at the Watergate Bay hotel. Full disclosure, I'm not camping in the grounds of the hotel. They got wind of my journey and kindly offered me the opportunity to stay in a proper bed with beautiful covers, in a gorgeous room with a view. One of the directors of the hotel also happens to be the fabulous Pix Ashworth, who is the proud founder of Land and Water.

Land and water are bath and body product specialists who pride themselves on bottling that feeling of being out in nature and being on holiday. Pix works with leading apothecarist and perfumer Richard Howard to translate the emotions we feel outdoors, that unique blend of invigoration and calm, into the land and water bath and body products.

I turned up very dirty and smelly yesterday, that's the truth of it. And I doused myself under a lovely shower with... Now, let me get it right. Was it geranium? Geranium something and mint? No, grapefruit.

Orange grapefruit and. Well, depends what you were using. Star anise is in our body wash.

It was the shampoo.What was the shampoo?

It had orange, grapefruit and mint.

Yes. Yes, that was the one. Because it was really. It was such a good combo, because I always love grapefruit, because it's that kind of zingy sort of feel.

Very uplifting.

But the mint, oh, it just gave this lovely kind of after smell. And for me, mint is such a... I grow mint in the garden and it's one of those herbs and one of those smells that it kind of reminds me of home, it kind of reminds me of family somehow. I can remember mum chopping up mint and putting it into food.

Yes. And drinks and. Yeah, with the new potatoes and actually, it's really interesting because mint is the Greek herb of hospitality.

Is it?

Yeah. Little fact.

That's amazing.

Yeah. I mean, they kind of make sense. I think they might be used for leaves on the floor, you know, to have a sort of freshness as you came in through the house, but also, I imagine. Yes, certainly in cooking and in drinks. And I know what you mean, that freshness and that sort of sense of sense of home is. Yeah. It's a feeling of everything's all right with the world.

It really is. And it's so interesting how. How smell can do that. So I found when I was walking on the coastal path to reach here, there were two smells in particular. Well, one was a very particular smell, which is chamomile, because there was some chamomile on the paths. And whenever I see chamomile and smell chamomile, I always think of my mum, because I've got a very, very clear memory of her. We were having a walk in Essex, I must have been about seven, and there was some chamomile on the path and she picked it up and that evening she made chamomile tea for us and she said, oh, this will help you sleep well. And I just always remember it was just one of those special memories.

Do you drink chamomile tea?

I pick it myself because there's loads of it in West Sussex. So I pick it. And, in fact, when my daughter and her now husband were at mine getting married a few days ago, I made them some chamomile tea with this chamomile that I picked and they were like, wow, this is so delicious. Because it tastes different when when you've got the actual plant and you dried it and you've done it yourself, it has the whole full flavor up to it.

So that really took me back to my mum and that very, very particular memory.

Yes. It's amazing how that sense is so natural, isn't it, how those senses occur to you, and particularly smell, because smell is such of the five senses, it's the one. I think it bypasses the. You know, when you smell, it's the one sense that bypasses the thalamus. It goes straight to your amygdala, which is the most reptilian part of your brain.

Right.

And, of course, is responsible for emotion rather than fact or logic. And so you get hit by this wave of emotion before you can process it. You can't tag the aroma as such until the other sort of processes have happened. And so it goes straight to the amygdala, and it's the only sense that does that. And it can be quite disorientating sometimes, can't it? Lovely often, but slightly disorientating that I can't tag that aroma. Where was it? I know that smell. And you get a sort of emotional feeling throughout you, yet you can't apply logic to it.

I know exactly what you mean. I mean, sometimes you're walking down the street and you just smell something. And what I sometimes get is it. It's a whole feeling in my entire body, like I'm somewhere else. But like you say, I can't tag it. I'm like, where is that from? Because I can feel...I can feel it, but I don't know what it is. I can't quite remember it cognitively. And I suppose that's why obviously, you have your partnership with Dementia Adventure, as I do too.

