Believe it or not, no complaints today – an absolute perfect walk – full sunshine too with just a little breeze on occasion.  A moderate 10 miles – sea views, woodland walks – of course hills and the usual hundreds of steps but all manageable …. and dare I say enjoyable. 

Another great airbnb experience last night, staying in Mawnan Smith – our lovely hosts were Paul and Gary.  Stunning bedroom views to start the day …. but unfortunately no breakfast!!   We shared lots of tea and chats with them though and went out for a gorgeous tapas meal in the village + a visit to the Red Lion.

So treated ourselves to a few snack breaks along the way today, each time appreciating fabulous coastline views.  

It was a day of giant plants – giant ferns in the woods we walked through, another giant triffid like plant we keep discovering (not sure what it’s called) and some spectacular giant cactus plants along the seafront in Falmouth.

This is our first visit to Falmouth and we love it.  Did the honest thing and walked the whole coastal path around the headland, past Pendennis Castle and into the dock area.  Looking forward to discovering more of it this evening.  Planning a relaxing stroll with some drinking and dining experience thrown in.  Wish you were here 😊

A wonderful day that seemed to go on and on, in no small part due to the lack of Coastal Path signs in the later stages approaching Helford. The guide has once again suggested that this part of the path was strenuous so Steve set out as the solitary walker whilst Dee chose the far more sensible option of a taxi to Helford to await Steve’s arrival.  

Today’s walking turned into something of an epic, including the normal ups and downs but also several diversions inland where the previous Coastal Path was not accessible, making what should have been 15 miles into something nearer 20 miles of hard slog!  Anyway all started well with leaving Cadgwith Cove, another unbelievably beautiful part of Cornwall that remains pretty much undiscovered:-

Upon leaving the cove I spotted a coastal path sign saying Coverack 5 and 3/4 miles, so interesting to arrive some two hours and seven miles later at another great little undiscovered gem, as we move along the south coast there is a lot more kayaking and paddle boarding with the sea being a little flatter, this is the harbour area:-

From here the terrain remarkably became a lot flatter, only to be replaced by ‘boulder hopping’ amongst the flood plains along the very low coast line, however the high points returned and signalled my arrival at the rather nicely named ‘Black Head” which is an absolutely stunning place where you can see for miles in either direction, including a viewing room with binoculars, sadly my picture does not do it any justice:-
From here on in it became a great effort trying to find directions (how difficult can it be to keep the sea on your right and the land on your left?).  Anyway I was in such a rush that I even passed up the opportunity of lunch as this great place:-

From here on in I’m afraid I got completely lost within a couple of miles of Helford and included climbing around in woodland and walking around cabbage fields looks for the missing signs?  All sorted in the end though as I just walked the last two miles into Helford on the country road where the signs work a lot better, a delighted Dee was pleased to see me some two or three hours later than expected!

Well we returned to Cornwall refreshed after a fabulous weekend in Twickenham, hosted by Pete and Barbara – it was SO good to eat, drink and be merry with so many of the family for three days, many many laughs.  

We arrived in Porthleven on Tuesday afternoon and really enjoyed our stay there.  It’s similar to Padstow but without being swamped with tourists.  We dined out at Rick Stein’s restaurant in the evening – very nice too!  Stayed with a wonderful lady Trish whose airbnb was a real home from home.  Had a great night’s sleep in the sumptuous bed and Egyptian cotton bedding and left after a hearty Cornish breakfast – Steve’s plate was so full I’m not sure how he got up from the table.  

So today’s walk was classified as ‘moderate’ and it was just that … and it was spectacular to say the least.  I would say that visually this is my favourite bit of coastline so far – not such family-friendly beaches but for walking and sightseeing you could do no better.  Grass covered cliff tops, magnificent coves and the colour of the sea today – you could have been in the Med.

Everything perfect … except on reaching Lizard Point (1) we got drawn down to the beach area instead of sticking to the higher path – so this involved a steep descent down some boulder type steps and (2) we walked on further (this is because our accommodation for the night was some way beyond and we thought it would be manageable to do the extra).  After 8 hours of walking what turned out to be nearly 20 miles, we wearily stumbled into Cadgwith Bay – a picturesque fishing village with a fabulous pub.  After comforting ourselves with fish and chips and alcohol we made our way up the hill, another mile to our airbnb in Ruan Minor.

