Charming Coves of Cornwall

Day Twenty One - Porthcurno to Penzance 19.0km (11.8 miles).
Time on route 5:45hrs, walking time 5:35hrs.

Monday 31 August 2015

I hadn't meant to leave it so long but summer holidaying crowded out the coast path. However I managed to carve out a free day today so travelled down to St Ives on Sunday (I could find nowhere suitable to stay in Penzance) ready for the off today. I got a tad lost in the one-way system in St Ives and got stuck in a bus-meets-local-and-stops-for-chat traffic jam. Not a shabby view whilst I waited.

And I had a wondrous view from my B&B.

This morning the sun shone and St Ives sparkled.

I drove to Penzance, parked up, and caught the 1A bus to Porthcurno. Great excitement to get an open top bus for my journey and pleased that I had something waterproof to sit on rather than the wet seat. My next book: 1001 uses for a map case.

Porthcurno is full of standard Cornish prettiness.


I'd forgotten that you can't see the Minack from the coast path (note to self - hire yacht next time). As it turned out my daughter was unable to join me today anyway - see last leg when we'd come off the path moments before the Minack.  She had a prior appointment which was fine, but then nailed her point home by breaking her toe. Honestly - I really wasn't going to force her - self-inflicting injury was a bit much!

A sea king trundled past.

Penberth is a National Trust village and chocolate box worthy with its unspoiltness.

It remains a working fishing village.

This pile of hair raised its head as I passed. A supremely lethargic and sun loving dog.

St Loy's Cove was magical: cascading streams, hydrangea, ferns, bridges.

Which lead out to a boulder strewn beach along which the path meanders for 100m or so.

Tater-du Lighthouse.

Coming into Lamorna. A cross overlooks the cove.

Just after taking this photo I stumbled and fell heavily hurting my knee (come back RN SAR!) so I sat in the charming village and lunched/nursed my knee. Fortunately no great harm done so I headed off wincing a bit at the continued boulder covered hills and valleys of the coast path.

About 1km west of Mousehole the path joined a road (hurrah) so my knees got an easier ride. What a beautiful view from the washing line.

Looking across to St Clement's Isle.

It hosts something trig-like - perhaps a navigation feature?

The tide was out in the quaint Mousehole harbour.


Rounding the corner I bumped into Fitzroy's barometer. This was initially lent to Mousehole in 1845 by Admiral Fitzroy, founder of the UK Met Office. It was the start of the Met Office's storm warning system. The barometer was gifted to Mousehole in 2009.

Next village along was Newlyn. I had been really looking forward to walking through this.

Not because it's yet another pretty harbour, but because it hosts the tidal observatory at which Mean Sea Level for the UK is defined. There it is, at the end of the South Pier.

To my dismay there is no public access. So I had to be content with taking pictures of random pirate ships: of which there were a lot as it was Newlyn's annual Fish Festival today. They had wonderful weather for it.

Newlyn and Penzance merge into each other and it was a flat walk along the promenade.

The railings were bedecked with flags.

I loved the lines of ropes tethering the boats.

Another wonderful day in the sun on the path.  You can't beat it.

The Wild West

Day Twenty - Botallack to Porthcurno 22.0km (13.7 miles).
Time on route 6:30hrs, walking time 5:40hrs.

Saturday 20 June 2015

Riona and I travelled down to Penzance on the Friday and caught a bus first thing to Botallack on the Saturday. This is what teenage excitement looks like for being on the top front row of a double decker.

It was a foggy start to the day and the views from the bus were somewhat limited.

We alit at Botallack, said hello to the locals,

and were soon back on the path. It looked a bit more misty than when I left it 4 weeks ago.

Yup, low cloud.

The route was pleasantly varied and throughout the day we clocked moor, meadow, dunes, beach and rugged cliff paths.

Walking with a teenager has its pros and cons. The pros being good company and time to chat. One of the cons being that you have to wait around whilst they watch cute rabbits bounce around in the field.

Cape Cornwall loomed into sight. In fact we had to get pretty close to it before it loomed in any which way. The tower, initially a chimney stack and more latterly a navigational mark, was donated to 'the Nation' by Heinz in 1987. I suspect nowadays it would be snapped up for sponsorship by Emirates.

A hundred metres on and the tower had all but disappeared.

My first trig of the day, TP1597.

The route was very lovely even in the mist.

We treated ourselves to lunch in the wonderful Old Success pub in Sennen Cove. I loved all the nautically/map things.

Nice compass.

As we passed Gamper Bay on the way to Land's End the excitement mounted. This was the day I reached the most westerly point of my walk - and mainland Britain. Today was the day I turned the corner.

And today was the day it was so clagged in I'm surprised we could even read the information board.

Oh well - I was there even if the views weren't. The Longships foghorn was awake and the sound of its toot every 10 seconds accompanied us for many kms to come.

It's becoming a theme (of two walks) that I have unexpected trigs. I should have realised there'd be one here but it wasn't on the map. TP4337.

Very interesting to see an off centre spider. Never seen that before.  Construction error perchance?

Even though the views were limited, the glimpses of coastline we did see were magical.

Having started our walked at Botallack at 0900, and taken a decadent 45 mins to enjoy our lunch, we were up against the clock to make the 1555 bus at Porthcurno. The subsequent one was 1755 so needless to say we decided to up the ante and march for the bus. Timing would have been a tad easier if my watch hadn't broken that morning.

We passed the Coast Watch station at Gwennap Head and would have lingered, but had no spare minutes. The landmarks were interesting although no good in that fog.

This was a high as the cloud lifted today. A pretty view of Porthgwarra and its aqua sea.

We bumped into some people just off sea kayaking here: what an enticing invitation to a beach.

We hoofed around past another beautiful cove, Porth Chapel.

We arrived near Porthcurno with just enough time to come off the path and make the bus stop with 10 mins to spare. We left just before the Minack Theatre so we've got that to look forward to on our next walk. Yes, "we". "Well, I haven't seen it yet have I Mum?" she pointed out. It looks like Riona is coming back...