And that's what sort of our whole ethos is about. And as you said right at the beginning, we're trying to capture that emotion of spending time outside, particularly on the threshold of land and water, be that by a lake or by the sea or by a river, but it could also just be in a park in London, you know,

Someone may be losing their cognitive abilities. It doesn't mean that they can't, as you're saying, get that long term benefit from being outside, even if it's simply sitting outside. It doesn't have to be walking or exploring if that's beyond a person's abilities.

So even, as you say, if you're not physically active, just being outside, nature acknowledges you, be it the breeze on your cheek or the feeling of the ground underneath your feet. And it's very grounding. I think we would is a word that is used a lot, bounded around a lot now, but it is that feeling of just being accepted and being happy with who you are and that moment in time.

I mean, I know with my mum, one of the smells that was really therapeutic for her was rosemary, because we always had rosemary in our garden and she cooked with rosemary.

And of course it's got such a strong. And there was a rosemary bush in her care home. So whenever I went outside with her, we'd always go to the rosemary bush and smell, smell it. And what I found was those times out in the garden when she had really lost most of her speech. That's when words would come out like beautiful or lovely or. And it would come out in response to the smell or colour of a flower. And I knew in that moment she was enjoying them. And actually, really, isn't that what everyone wants anyway, to be happy in the moment? We talk about, you know, using music and using scent to help people remember when they're having dementia.

But another aspect of that is it also creates what for me, personally speaking, it also created lovely memories for me because I can remember my mum and myself sharing, you know, the scent of the rosemary or the colourful flowers in the garden. And I look back and I and I just remember, well, yes, she had dementia, and yes, there was a decline in cognitive function, but we actually had some good times as well. We shared some beautiful moments, just as we did when she was, you know, pre dementia, when we'd also go out walking and. And look at flower. I mean, she was the person who taught me how to really look at flowers and things. And so I feel that was a common thread in her entire life. And being able to step outside and being able to guide her a little bit as to finding the scents and finding the colours.

Yeah.

Created really lovely connection and happy moments for both of us.

Sorry, I've just got to stop because I've just breathed in, and we're just walking, walking into the wind now. And so the wind is bringing this salty, oh, delicious, delicious smell. It's so nice.

It's one you never take for granted either.

Right.

You know, I must have been down here well over several hundred times. And it. Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't stop doing its thing. You know, the endorphins run just as much as the first time.

And these colours that the sort of, the sea is kind of in the distance, it's sort of like a slate grey, and then it's getting blue and more sort of turquoisey as it comes towards us. And where the waves are crashing, it's like, what's that toothpaste? There's a toothpaste that had an ad and it and it was these sort of, you know, waves that were exactly that colour, you know, and then this, this sand, which is. What's the colour of the sand?

Oh, I'm gonna go. Well, it's a mixture, isn't it? Of course it is. It's yellows and beige and. But it's the patterns that I love in the sand as well, with sort of pockets of water dotted here and there that, you know, you often sort of see children jumping over them as you. You know, if you're going at speed, you've got to be quite nimble jumping over them, in between them. And then the deeper ones are so warm. Oh, yes. And we have the rock pools. We're up at the north end, and the rock pools, you know, we have really happy memories when our children were younger, being, you know, they used to call it the Caribbean. They say, can we go to the Caribbean? Not that they've ever been to the Caribbean, but can we go to the Caribbean? Which meant, can we go to the rock pools at the north end, because it's just so, you know, then they're isolated away from the sea and lovely and warm. And of course, they'd find lots of little things to intrigue them and play with.

And actually, that, that's the other thing about being outside that we haven't touched upon, but it's that the picking things up, the touching things, the holding things in your hand. The textures of a pebble or the textures of a shell, the texture of the sand in your feet, all of these things stimulate our bodies, but they also evoke such memories, don't they?