So, apart from the crazy distance, the terrain was not scary today.  My biggest challenge was the cows (after our conversation the other night Caitlin!) – we had to walk through field after field of them.  Some walkers were stopping to take selfies with them – not me, I walk briskly and I have my very pointy walking pole which I would not be frightened to use.  One did walk towards us making full eye contact and Steve had to make himself even larger and shoo him away.  They’re obviously quite intelligent cows in this part though as the farmers leave them to graze so close to the cliff edges – didn’t notice any falling off!!

Today was the day of two walks, which bearing in mind the last few days was something of an achievement!  It’s the weeekend where we’re travelling to London for a family get together so it was necessary for the logistics to get another day knocked off the list.  Volunteers were called for this epic journey of almost 20 miles and the ‘big fella’ stepped forward to take up the challenge.

Now it’s fair to say that before starting the walking lark I had been under the impression that either before or after the walk I would also run a few miles, to keep my hand in you might say?  There is absolutely no chance of that happening as the terrain we cover is so draining physically that once finished walking your last ounce of strength is required to drag yourself off to the pub.  This is a graph of the ups and downs of the walk from Lamorna to Porthleven yesterday, a tad under 20 miles, spectacular scenery but in a lot of places treacherous under foot, so a real case of one foot in front of the other and watching every step:-

Within the 20 miles I did manage to run a couple of miles and between us covered the distance in about 5 hours, the lovely Dee joining me for a celebratory march along the promenade between Newlyn and St Michaels Mount, where very cleverly she turned right and became a tourist for the rest of the day.  The ‘big fella’ then continued for another 11 miles taking loads of beach pictures, you can never have enough can you?  Luckily I’m not posting many of those but a few of the different things I saw on my illustrious journey, the first being a field of newly planted cabbages (I think),  there’s something about the straight lines:-

Also came across the equivalent of what us “inlanders” would consider as crop circles, couldn’t resist a beach shot either:-

Having completed the extra miles can you imagine my delight in walking into Porthleven to find a bus coming round the corner that I was able to jump on for the return journey to Penzance for our overnight stay.  Whilst out and about yesterday you come across some sights of great individual/team efforts and I include randomly a couple of personal highlights, the first being a two houses in a very narrow Marazion street (buses pass within inches!):-

Finally as I’ve mentioned a few times before this coast has incredible history of shipwrecks, plane crashes and contributions towards the two world wars and locally there is considerable effort put into remembering these heroic feats, this latest memorial being on a cliff top just outside Porthleven commemorating Mariners lost over the years along this coast:-

Onwards and upwards we now move on for a few days to the family function in London, we are flying into Gatwick from Newquay, how cosmopolitan does it get, although we are carrying our rucksacks so reality is not far away!

So our hosts Prue and Nigel had promised us that we would really enjoy today’s walk … that compared to the last two days it would be a pleasurable one.  What is wrong with these people – do they mean to be well-intentioned or are they actually sadistic!!?  It was not a pleasurable experience by any way shape or form!   You readers must be thinking, why are they doing it?  I can assure you after today we are seriously questioning ourselves too!!

Again a delicious breakfast served up by Prue and some interesting chats before we headed off to find the Coastal Path, Sennen Cove to Lamorna – 12 miles.  Made sure we had fully engaged with the correct path at the start today.

An easy start with some grassy paths and wide gravel paths – in fact quite a smooth exercise right up to Lands End, arriving early enough to beat the crowds.  

Shortly after that, the path started to get a bit more bumpy and several times both Steve and I took a tumble – the minute you take your eyes away from the ground it seems to result in a trip, it’s so annoying.  At one point a young guy came athletically strolling towards us with his sheepdog on a lead – just before he reached us he did the old flying ‘trip’ – so tempting to say that childish ‘enjoy your trip?’ – but I know I would have punched someone if they had said it to me earlier!!   And the terrain got worse and worse and the day of trips continued.  We were on one of the many descents, Steve striding ahead, when he caught his foot on a tree root and literally flew – he had looked up momentarily as a family were approaching and ‘the trip’ was in full motion – his hat and glasses went flying!!  How he recovered himself I don’t know, he managed to stay upright – quite a shake up though.  

Late morning we stopped for a delicious cream tea, although overrun with wasps.  Turned out to be a sensible decision as it boosted the energy levels to get us through the next 4 hours of hellish walking.  

