SWCP Day 25 – 15 Sept 2018

Elmscott – Bude

If wasn’t clear enough in yesterday’s post, the Hartland Quay to Bude section is considered the hardest on the whole path. Ten – count TEN! – down-ups over 25 km makes a very sore and tired Penloper.

Now, the fact that I’m writing this post tells you I am somewhere in the world, alive. That’s a good start. The fact that I am alive and well and in Bude (woohoo!) is proof that miracles can occur. 🙂

Having done one down-up on the way to Elmscott meant only nine to go. AND I splurged and got a luggage transfer for the day. That left The Beast out of the equation. I also decided to not carry my phone in an easy-to-get-to place to prevent me from stopping every five meters to get a pic of the stunning views, so there aren’t many photos in this post. (Rest assured I did take a fair few camera snaps, so I’ll update when I can upload my camera.)

I toodled along from Elmscott, greeting the cows on my way to the clifftop path where I turned left. Land on the left, water on the right – all’s well with the world.

An hour in it turns hairy…

Welcombe Mouth (deep)

Marsland Mouth (also deep)

Litter Mouth (not quite as deep but still, ugh!)

Three hours in, at the top of Cornakey Cliff, I took a break in a gorgeous green pasture, took off my shoes, and basically gave all my bones and muscles and tendons and ligaments and the air in my lungs a break.

Then came…

Yeol Mouth (not too bad)

And…

St. Morwenna’s Well

This is where things started going astray. And not all on my account. Morwenstow is a gorgeous little village at the half way point of the walk. Not much more than a church and vicarage and rectory (which is reputed to make one of the best cream teas in this part of Cornwall)

Oh!I forgot to tell you I had passed the Devon/Cornwall border.

I passed the Devon/Cornwall border. It’s on the south-west side of a tiny stream. Cute.

Anyway…

At the point where Henna Cliff plummets down to Morwenna’s Well, the local council had seen fit to close the path due to unstable cliff edges. Instead, walkers were instructed to hike inland to the village of Morwenstow, around the church, and back toward to coast to the other side of the cliff edge. I tell ya, I did not complain.

What I did do was deprive myself of the best cream tea in this part of Cornwall. Sigh…

Past Vicarage Cliff there’s Hawker’s Hut (cliff-top writing spot for poet Robert Hawker), before the next down-up.

Tidna Shute (steep)

Stanbury Mouth (deep, but not too steep)

The cliff tops got increasingly shorter till this one!…

On the next cliff-top stretch was the innocuously labeled ‘Radio Station’. This is, in fact, a huge GCHQ array. Every walker I met within two miles of here was American. Go figure 😉

I scrounged for blackberries on Harscott High Cliff and checked out the lay of the land before scrambling the very long down to Duckpool. It seemed to me that the beach was pretty much clear (with the exception of one set of rocks) from Duckpool to Bude. The tide was out and well, it was either that or climb three more down-ups over the remaining 8 km to Bude.

BAD DECISION!

The jumble of large beach pebbles turned out to be massive boulders and rough ribbons of rock sticking vertically up from the sand and tidepools and barnacles and and and…

Quite clearly, my tiredness had impacted on my ability to read the physical signs obvious from the rock formations of the cliff faces.

So, I rock hopped and lunged and shuffled and teetered and twisted and crawled my way through the set of rocks south of Duckpool. Out the other side, I was grinning like a fool.

There were more rock to come, but they should be easily passable at low tide. The tide, though, had turned. And the beach was getting shallower and shallower…

I didn’t keep count, but I reckon there were a good half dozen serious sets of rocks to navigate. The only thing that ended up saving me from sea-foam ruination was the fact that I wasn’t carrying The Beast – necessarily nimble.

As the light settled low over Bude I dragged myself up to the Bude canal weir where I had started out from Bude so many months ago.

I hauled my way up through town, weary to the point of silly, to the B&B where I would lay my head for two nights. After saying hello to my host, Martin, my first question was – “where nearby can I get the best fish and chips?” mmmmm…chish and fips with a view to remember…

Stats: 43133 steps; 245 floors; 29.93 km