LEJOG
Distance walked – 29.7km
Total Distance – 39.3km
I’ve left childish footsteps in the soft Sennen sand
I’ve chased the maids there, all giggly and tanned
I’ve stood on the cliff top in a westerly blow
And heard the wave thunder on the rocks far below
The Fisherman’s Friends – Cornwall My Home
Today was a very hard day – 29.7km, 979m ascent, and 10 hours of walking on a rocky endlessly undulating path. A very hard day indeed but the undoubted star was Cornwall and the spectacular scenery of this rugged portion of the Cornish coast. We had forgotten how beautiful Cornwall is, but today we were reminded with each turn and twist of the path.
Cape Cornwall
We left early at 06:30 and after retracing our steps from yesterday afternoon back down the valley we reached the coastal path. A short ascent had us looking down on the distinctive headland of Cape Cornwall jutting into the ocean, its peak crowned with an18th century chimney stack. This area we were about to pass through was extensively mined in the past and is pocketed with old mine shafts and covered with numerous ruined stone structures. The mines produced mainly tin and copper with the mining continuing into the 20th century before dying out.
The chimneys vented steam engines which were used to pump water out of the mines. They are beautifully constructed in stone, their dramatic presence standing sentry over this area, providing an interesting counterpoint between the natural beauty of the coastline and its industrial heritage.
From the end of Cape Cornwall we descended steeply into another valley, its hillsides strewn with ruined structures that looked like some enormous mythical creature had wreaked havoc on them, rather than the gentle passage of time and economic reality.
We gained the top of the next head to spy a man with a dog heading towards us. One dog, no two dogs, no. . . eight dogs! The dogs ran surrounding him, surging ahead as one and then pulling back near him. We stopped to talk to him. His name was Jim and he trained the cocker spaniels as hunting dogs for pheasant shooting. The dogs were all related to each other and he knew each by name. They were all amazingly well trained and he was able to make them sit en masse, have photo and then set them off ahead. He wished us well on our walk.
The coastline throughout today consisted of rugged rocky headlands interspersed with steep narrow inlets called zawns in the cornish language. We loved the word zawn and made it word of the day. It was a day of steep ascents and descents as the path climbed headlands to reveal the next zawn. It would then plunge down and turn inland to cross a stream that flowed into the inlet before climbing steeply up again. The path tended to be very difficult with lots of scrambling over boulders and large rocks.
Levant Mine
We arrived at the Levant Mine after about 8km. This is another extensive old mine that is owned and run by the National Trust. It is great that so much of the land we will be crossing over the next few days is owned by the National Trust and is being cared and protected for future generations.
The landscape of the Levant Mine complex is still barren and desolate and gives an idea of what the coastline must have looked like in the hey-day of mining. We imagined the the industrial noise would have been quite different from the still morning we were enjoying.
We met a man in the carpark who was walking his dog. “Where are you off too” he asked. “St Ives” we replied. “Wow that’s at least 12 miles from here!” he said. “Good luck”
It was slowly occurring to us that when our guidebook had described this section as grade severe (out of a scale of easy, moderate, strenuous, and severe) and stated that it was difficult to make fast progress, it had not been joking.
We eventually reached the lighthouse at Pendeen Watch before negotiating another steep descent and climb to reach the headland above Portheras Cove, one of the few beaches we pass today. We stopped here for morning tea and our first break of the day.
Morning Tea at Potheras Cove
One of the joys of walking is its ability to separate us from the complexities and worries of modern life and to reduce our focus to the present and to the current footstep and the next ascent or descent. I have recently read one of the earliest accounts of a leisure walk, Robert Louis Stevenson’s `Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes’ published in 1879. At one point he says ” To hold a pack against a gale out of the freezing north is no high industry but it is one that serves to occupy and compose the mind. And when the present is so exacting, who can annoy himself about the future?”
Today was one of those days. As we became more tired we became more focused on the walk and the simple task of getting to St Ives, one step at a time. Ascent then descent. Headland followed by zawn.
Gurnard’s Head
We passed the distinctive landmark of the Gurnard’s Head so named because it is meant to resemble the head of a gurnard fish. We spied several fishing boats near here, with men pulling up a large net. The sun tried vainly to break through the grey sky and then seemed to give up as the cloud cover thickened.
I once read that 90’s britpop band Ash (Girl from Mars etc) were planning an A-Z tour of the UK playing 26 consecutive nights, each night at a town starting with the next letter of the alphabet. They had booked Zennor village hall for their final night as it is the only place in the UK that starts with the letter Z. I’m not sure if they ever made it to Zennor but we certainly did. We crossed Zennor head at the 20km mark, and prepared for the last 8km of the day.
The next portion of the track was probably the hardest of the day, picking our way slowly across rocks with several very wet boggy sections and some serious ascents and descents with rock scrambling. We met a couple having lunch who were very negative about our walking aims and this cast a bit of a dampener on the day and our mood. So it was with great joy that we rounded another headland and after a short rise saw St Ives in the distance. The sun had chosen this moment to come out for the first time all day and St Ives was glistening in the afternoon sun. We both felt a bit emotional.
St Ives – at last
St Ives is wonderful. Situated on a peninsula in a beautiful bay with a beach one side and harbour the other. Narrow crooked streets lead past old cottages and whitewashed buildings up from the harbour. We found our accommodation at the Sloop Inn and checked in. We were very tired but satisfied that we had completed this day.
The Mackintoshes and us
We had a lovely night catching up with some dear old friends of ours Darren and Sam Mackintosh and their son Aulay who live nearby in Cornwall. We had a great Thai meal on the harbour front before retiring to the Sloop Inn for some more chat. It was fantastic to see them again after so long.
They told us that the next day on the South West Coast path was much easier so we retired to bed feeling more confident about tomorrow and glad that we now had our first full day on the board.
Today’s Route
Accommodation – We stayed in the Land’s End Youth Hostel last night. It is not at Land’s End but about half a mile outside St Just. It is an absolute gem in a great quiet setting with views out to see. It is directly accessible on footpath from the SWCP. We had a private room with shared bathroom for 59 pounds. There is a large lounge, dining room and communal kitchen so we were able to cook our own dinner after walking in to the Co-op in St Just. It was all clean and a great budget option.
8 Responses
Gosh Aulay looks so grown up!
13 years old today! And such a sweetheart, but we wouldn’t expect anything less knowing his heritage 🙂
What on earth did the negative lunchers have to say?? Sucks boo to them!
They told us our daily distances were too long – let’s hope they’re not!
Did you tell them you both run marathons before breakfast???
Well, before morning tea 🙂
Well done – sounds tough. Ignore the haters!
Well and truly ignored!!