17 March 2013: 25km. Started 09:15. Arrived 17:45.
Breakfast was served from 08:30, leading to a relatively late start time. However it was all very pleasant with a real fire already burning in the bar which had turned into the breakfast room. The path led past the Pendeen lighthouse and through fields of horned cattle – passed with trepidation and careful estimation of potential escape routes. The path was boggy but with some helpful stepping stones and I enjoyed more of the magnificent coastal scenery in sunny weather conditions. There were few people apart from near road access points to the path. A fellow walker with a small day rucksack walking towards me complained that the path was rocky and boggy – correct, but surely that’s to be expected and we don’t want a paved path round the coast!
After passing Zennor, I saw a man who asked me that if I saw people that looked like his wife, his 22 year old daughter and boyfriend and a lurcher dog then to tell them he had returned to the pub because of the rain! To be fair there were a few spots, but by the time I saw his family it was sunny.
I navigated a particularly rocky area and met a group of young people wearing skirts and canvas shoes and carrying handbags – impressive, but I’m not sure how they had managed to walk there. There followed a particularly boggy area so I arrived in St Ives with muddy and wet boots.
I navigated a veritable maze of alley ways and narrow streets to arrive at my accommodation. The owner had thoughtfully provided a boot tray in each room – obviously he is used to walkers. He was also able to provide me with the previous day’s Daily Express to stuff into my boots.
I enjoyed a standard meal in Wetherspoons, avoiding the temptations of the more exclusive but expensive eating places, and picked up some provisions for the next day’s lunch from the ubiquitous Co-Op. Only after navigating the street maze back to my overnight accommodation, did I realise that my left wrist was painful and I remembered that I had fallen on it in a slippery area earlier in the day. As the night continued, the pain increased and my notes mention taking two paracetamol at 03:00. The night “gremlins” were working overtime and I imagined many scenarios from scaphoid fracture to less serious possibilities. However by morning there was a miraculous improvement – so I took two more paracetamol, just in case that was what had worked.
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