South West Coast Path: Day 4 - Pendeen to Porthcurno

Today was a really good day.  The morning was forecasted as having rain, but I woke up to sunshine!  Had breakfast in the pub and was greeted by a nice jack russell.  Apparently he followed the owner of the pub around everywhere he went, including the kitchen.  Gotta love the pubs in the countryside in the UK.  It's nice having doggies wandering around inside looking for a scratch behind the ears.  About 15 miles planned for today.

Maybe cows where the beef from my burger came from...

The rest of the morning was bring and sunny, while the afternoon threatened rain, but stayed dry.  Amazing coastline all day long, including going through Land's End (most SW point of England).  Land's End wasn't very memorable at all, but the coastline before and afterward was simply amazing.  I took more diversions than usual since the weather was looking up and ventured out to cliff edges and coves more often.

Lots of warnings about mine shafts along the trails

SW point of England... very touristy, I went through as quickly as I could

Fun little cove

Had a snack here

Beach in Porthcurno where this old chap was using a metal detector on the beach.

Spent the evening down by the beach in Porthcurno watching the tide come in and stars come up.  Bright moon meant they were hard to see, but it was otherwise very enjoyable.  Final day also looked like it would be a good one.

South West Coast Path: Day 3 - St Ives to Pendeen

After my typical large breakfast I left at about 9:15 or so for the next town.  Not the longest day, only 13 miles to go, but suppose to have the "hardest section of coast path."  I pushed hard to try and stay ahead of the rain which was forecasted for the evening.

Rain cloud behind me coming out of St Ives

Flowers galor all along the path

Some of the up...with bluebells

Narrow path

Rain cloud still following...

Pretty creek crossing

Rain finally caught me...got drenched, so my last two or three hours were pretty wet.  Path got rather muddy too, but I only stepped right in it a few times.  My feet were wet anyways by that point.  

Got the the village of Pendeen and stayed at the North Inn, which was also a pub.  Had a really yummy curry for supper (their specialty) and watched the Man United / Man City football match over a few beers. 

My accommodation and food!

Sunset out my bedroom window

Overall, a lot of simply gorgeous coastline, with some intermittent showers.  Not a bad day.  Certainly heads and tails better than the previous day.  Forecast for the next two days was looking up as well!

South West Coast Path: Day 2 - Portreath to Gwithain and St Ives

Today I meant to go 17 miles...that didn't happen.  Forecast was for 100% chance heavy showers and 31mph wind with gusts which were higher.  I ate down a big English breakfast, donned my walking gear (windbreaker, swimming trunks, and one pair of trainers that I brought - 2nd pair were buried in the bag to stay dry), and set out.  Made it to the next village (7 to 8 miles later) and figured I should probably catch the bus to my final destination of St Ives.  Weather was just that inclement.  I didn't see ANY other walkers, a few people driving by who would stop, try to go up a hill and turn around.

Portreath as I was leaving.  You can see the whitecaps on the water if you look hard.

One of the few other pictures I dared taking.  Doesn't do it any justice to what it felt like.  Never been in a storm like that before.  

Wind was really pushing me around.  If I had a headwind I probably would have had to turn back.  Mostly a crosswind and occasionally a tail wind that would almost throw me down the trail.  It's the only time I've ever wondered if I could recognise the signs of hypothermia in myself if it got to that.  I don't do particularly well when I get cold and wet, and I was definitely very very very wet.  A drowned rat to say the least.  I pushed myself pretty hard to keep a bit warmer and kept drinking, even though I wasn't thirsty.  The good part about it being a really wet day was I didn't need to worry about finding a place to hide to go to the bathroom.  No one else anywhere to be seen.

As I approached the next village (Gwithain) an older chap who was walking back toward the cafe and carpark offered me a coffee and to drive me to the nearest bus stop.  Well Howard ended up driving me to St Ives (only a few miles by road, much more by coast path) as he said I would have to wait a few hours for my bus.  Really nice guy and definitely saved my butt.