It was from about this point that the constant ascents and descents started and they were tough … and it was getting hotter and hotter.  At one point Steve spotted some walkers ahead and commented that they must have taken the wrong path as they were walking so close to the cliff edge – “there’s no way I’ll be doing that” he said!!  But oh yes, you’ve got it, 10 minutes later we were on that path.  I’ll called on all my angels to sit on our shoulders during this day.  Just past the Minnack theatre we had to walk down the steepest of boulder steps – well I had to do some of it on my bottom – I can’t describe how steep and scary it was.  And the day went on and on like this – the last mile or so was cliffside bolders – there was no let up.  We reached Lamorna after 7 hours of walking – so relieved to eventually find our gorgeous airbnb for the night.

The only thing that kept me going through the day (because I felt on many occasions that I couldn’t go on) was telling myself that I would never do this again.  

Headed out for a meal at the local pub – Lamorna Wink – lots of wine to aid the recovery and a giggly walk home in the dark. 

Well today I cried for the first time, full on tears (and I’m not ashamed) – this was heart-thumping fear!

Today’s 9 mile walk from Pendeen to Sennen Cove promised to be a moderate one, so after a delicious breakfast with our host Mary we set off full of purpose and joie de vivre!   Sadly on two occasions we made the wrong decisions and ended up off track, in unchartered territory.  Now we’ve been through some testing situations thus far but finding ourselves walking long stretches up to our necks in overgrown ferns, brambles and all things prickly, not being able to see anything underfoot, shortly followed by narrow paths at the cliff edges with wind blowing from all angles – I’m afraid it was all too much for me.  Poor Steve had to guide a quivering wreck by the hand as we inched our way along, finally having to scramble up the side of the cliff on all fours where we were reunited with the coastal path.

Big tip:  If there’s no Coastal Path sign – don’t go there!!

After the initial disasters, the majority of the day turned out to be manageable and stunningly beatiful – really hot too.

And all continued well to near the end when we had a final beach to manoeuvre across – we thought we were so clever in taking off our boots and paddling so that we could avoid clambering over the rocks.  Unfortunately the tide came in a bit too quickly – once we were up to our bottoms in water we had to rethink our plan, resulting in having to tackle the rocks barefoot.  

Anyway, we finally reached our destination for the night and all was well.  Lovely people, a room with a view, stunning garden to enjoy our sundowner, washing and drying facilities and the house to ourselves for the evening.

This little project of ours takes some twists and turns and emotions fly up and down.  I’ve likened it to finding yourself in childbirth for the second time – once you sleep on it you forget the pains and go back for more!!  So tears all dried up now – we’re off to Lamorna in the morn! 😊

Top day today as we started in bright sunshine which in itself was a great boost for our spirits, well needed after a couple of beers the night before with visitors Warren and Sam, lovely surprise!

A short rail journey into St Ives to reach the start of this section and a quick breakfast was the order of the day before Steve set off on the ‘strenuous’ walk whilst Dee got her miles in around town and The Tate Gallery, now what would you do?  This is a picture of the lovely harbour, yes the tide is out!

The guidebook was very honest with today’s description other than understating the 12 miles or so that I covered, through grasslands, heather, rocks, boulders, mud and ferns along with of course the now regular descent followed by ascent repeat repeat….  This stretch is supposed to be the hardest and I think it probably qualifies, what I can gaurantee is if this had been the first day I would have gone home!  A couple of the pictures from today’s walk maybe give a little idea of the types of walking facilities available:-

This whole journey has been amazing but way beyond anything we were expecting, in so far as not just the miles covered but how extraordinarily hard each one of those miles has been, along with some days spending 7 or 8 hours on your feet.  We are approaching though a very significant part of the journey as Lands End is just around the corner and we then start the return along the south coast.  That’s all folks I need to raise a glass to Dee and myself and of course to you all…Cheers

A Sunday – day of rest!!  And catching up with all our admin – you’d be amazed the amount of tasks you have to do on this walking lark – organising luggage transfer, checking out how to get to the next night’s accommodation, completing reviews on Airbnbs stayed, blogs – the list goes on an on!!  Treated ourselves to a lie in and a leisurely breakfast and then hit the admin.  Great excitement though when we heard from Warren that he and Sam were going to drive down from Bude – planned to meet up in a pub in Hayle.  Spent a lovely late afternoon/evening with them – great meal and fun company – so special to feel a touch of home ❤️

When we got back to our airbnb, John and Shirley invited us to join them for a drink which was a fabulous way to end the day – such lovely lovely people.  xx

So today we just had a moderate 4-5 mile walk to complete, nothing threatening!! Treated ourselves to a lie in in our luxurious pad!  Set off with a skip in our pace (especially for Alice ❤️) and hiked through footpaths, roads, dunes, muddy woods, beaches – all different terrains that make up the Coastal Path.  Some stunning gardens in St Erth… came across this unusual specimen …. name that plant!!

