Tintagel – Port Isaac
For some reason I missed that today’s walk was considered ‘severe’. Only 14.6 km, and the map didn’t give the impression that it was particularly hard. But, well, holy hell, it was massive!
Made significantly worse by a night of no sleep at the Tintagel YHA where the lady sleeping in the bunk above me had the not-insignificant skill of talking in her snores. I’m talking fog horn strength here. ALL NIGHT! (Poll: is it considered rude to shake the bunk in these circumstances)
I also had the irrits because sometime between arriving and the post-dinner relaxation session, the recharge cord for my Surge went ‘missing’. Mmm-hmmm, right.
Anyway…
Ended up getting up at about 5.30 and lounging, bleary-eyed, over a mug of Lady Grey, before starting off on my hike the minute dawn set in and there was enough light to see the path.
The reason why this stretch was so hard was that there were so many down-ups. None enormous, but constant, with hardly any flats to get a stride going. I’d call it a very scrappy day.
This last pic is of a thing called a zawn. Any guesses of what that might be? It’s basically a narrow cove created by erosion, but they always look fresh-cut like Barrett’s Zawn (above), like a massive landslip has occurred. Very dramatic, and kinda scary, to walk around the edge of a zawn.
A group of friendly Americans leap-frogged me most of the way, though they’d cheated (their word) by getting a taxi to the halfway point. Tsk tsk.
I’m glad I got an early start because it took over seven hours to finally pass through the teaser town of Port Gaverne and reach the upper town of Port Isaac where I stashed The Beast in the shed of the airbnb I’d booked for that night.
If anyone has ever heard of the show Doc Martin, they’d know the old town of Port Isaac. It’s a cute chocolate box Cornish town with winding narrow streets and higgledy-piggledy houses. Here’s a few pics…
You can see the doc’s house in this last one. It’sthe grey with rust-coloured shutters.
The town was over-run with Doc fans and hungry seagulls. I can attest to the second because one very brazen gull made away with half my lamb and mint pastie! Scared a squeal out of me, which shocked just about everyone around me. What can one do but laugh?
Stats: 33146 steps; 294 floors; 23 km
Sightings: 1 Doc Martin house.
PenLoper 