Travel Blogging Archives - Page 21 of 40

Day 18 on the South West Coast Path. Porthcurno to Penzance

Posted on April 28, 2012May 28, 2019

After an excellent, if with a somewhat loquacious host, at the luxurious Wearhouse. I wandered around the outside of the Old Telegraph Station marvelling how it takes so long for ‘secret’ places to come out of the woodwork and wondering when the TAT14 landing and GCHQ monitoring station will similarly be celebrated over on the other side of Cornwall (I wonder why TAT14 didn’t come out of the ocean here? Answers in the comments please).

Paul turned up on the 10am bus from Penzance, we quickly caught up with the Dutch couple who I had met at breakfast, they are walking with Budget Walking to Plymouth over the next 10 days, so I’m sure I will be bumping into them again.

it is a lovely walk with magnificient views, it’s interesting how the rock formations are so different over on this coast. After passing a granite cross (In The Guide at Page 75 it incorrectly states it’s a war memorial. It isn’t it is carved with DWW Mar 13 1873 and in fact marks the spot where a young man fell over the cliff and was killed.) then down into the slowest cafe ever in Lamorna Cove a 30 minute wait for my cuppa.

A pleasant walk to Mousehole which is very touristy (but only 90p for a Feast) and then a roadside walk into a very working fish town (although run down) of Newlyn. I found old Penzance quite intriquing who knew that the Spanish invaded it and much later Nelson’s famous victory was first announced here!

A short walk for me of only 11 or so miles but very pleasant chatting to Paul en route all day. He is now of to St Ives to do more of the walk from there. The Dutch couple are walking to Plymouth in 11 days so I may see them again, especially since they are staying at The Tremont tonight as well (Maybe they are using Mike too!).

The weather was pretty well perfect with longer sunny spells and light winds. All though everyone is fearful of tomorrow – even the Royal Navy have moved their fleet into the bay.

As usual the statistics are here and photos here and Everytrail below.
South West Coast Path – Porthcurno to Penzance at EveryTrail

South West Coast Path – Pendeen to Porthcurno

Posted on April 27, 2012May 28, 2019

A much better walking day today. Light winds and only the threat of rain, in fact the sun popped out at various intervals.

The walk started in the industrial wastelands around Pendeen and the Geevor Tin mine which had me thinking how does The National Trust handle highly toxic & radioactive industrial waste 🙂 I met a guy who said apparently the old Uranium waste reacts with the sea air to make pretty colour stones. Just remember to bring your geiger counter.

I met up with Paul who is taking a week out to walk around this section of the path. He is using Penzance as a base and taking the bus out each day, thus only travelling with a day bag. Guess this will only work for certain sections etc.

The walk itself had quite a few hardish sections some I thought as hard as yesterday. Walking with Paul kept my times down to The Guides. So a bit steadier than yesterday.

It was good fun walking upto Lands End, totally amazing the number of people setting off to John O’Groats on their bikes. My sister did it 20 years ago. My favourites were the three young lassies from The Gramophone Theatre Company in Nottingham who were trying to get there by using as many modes of transport as possible. We met them cycling. I hope they make it but without maps etc it could be a challenge 🙂

The other fun guy was Kevin the pedalling plumber on his trike with it’s modified luggage carrier using 15mm copper pipe 🙂

We made it to Porthcurno via the Minack Theatre where Sally and I are going in September for The Minack Proms. Mike of Luggage Transfers had me booked into the rather deluxe apartment at The Wearhouse, such luxury!

Oh! I think I know where Adam Ant got his name from, take a pee here 🙂

The pictures are here, statistics here and Everytrail.
South West Coast Path – Pendeen to Porthcurno at EveryTrail

South West Coast path – St Ives to Pendeen

Posted on April 26, 2012April 8, 2021

I really cannot thank Tim of Cornerways enough for getting his dentist to see me so quickly (the ones I phoned wanted 4 weeks notice), he not only took me there but had to wait whilst I had an X-ray and the tooth’s extraction (what an expensive tooth that has been, with capping root canal treatment & emergency visits).

The pain from that and the hang over from our meal out and drinkathon at his local restaurant Cafe Pasta last night made for a hazy farewell to St Ives, but I will be back with Sally for the final weekend of their festival. Yes I enjoyed it that much 🙂

So just after midday I started the walk to Pendeen where Mike of Luggage Transfers had booked me into The North Inn (and yes, you cynics, I’m still carrying my bag!!

In The Guide it shows the 13.9 miles as a severe 7 hour walk! so a midday start didn’t look to promising, especially after the heavy rain. Well, I didn’t find it to bad at all, in the middle there are some granite rocks etc in the way and at the end it does get very marshy in places and indeed there are no cafes etc.

However, I pushed on with my tooth pain getting worse as it thawed out from the injections and the dire warnings from the dentist preventing me from drinking & eating. I completed the section in 5 hours of walking and 1 hour of stops for twittering, putting waterproofs on/off/on and eating mint cake 🙂 I would imagine on a fine day it would be an excellent walk.

I loved these notices from a farmer with a sense of humour:

As usual the stats are here the pictures aren’t up yet as I’m on a tethered computer and I’m not sure what Mr T-Mobile counts as ‘reasonable use’ Pictures now up here. Everytrail is here:
The South West Coast Path – St Ives to Pendeen at EveryTrail

Oh and here is the depressing weather forecast for next week:

A rest day and 14 days on The South West Coast Path

Posted on April 25, 2012April 8, 2021

Light Breakfast at Cornerways after my evening with owner Tim

Today I’m taking a rest day in the pleasant town of St Ives, enjoying the hospitality of the owner of Cornerways, Tim after first rescuing him from paying a fortune for a .mobi url!!

After our little drinks session last night I couldn’t face a mega breakfast (tomorrow will be different) so today it was just haddock & mushrooms with the most stunning fresh fruit salad of the trip 🙂

We went for a jaunt in his little sports car over to Penzance to do his fresh fruit & flower shopping and to see where I will be walking in the next few days & a jar at the Gurnard’s Head.

As you can see from my spreadsheet I’ve now covered over 232 miles of the 630 in 14 days. Thats a daily average of nearly 17 miles 🙂 implying that it should be about 37 days to do the walk. so finishing about the 20th May.

The weather has been pretty poor although not as bad as Sally has been reporting on the East Coast . I’ve got rained on heavily once a couple of days ago (I bought a flourescent yellow rucksac cover today just in case, as the black dry bag has loads of micro perforations in it – spotted by sticking my head in the empty bag and pointing it at a bright light.

Anyway must go now as Tim and I have just returned from another bender 🙂