SWCP Day 36 – 28 Sept 2018

Sydney Cove – Mullion Cove

Slept 10 hours! Unbelievable! And in a tent, no less – that’s what exhaustion will do for you 😉

Puffy-eyed, I packed up my tent as quickly as the morning dew would dry and I was on my way.

Today would be 20+ km of ‘strenuous’ walking, and I was keen to get going.

The stretch along Praa Sands isn’t all that interesting, but it’s always nice to start on a relatively easy section to warm up before the hard climbing begins.

Here’s me posing on the next headland along from Rinsey Head. While I was in visual range someone drove a forest-green 1920s car along the drive to this spectacularly-situated house (felt like I’d slipped through time).

Beyond Rinsey there were a series of abandoned mining sites. I’ve become used to these in the west country, but I don’t think I’ll ever find them pretty.

After Cornwall’s dry summer (which I think I mentioned some days ago), there has been a lot of erosion of the cliff-faces, resulting in the loss or endangerment of path sections. This means diversions. Some have been easy to negotiate, others not so much. Along the stretch of path between Trewavas and Gunwalloe it has happened a lot, so the path is frequently diverted up into farmland. To limit encroachment of walkers on their fields, new fencing has gone in. I have to admit I often felt like cattle shuttled through a shute. Easy walking, though, if you don’t mind the steep field climbs.

Eventually, I arrived at Porthleven. This is a typical Cornish harbour town. As I came fown from the cliff top and down to the harbour side, this old pub magically appeared. Even better, they had fish pie inside. Having munched on a flapjack for breakfast hours earlier, I was definitely ready for a feed.

Following a half hour for digestion, I was again on my way around the harbour and out the other side, climbing up to the Parc-an-als Cliff. The beach below stretched for at least 4 km, but an unknown tide time kept me on higher ground. Eventually though, you have to come down to cross Loe Bar. This was the entrance to a river before it silted up, leaving ocean on one side and lagoon on the other side of a thinly-grassed sand bank.

(I promise I did not bathe!)

Time marched way too quickly for the distance I still had to go, so, recognising I wouldn’t have time to divert from the path the shop for dinner, I stopped in pretty little Poldu Cove for a bite and a spot of people-watching, before hauling The Beast the rest of the way. I had two more big down-ups to go before seeking out the Teneriffe camp ground, but the sun was dropping and I had no time to waste…

At 7 pm, I finally turned away from the swcp and the setting sun and madly made my way across the moor of the Lizard National Nature Reserve to the Teneriffe farm where lipstick red streaked the sky while I pitch camp and collapsed in an exhausted but happy heap.

Stats: 39977 steps; 186 floors; 27.74 km