Definitely, yes. And I think those memories just sort of come in like, sort of swallows it sort of dive in and out, don't they? And. But yeah, yeah, I think going back to what you're saying about fragrances and, you know, and smells and music and our apothecarist, who makes our fragrances, he always describes them on Sunday. They're made up as a chord, just like in music. So you have bass notes and top notes, and those top notes hit you first, and then you sort of sink into the bass notes underneath, you know, hence, like, sort of, we use of top notes like citrus. So orange and grapefruit and lemon and lime and then a mint as well. And then underneath you sink into frankincense, cedarwood, all woody, serene notes. And that, for us, is just trying to capture and translate that emotion. And I suppose that's, you know, he's an artist and so he's, you know, just like a painter translates, you know, what they see and what they feel. So he translates that emotion for us, for that amazing sense of feeling exhilarated and lifted from being outside, but also deeply relaxed and calm. And I think, you know, that's definitely how I'm feeling today anyway. Just being outside, such a, such a joy.

I had such an amazing day off at Watergate Bay Hotel, meeting the team there and talking to Pix. She has a real passion for the therapeutic benefits of time in the elements and wants to be able to recreate that incredible feeling of the shoreline for as many people as possible. I'm getting to experience that firsthand, of course, and I couldn't be more grateful. Even on the down days. It did get me thinking also about the role that smell plays in our lives and how much we take this for granted. I asked Sue Hines, who is both a speech and language therapist and head of innovation and research at Dementia Adventure, about the connection of smell and feelings when you have dementia. I love this conversation between her and her colleague Ruth Thompson.

There is massively a connection between smell and feelings, aren't there? Both old feelings and new feelings? I mean, I know personally, for me, there are smells from my childhood that take me back to great places, and then there are smells throughout the whole of my life that can sort of just ricochet me into a conversation or a thought or a feeling that perhaps isn't so great. They give an emotional, intense response, don't they?

100%, yeah. And I think with clients, when we're going on holidays, we visit lots of places, like botanical gardens, we go to lots of outdoor places. But it's always like, things like the smell of roses will always start a conversation. You know, we've had many a conversation about what flowers people had on their wedding day and smells that takes them back to so. So, yeah, it takes a huge part. And because of the places that we visit, they are outdoors. You know, we're often on farms, so they invoke lots of different smells, lots of different childhood experiences, and lots of different working experiences as well. So you get to really understand who somebody is, I think, through that connection more than you think you would.

It's interesting, you said about flowers on the wedding day and so on, because I find that when I'm working with someone, that actually, if I ask them what flowers they had on their wedding day because of their memory difficulties, because of their communication difficulties, that's quite confrontational. What flowers did you have on your wedding day? And they can't think of the name, and they can't think of the information or have a discussion on it. But what you're saying there is actually, when you're out in nature and you smell those flowers, that then stimulates those parts of the brain around your language and your memory, that can help you to then have a conversation on that subject.

Absolutely. And often I think it is coupled with sight as well. So you've got, you know, the vision of all the flowers around you, and it might be that smell that triggers off that memory, but actually it's the vision of having it there as well. So, you know, it's all the senses that feed into that. But those conversations will often start from those smells. We spend a lot of time, you know, stopping to smell different things, mint in a garden. You know, there's often herbs where we go, and that's another one that will evoke conversations. And, you know, sometimes they're those really, like, little conversations about putting mint with potatoes when you were cooking for kids. That kind of thing. It doesn't always need to be something really huge, but it will spark some really lovely memories. And it's often quite good for ice breaking as well, you know, getting to know somebody, because it's those little conversations that's when you start to really understand who the person was, what their life was like, you know, what was important to them as well, and what their.

And what their life was like and what was important to them. And so it can have an influence on the topics that you might want to discuss, but it can also have an influence on the topics maybe you don't want.

