DAY 5 TREEN TO MOUSEHOLE

Our destination today was the charming fishing village of Mousehole, [for those unfamiliar with Cornwall, it’s pronounced Mowzul] but first we had to negotiate our way back to the coast from Treen;  I confess we didn’t strictly retrace our previous day’s route [sorry we missed you, Cribba Head] but aimed directly for Penberth Cove.

It took us 35 minutes to pick up the coast Path at the tiny cove; a house, a couple of boats and a small beach, so far, so typically Cornish.  But we must have soon come across this area of huge Chilean Rhubarb plants-Paul made me stand in the photo for scale!  But for the most part, the morning’s walk was very typical Path-down into a cove and back up again, but reasonable going on the tracks where it levelled off.  We were no longer walking into a headwind, though a cooler breeze would have been welcome on this overcast and muggy day.  Still, we made good progress on both the open track and through some woodland until 11.15, when we had to cross St Loy’s Cove.  No sand on this beach though, not even shingle, it comprised massive rocks that we had to walk over.  Paul took some footage of me negotiating my route, so amuse yourselves at my expense!  View it with the link to this blog on my Facebook page as I can’t show video on this free website.  

By 12.45 I was very sweaty, but we were approaching Lamorna Cove, where we planning to have a break.  I had thought that this point was about half way, but it was heartening to realise that in fact we were closer to two thirds complete.  However, the good feeling soon dissipated as we entered a punishing section of scrambling, I even described it as ‘mountain climbing’, but a cafe was in sight to encourage us onward!  Cornish cream tea for lunch?  Whyever not!  

We resumed at 2 pm, hoping to arrive at The Ship Inn around 3.30.  I’m afraid I have no photographic evidence, but we came across an unusually muddy section that we had to pick our way over on logs and stones, and my voice memo notes that if we had slipped off, we would have been up to our knees in mud!  Obviously, I was too busy staying upright to take a snap.  I sounded really tired recording my last message, we’d had to climb another big hill, and Paul opined in his understated manner that he’d ‘seen quite enough rocks now.’  Although I’m weaker overall than Paul, he isn’t immune to suffering a bit himself-when we reached our accommodation at the pub he collapsed on the bed, and I was forced to take his socks off for him [those of you who know me well will appreciate that I don’t normally go anywhere near other people’s feet, but I did make some promise about sickness and health when we got married!].

Stats:- Time 2hr 52 mins.  Distance 7.44 miles.  Pace 2.6mph.  Ascent 975ft.  Descent 1,125ft.

DAY 6 MOUSEHOLE TO PENZANCE

The final day dawned grey and drizzly.  Luckily, we only had a short distance to cover as we were planning on driving home that same day.  The first mile threw a final bit of scrambling at us before it levelled out on the approach to Penzance.

It was still warm, hence my decision to wear shorts, but the rain was so persistent that waterproofs were necessary.  Although the walking wasn’t the most interesting, being mainly on tarmac alongside the bay, we were able to push on [see today’s pace] which made for a pleasant change after a series of tough days. 

As we reached the town of Penzance, we decided to stop in a pub for a coffee.  We were about 10 minutes away from the car, which was parked near the train station.  We had arranged to meet up with Luggage Transfers outside the station to collect our suitcase, but we had been a little conservative with the timing.  Paul phoned up to see if we could bring the time forward,  and the call handler agreed and said our man would be there in 10 minutes!  We gulped down our coffee and legged it [maybe that put a major boost onto our pace rate].  We got there in time, and began the journey home.  It didn’t stop raining until we left Cornwall.  It may surprise you to hear that holiday destination Cornwall is the third wettest county in England-in the circumstances I suppose we were lucky that rain just topped and tailed this week.

This leg was undoubtedly our toughest to date.  The terrain was really technical and challenging, and the weather threw a bit of everything at us!  I’d had a few tears and a momentary fear I couldn’t go on, and Paul had been pushed to his limits.  Still, we had made it!  Although we had had to miss out some of the path either side of Cape Cornwall, and we may have felt a bit battered, we had managed to get ourselves where we needed to be each day.  We finished this week with a new respect for the challenge still ahead of us, but undaunted!  Spoiler alert, we have since completed Leg 12, with just the one mishap, and are about to set off on Leg 13, one of the most notorious sections on the entire Path!  The story is far from over…

Stats of the day:-

Time 1 hr 20 mins.  Distance 4.08 miles.  Pace 3.1mph.  Ascent 100ft.  Descent 100ft.

DAY 5 PHOTOS

DAY 6 PHOTOS