DAY 5 LIZARD TO CADGWITH COVE

“There’s no such thing as an easy day on the coast path; just a less hard day.”  I felt I had to quote this little gem from my voice memo word for word!  I think it was because in earlier voice notes I had used the word “leisurely” repeatedly, but heaven forbid I should give the impression that we’d had nothing more than a pleasant stroll.  Having said that, it was nice to a) have a break from the wind, and b) know we only had a short distance to cover today.

It was pushing 10 o’clock when we left the Top House Inn in Lizard, and began to make our way to Lizard Point, the most southerly part of mainland Britain.  We stopped for breakfast at the Wavecrest Cafe, before joining a throng of tourists at the Point.  After milling about and taking a few photos, we moved on, and having passed the headland it felt more sheltered.  Now that there was a noticeable drop in the wind, it was fleece off time [though Paul wasn’t tempted to emulate a bare chested walker coming from the opposite direction!].

There is a small museum in the oldest wireless station which is positioned on this stretch of coast, so we learnt a little more from the guide before making another stop at the coastguard station at Bass Point for a passport stamp.  This entailed a short climb up a vertical ladder to enter the viewing hut, where I signed their visitors’ book in return!

There were periods of scrambling, and as my photos will show, steps for both ascents and descents, along with a hair raising short stretch where the path runs right next to a steep drop.  My toe was complaining, but we weren’t covering a long distance on this day, and we arrived at Cadgwith just after 2 o’clock.  We were staying at the Cadgwith Cove Inn, so had a refreshing gin and tonic before showering and resting.  In the evening, after our meal, there was an open mic folk night, all very enjoyable.  OK, I admit it, it was one of the easiest days we’ve had on this journey so far!

Stats:-

Time 1hr 51mins.  Distance 4.95 miles.  Pace 2.7mph.  Ascent 375ft.  Descent 475ft.

DAY 6 CADGWITH COVE TO COVERACK

It was a cheery start; my toe was feeling better, the sun was shining, and I was enjoying a mid morning latte at Kennack Sands [though these would be the last facilities until we reached our destination].  The terrain began to change after we moved on though-a lot more scrambling was ahead, and a group we spoke to said it continued in this vein all the way to Coverack.  Otherwise, walking conditions were good-dry and warm with a cool breeze.  We had seen two slow worms out sunning themselves on the path.

I needed a rest myself after a section where we went down to a cove and straight up again.  Although there were steps, the risers on the ascent were especially steep, necessitating extra effort.  At the top, we were heading for some rocks to rest when I tripped over a protruding stone and landed on my right knee.  Luckily, the only damage was a graze on my leg and a whack on my wrist [spoiler alert, worse was to come later on] so after a short break, we carried on.

The technical nature of the path was wearying, involving both mental and physical concentration, only relieved by some open stretches on the cliffs where, by now, the wind had increased in force, so it was fleeces on.  At 2 o’clock we were approaching the Terence Coventry sculpture park.  We sat down on a bench to admire some of the metal sculptures and eat a Snickers bar, as we hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast.  The bench was in a particularly windy spot, and before long I was getting really cold.  We started looking around the rest of the park, so naturally, came across a lovely sheltered bit where we could have rested!  At least we only had a mile now to reach the Paris Hotel in Coverack.

Stats:-

Time 2hr 43mins.  Distance 6.84 miles.  Pace 2.5mph.  Ascent 700ft.  Descent 700ft.

Day 5 Gallery

Day 6 Gallery