You don't want to discuss. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I always joke with clients on holidays, so having two girls who are teenagers, there's a lot of Charlie red perfume, and some of these perfumes have gone through the times now. So for me, it smells like anxiety because I haven't done my geography homework on a Sunday night when I smell that. Whereas for my kids, it's a really strong smell. So, you know, they absolutely love it. But, you know, there's often. Sometimes people will walk past and you get a whiff of a perfume and it takes you back to somewhere, do you know what I mean? And it's no different. I think, for you, I or any of our clients who are living with dementia, it still can take you back really vividly. And then, yeah, it's a brilliant way to start having those conversations and unravelling that.

It's interesting because actually, I have that with lots of moisturisers. There'd be a moisturiser I haven't used for years, but the last time I used it was on a certain holiday. Aftersun is one of those, isn't it? It takes you back to that time. It can really trigger lots of memories, which actually the research is showing now can also help support cognitive stimulation, slow down the rate of disease. And there's lots of research in the area around how smell can support someone. But I think even though there's new research going on in this field, what we know about smell is that it does what you said, it connects people with their past, it has all sorts of things around their relationships and can connect people with previous relationships, previous occupation, how included they were in a group or a sort of network within a community a certain time. But actually, what we do know is dementia affects the brain, and the brain is changing for a person with dementia. And so they may, for some people, start to interpret smells differently and the process for interpreting those, it becomes a little bit different.

So I think one thing we should cover off, really, Ruth is around number one, how smell can change for people and how perhaps a response isn't what carers are expecting a response to be, but also around perhaps the idea of hallucinations as well, because we often think about hallucinations being somebody seeing something or hearing something, but we don't actually think about the fact some people will have hallucinations which are around their touch or their taste or their smell. So we'll come on to the hallucinations as well. But firstly, just to talk a little bit about how it can be frustrating when somebody with dementia isn't recognizing those smells that are perhaps the smells that we would relate to, fear or danger, and they aren't being picked up by the person with dementia. And it's really easy to think that the person isn't picking it up because they're just being indifferent about it, they're just being not bothered by it, they're being lazy about it. But that's not the case, is it?

No, not at all. And dementia has a huge impact on the senses. And I think all of us tend to forget how much we rely on our own senses, you know, our sight, our hearing, but particularly our sense of smell. It tells us where we are in the world, what's going on around us, if we're safe. And when that starts to be affected, it can have huge implications for somebody. And, you know, things like with smells, you might not necessarily pick up if something's burning on the stove. So often people might think, oh, they've just forgotten, they've put it there. But, you know, for a lot of us, we rely on smell. You know, when water boils over and you get that smell of water hitting the stove and it smells, they're not going to recognize that or they're not going to link what that smell is to what that issue is. So, yeah, I think we forget how important that can be for people. And like you say, a lot of times carers feel it s that ,just complacency. They're not going to recognize it, whereas ultimately it's just the brain isn't linking those two messages together properly anymore.

Yeah, it's just not registering the danger associated with it, is it? And food going off in the fridge, I think that's one I come across quite a lot, is where I. Somebody has put some food into the fridge because they've got a memory problem. They've forgotten that that food went into the fridge 3, 4, 5, 7 days ago and needed to be eaten within one or two days. And you or I would pick up the sense that that's rotting food. We would have that smell. That. That's rotting food. But that's not always detected by the changing brain, is it?

No. I did a piece of work with a gentleman a little while ago, and chicken. And although the chicken looks fine, the smell told you everything you needed to know. And actually, we were in his home. He was prepping his dinner and I'd asked him what he'd got. I said, oh, no, no, you can't eat that, lovey. And he was quite adamant he could. It was fine.

And, yeah, it was that impact of memory being affected. He hadn't remembered when he'd put that in, but there was certainly no, you know, usual recognition that actually, that does not smell okay. That doesn't smell safe to eat so often. That could be really challenging for carers when we're assuming, particularly when people live independently and we're thinking, actually they can eat, you know, this is fine, we've got food going in, but we need to really be careful and think about what they're able to recognize and when they're not.