Spent the afternoon drying out.  Fortunately, since I bagged everything inside the waterproof bag I was using I had dry clothes to wear.  Relaxed, showered, warmed up with a few cups of tea, and then decided to explore St Ives.  Unfortunately, it was still very windy and rainy, so I ended up going to a nearby cinema and saw the Avengers.  When I came out it had passed so I got to take a few pictures and then find a place to eat.

Went to an organic locally sourced burger place called Blas (see their website ).  Next town I was walking to was where the beef came from.  Really really yummy food.  A couple I chatted with at my table (most tables were shared) said they'd been rescued by folk on rainy days before.  Waitresses in the place were quite surprised when I said how far I walked the previous day.  Apparently not the typical distance people walk.  They also said the forecast for the next day wasn't great either.

South West Coast Path: Day 1 - Newquay to Portreath

Big day... got up at 5 am and left by 5:35 to avoid high tide at the Gannel.  If i miss timed my start it would have added an additional 4 miles (or a few hours waiting).  Today was long enough.  Planned for a 23 1/2 mile walk to my next B&B in Portreath.  Well, lets just say that's a lot on the coast path, especially with a pack.  Remarkably I was at my B&B at about 2:30pm.

First dunes I came across

Military outpost along a cliff top, apparently they didn't want visitors

Access off the beach

One of the most nicest and longest beaches on the coast path. 

Touristy town I breezed through

MOD (Ministry of Defence) property...aka stay out

I thought I set a good pace and decided to just keep it going.  Ate my packed lunch (bacon sandwiches, crisps, banana, orange, and a snickers bar) in bits along the way, so I didn't really stop much.  The trail was soooo varied.  Up and down, paved paths in towns/villages, small narrow paths, near the coast, up on cliff tops, dunes, muddy, etc...  Only got rained on a few times, which wasn't too bad.  Forecast for the next day isn't good.  

Coming into Portreath

Ate dinner at a local pub (maybe the only one in town).  Had some yummy fish and chips.  Good fish, good beer, good time to relax.  Unfortunately the evening was getting a bit windy/rainy.  Precursor for the next day...

South West Coast Path: Day 0 - Paddington to Newquay

The next five posts or so will be about my walk on the South West Coast Path in Cornwall.  Overall it is 630 miles.  I chose to walk a section of it over the course of five days with a reasonably light pack.  My journey officially began and ended in the Newquay and Penzance rail stations.  I took the train from London Paddington to Newquay (plan was to transfer at Par, but I'll get to that in a bit) and walk the coast path to Penzance staying at B&Bs along the way.  Total distance is hard to say as it varies depending if I was on the official trail or not.  Probably something between 70 and 80 miles total in five days time.  Not an overly hard path to walk, but certain places were slower due to it being either rocky, muddy, dunes, or beach and a lot of steep up and down.  I'll include a bit about each day and a couple pictures.  Full sets of each day's pictures are uploaded on facebook in my albums.  They will be labeled the same as these blog posts (e.g. South West Coast Path: Day 1 - Newquay to Portreath's blog post will correspond to the same album on facebook).

I started on a train out of Paddington, but unfortunately someone jumped in front of a train in Southall, so my train was late coming out of London.  By the time it reached the first couple of stops it was at least 1.5 hours late and people were getting on mistakenly for the next train or so, so it was completely packed with people, all of whom were very confused and frustrated.  Later an announcement was made that x, y, and z stops wouldn't be happening, which caused mass panic, and led to me being dropped off after my planned stop (train didn't stop in Par anymore) and was taxi'd to Newquay.  Not a fun day for the rail company.

Newquay was a nice seaside town, but felt too much like a place people just go to party.  It's known for surfing and hen and stag parties.  Lots of people wandering the streets already plastered at 7 or 8 pm.  I was happy to go to bed early and leave early the next morning to beat the tide across the Gannel (tidal area I had to cross within the first 30 minutes of my walk).  Since I was missing b-fast the B&B made me a really nice packed lunch.

Newquay

The Gannel (see the footbridge in the distance)

Friday evening near the Gannel

My footsteps across the sand