23 March 2013: 30km. Started 08:00. Arrived 18:00
It wasn’t raining! However even though it was a dry Saturday, it was still only March so it was very quiet. I saw one runner on the path all morning but no other walkers. There were views of impressive rock strata and enormous waves rolling in – some surfers were making the most of the waves.
I stopped in Bude to restock on lunch and snack provisions as well as a café stop for muffin and coffee. It was 15:00 by the time I left Bude for the switchback walk on to Morwenstow. A dog jumped up and tried to lick me near a car park – the owners seemingly weren’t fussed. Unsurprisingly in view of the recent rain the path had become a deep muddy mess in places.
I approached a path diversion as I neared my destination – in fact this meant that the path passed within a few yards of my overnight stop – the pub in Morwenstow. The part of the path that was closed due to recent cliff fall passes near to “Hawker’s Hut” which I was therefore unable to visit this time. However it is generally worth making the detour to this unusual hut perched on the cliff and made entirely of driftwood, built by the rather eccentric sounding Revd. Hawker who was Vicar of Morwenstow for 40 years from 1834. Allegedly he sat in his hut, dressed in his cassock and a fisherman’s jumper of the special Morwenstow pattern, meditating, writing poetry (including the Cornish anthem “Shall Trelawney Die”) and smoking an opium pipe. I did not miss seeing his vicarage in Morwenstow – he replaced the previous building with a mock Gothic structure incorporating unusual chimneys representing the towers of various churches.
The major triumph was that I had walked for a whole day without any rain!
Where's Kathryn? 