So sometimes the cortex is changing, so people cannot recognize the sense of danger from a smell that they have. But also there are people sometimes with dementia, who know they're making mistakes and actually they're trying their hardest to show people that they're doing okay and everything's all right. And I know we've spoken to a lady in the past, haven't we, where she will say, she will move towards the smell of smoke, whereas you or I might run away from the smell of smoke because her first thought is, oh, crikey, is that something I've done?

Should I quickly get out there to see if I can make it better? I think it's really tough for people living with dementia because they do have so much going on. And this is another thing to add to it, you know? And I think we often think about hallucinations with smell as being something really lovely. But I've worked with many a carer who's really frustrated where they might have cleaned the house. One particular gentleman will have the smell of old mops all the time. So it's a real bone of contention between him and his partner when he's saying that, like, it's not clean in here, why haven't you cleaned? And obviously it is clean in there, but actually it's that olfactory hallucination. It's really real for him. Whereas for her, it's really frustrating that her partner's now saying, this isn't okay.

And it's funny, isn't it? Because it could be a hallucination, which we'll come on to in a minute, and it could be that he's jumped a link. So the smell of a dirty mop has got a link to cleaning. Harriet probably won't be keen on me mentioning this, but Harriet's walking a lot of miles every day. She is going to have to, and she will be, I know, making every effort to keep herself clean and take care of her personal care and things such as body odour and so on. And I know Harriet will have that all under control. That's not always the way for someone with dementia. You know, often body odour is a common one that occurs that you or I or Harriet will recognise. At the end of the day, I need a wash, I need a shower, I need to change my clothes and that these clothes need a refresh. But for somebody with dementia, actually, they may not trigger that smell, that their clothes need changing and therefore go to put the same clothes on the next morning, not register the change in smell. And that can have a huge impact on your identity, because it challenges your identity, doesn't it? And also your relationships. I'm sure people wouldn't be keen to be around Harriet if she wasn't regularly taking care of her laundry and her personal care during this walk.

And then it's those awkward conversations about how you approach that with somebody, because, like you say, it's absolutely your identity. And I've worked with many a person who isn't recognising they need to change those clothes, but is adamant that they need to wear the same clothes every day. And that's about comfort, isn't it? And, you know, sometimes our own smells do bring us comfort. But, yeah, it could be a real challenge to work and support somebody when they're not noticing that things might be changing, they might need to have a wash.

So the last one that we keep saying we're going to address is hallucinations. People are often familiar with people having hallucinations, where they see things that the rest of us don't see or they hear things that the rest of us don't hear. But you can have them with taste, touch and smell. And I think smell hallucinations are more common than people would actually think.

And I think they're possibly more frustrating because they're not understood. When people have cleaned the house and it doesn't smell clean, it's never nice smells. I've never worked with anybody who said, you know, oh, I get a lovely smell of coffee each morning.

I have, you see, I think you can have really reassuring and enjoyable hallucinations, but you can have the ones that you've come across, which really distressing for someone.

Yeah, I've had certainly on holiday, I've had a gentleman who could smell smoke. Actually yhat took me a while to realise that that was what was happening for him. So, you know, the initial response was, okay, we'll just check what's going on in the kitchens or whatever. And it really took some time to go, do you know what? This is just an olfactory hallucination for him. And then we had to talk that through with him. But, yeah, I've only come across ones that are quite alarming also, you know. And you really do have to work with somebody and make sure they feel safe and secure. Yeah.

And I think the ones that give positive emotions are easier to go with, aren't you? You can just go with the flow and, you know, it's in a good place, so you can encompass it and carry on with it in everything you're doing. But, like you say, the ones that perhaps cause distress, I think what you just said that you do or you did with this particular gentleman in the first instance was absolutely perfect. What you did for this gentleman is you validated it and said, well, let's see and let's check. There is no smell. And then after validating, you reassure, don't you?

Yeah.