Left Hayle behind us as we headed off to St Ives.

After less than an hour we got talked into popping into a fund-raising tea and cake session at St. Uny’s Church, Lelant – delicious Victoria sponge!!

And the sun shined all day … I know, this is unheard of in Cornwall.  Passed stunning beaches – some remote and deserted, others packed with families making the most of the weather.

Walked as far as Porthminster Beach and settled there for the rest of the afternoon.  Tried to tuck into lunch on the beach but the seagulls won!!  I had a fabulous swim, quite chilly but as they say ‘beautiful once you’re under.’  I loved looking over at the town of St Ives as I floated on the waves.  Steve chose not to participate in the swimming – relaxed on the sand instead, ruling the seagulls!!

Enjoyed this most relaxing of days – got the train back from St. Ives to Hayle – went to 6.30pm mass and had a surprise meet up with Father Philip Dyson who used to be the parish priest in Weymouth.  Then back for another cosy night in at our nest in St.Erth.

Had spent a chilled evening in our airbnb in Illogen, care of our lovely hosts Mike and Anna.  Snacked on homous, olives, pate and pitta and of course lashings of wine.  Polished off with a competitive game of scrabble.

It rained heavily during the night but we woke up to a drier morning … however, of course being Cornwall, this didn’t last.  Mike drove us down some very narrow country lanes to the start of today’s 12 mile walk from Portreath to Hayle.  

There was a stupendous climb on leaving Portreath, at many parts a hands and knees job!  The first couple of miles was quite heavy going – ups and downs ‘a plenty!   Steve has become quite the expert on weather conditions – in fact we’ve renamed him the ‘stormtrooper!’  He can spot a storm arriving from over the seas before the BBC get an inkling.  And there were many spottings and horrendous downpours during the day – we got drenched and then the sun would appear and we’d dry off instantly, only to go through it all again almost on an hourly basis.  But the mixture of weathers brought the most stunning rainbows.

After the initial climbs, the majority of the walk was pretty easy going and we were able to appreciate some stunning coastline scenery.  Still didn’t see any seals but being periodically rain blasted didn’t support the observation process.  

And then we came upon our beloved stretch of beach – from Godrevy, down through Gwithian Towans and on to Hayle.  The weather was bleak on arrival so photos of St Ives Bay do not do it justice. 

We trudged for miles over the towans, although overjoyed to be back in our old haunt, it was a long slug in what was pretty dreary weather.  Many families still braving the storms to settle onto the beach for the afternoon, surfers still surfing!  

At times the sun came out and brought back all those happy memories of our family holidays here.  Memories of bodyboarding, fishing with nets in the rock pools, losing Tom, flying kites, sand-modelling, losing Tom, digging holes and trenches, playing cricket, picnics, doing cartwheels …. oh and losing Tom!!!  Such simple and economically-challenged days but boy were they fun.  Thinking of all all our fellow-campers today (you know who you are – we were so lucky in being able to share these experiences with many family members and friends.

Walking through the dunes got a little tight at times in terms of squeezing through narrow paths overgrown with brambles, grasses etc.  I’m pretty petrified about adders so try my best not to think about it – but I take heed of Kaye and Greg’s advice offered to me when in Australia, and stamp my feet so that the snakes will know I’m coming and will stay away!!

It was fabulous to reach the town of Hayle which has changed considerably since I was last here – quite up and coming!  We then decided to walk on … to our airbnb destination .. this took another hour!!  But was worth it, quite palatial – we have two whole rooms – a lounge/diner/kitchen plus an ensuite bedroom.  You can’t imagine how amazing this feels after nights in rooms where you have to take turns to walk around!!  And the sun was shining.  Every cloud, and rainbow, has a silver lining. 🌈☔️☀️