St Ives to Zennor – Tough Going

I hadn’t taken my clothes off for three days, even in my sleeping bag. I was beginning to whiff a bit, as you could well imagine. So this morning I packed up the tarp early, after a broken night’s sleep, and went up to the shower block.

It was hot and delightful and I turned myself clean with liberally applied shower gel. I released anti-perspirant on my sweat zones. In fact I feel good, so good. Thanks James.

It was overcast when I set off from the site down to the coast path and turned right, back in to St Ives.

It is a nice town but last night, on my way in, there were a lot of people who detracted from the place. It was a bit like walking through inner city Leeds, but not as big. Dodgy buggers.

This morning it was lovely. and the sky cleared a bit as I walked along the harbour.

Stopping at a Cafe I ordered a Flat White with aplomb and a big bloomer breakfast. I’m becoming a latter day bloke. Wow, was it good! Well yes it was.

Then back to the walk.

After a half mile the view back was great, with a clearer sky.

It was similar to a lot of North Cornwall, with inaccessible, beautiful beaches that only folk in boats can enjoy.

The route round to Zennor was less than 8 miles. Sillily, I thought that it would be easier than it turned out to be. But it was more spectacular than I thought, than I remembered from 10 years ago when I was a young lad.

I love these playful clouds in a line along the north coast.

It was so clear that I could see way further up the coast, beyond Bude, and incredibly there, resting on the horizon, was the Island of Lundy. I could only see it when I was high up on the cliffs, the earth’s curvature slipping it behind the horizon when the path dropped down towards sea level. Lundy must be 60 miles away. Incredible!

Further round the coast was a stone circle on the cliff top. It looks a bit contrived and more recent than Stone Age. Interesting though.

The path began to get a bit wilder. Boulders blocking a clear pathway and having to scramble up the hills, which got harder to scale. But the difficulty of the path was matched by the amazing scenery. I’m running out of superlatives.

There were more warnings about open mine shafts, hidden in the undergrowth, and the pale line of rock running along this coast line showed how molten minerals were pumped up to the earth’s surface. And tilted with time.

I was getting tired now. My rucksack restricting my movement over the boulder fields and my previous few days’ efforts taking a bit of a toll. My mate David Kilby was driving down to join me and I went into Zennor to use the Wi-Fi of The Tinners to call him. We arranged to meet at the Gurnard’s Head, two miles away, and I legged it along the road to meet him there.

It was a pleasant reunion with my Everest partner and we drove round to St Just, where we were camping at Kelynack campsite. David produced two pop up tents, which we popped up.

Then we walked back over the hill to St Just, enjoyed a few drinks and a decent pub meal, then returned to our pop ups.

And hunkered down for the night. Will I sleep better in a tent than under me tarp? Let’s find out.

Night night.