And sometimes you can't reassure, though, can you? Because it's real for the individual, you can't smell it. You've tried to reassure them that it's not there, but for them it is a real smell and it's having massive impact

Because it is so real for that person. I think what, when I'm talking to carers, we're off the same thing, how you would feel when your reality is questioned. Because ultimately, you know, if something's incredibly real to you, that is where your belief lies. And so if somebody tells you that's not, you're going to really start to bash heads with that person. Whereas I think to validate and then reassure and then maybe acknowledge, oh, you know, I'm really sorry, I can't smell that. You know, that must be quite difficult for you, or might quite distressing for you can actually really diffuse that situation as well. So, yeah, it can be really challenging when somebody has those olfactory hallucinations, but, you know, there's lots and lots of things we can do to support somebody.

Listening to Sue and Ruth talk about the connection between smell and memory really struck a chord with me. As I walk through different landscapes, the scents I encounter really do trigger vivid memories. It's a powerful reminder of how something as simple as smell can bring back comforting memories or highlight the changes someone with dementia might be experiencing. It's so important to approach these moments with care, validating their experiences and providing reassurance even when their reality differs from ours.

It's day nine and I'm walking from Port Isaac to Beeny. I was staying at a little bothy about a mile outside Port Isaac, so I'm just walking there now. Instead of going back to the south west coast path and taking the long route, I'm taking the short route down a lovely little country lane. I love walking on country lanes. That was just a little milk lorry that passed me. And yesterday was hard because it was so windy. It was rainy too, but it was the wind, really, that was hard. So I set out this morning and my boots are wet and my socks are going to get wet, and I was a bit worried about blisters forming, you know, and I had a few concerns.

Just going to wait for this car to go past. So I had a few anxieties about my feet. So far I've had no blisters and I. I don't normally get blisters when I'm walking, so I'm quite paranoid about them and I obviously really don't like blisters. So I was having a little worry fest about blisters and then I suddenly looked up and realised I'm in this beautiful countryside.

It's so gorgeous.

It really is lovely. So there are sheep and cows. Maybe they're waiting to be milked. And after the sort of towering, dramatic and slightly scary cliffs of yesterday, this is so gentle and lovely. There are wheat fields, rolling hills, views down to the sea, lovely hedgerows filled with ivy and nettles and blackberries and ferns. And I feel really at home here because this is, is kind of like the country lanes that you get in West Sussex, where I live. It's just a little lesson.

Of course there are going to be anxieties about blisters or hunger or whatever, but it's just a little note to myself to remember that I'm walking in this gorgeous countryside and what an absolute pleasure it is and. And how lucky I am to have this opportunity to walk the length of the UK. So I've climbed out of Port Isaac and I'm walking along a little path along the cliffside with quite high grass and it rained all day yesterday. So there's this lovely sort of damp earth, damp grass, damp bracken kind of smell. It's just a warm, earthy smell and it's kind of like the smell of childhood, maybe we smell these smells much more when we're children because we're so much smaller and closer to the ground. But that's what it reminds me of. It's sort of something nurturing and kind of solid about that smell. Something warm and welcoming.

Harriet Thomas 48:00

I'll be finishing my time on the south west coast path and heading towards the Tarka Trail in Devon. I'm already looking forward to chatting with Anne from the Devon Memory Cafe Consortium and hearing more about the wonderful horses of Collacot Farm

You know, the world we live in today is very much focused outwardly. We're encouraged to look outward for a lot of answers, if you like, to our lives and I feel that what horses can do for humans and humans for horses is create a beautiful connection in the moment, but also encourage us to drop into our bodies and access the information our bodies have to share with us.

It may well be Devon on earth. The dtour podcast is proudly sponsored by Max Adventure. Max Adventure specialize in self guided walking and cycling holidays for independent, active people who don't want to be part of the crowd or restricted by set dates and schedules. They encourage you to go at your own pace whilst they support you with all of the routes and logistics for a worry free adventure.