Day 09: 01 Apr 2014; St Teath to St Gennys

Walk descriptor	LEJOG2014		Day	09
Date	Tue 01 Apr 2014		Start to end time	08h 43m
Start point	St Teath		End point	St Gennys
Miles today	17.78		Cu miles	177.46
Ft today	4,712		Cu ft	32,479
Route miles left	1,294.39		Route ft left	161,884
Today’s weather	Bright and sunny pretty much all day. No rain. Brisk north easterly wind. About 13 C

Today’s location (the red cross in a circle shows where I am at the moment)		GPX based track of today’s walk (click here to access to access downloadable file)

Commentary

“This was probably the best day’s walking so far. The weather was great – sunny and bright from the start, and no rain. The scenery was fantastic, too – so much so that I almost didn’t notice the massive hills up and down the coastline that I was ascending. And – rather more painfully for the knees – descending.

I headed straight from the campsite to the coast path then walked north along the path to Tintagel. On the way I passed through a place called Treknow, which seemed unusually apt, given my venture, depending on how you pronounced it!

Tintagel itself was spectacular – King Arthur’s castle ruins on a rocky island accessible by bridge. I elected not to visit, but instead found a cafe and stocked up on tea and flapjack. I then plodded on to Boscastle which was the most spectacular section of the walk – high cliffs, with great black gashes hewn into them by the sea. There was a lot of hard up and down to cover, but the views made up for it. Eventually, though, by the end of the afternoon I was getting a bit footsore so I got onto a country lane and took that all the way to the campsite, at St Gennys, via Crackington.

The main practical problem I am having at the moment is that as well as having one of my credit cards blocked because of the Pirates, my other one has now broken in half. Luckily I have enough cash to get me through the next few days but I am sincerely hoping that my new card comes through in time for my meeting up with friends from home, at Wooacombe. I have fixed the broken one with duct tape (being prepared of course I have a roll with me) but it won’t go in chip and pin machines anymore. Hmm…

And finally I should say a note of thanks to my hosts, Mr and Mrs Slade, at Coxford Meadow campsite. They have kindly given me free-of charge use of their self-catering annex, so I am under a roof, rather than canvas tonight. It’s absolutely brilliant and I am most grateful!

PS – tomorrow’s blog may be delayed – I am staying at the remote Elmscott Youth Hostel, north of Bude – and I don’t think it’s got food, let alone WiFi. So it should be an interesting new experience all round – but there could be a delay before I can post all the gory details!
”

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Brilliant sunrise over Bodmin moor this morning, captured from warmth of sleeping bag!	Church at Tintagel – certainly in a spectacular setting

This place is called Rocky Valley, and it was.	Looking dramatic (the coast that is, not me)

I’m not sure these ponies know just how they are dicing with death by grazing approx 3 inches from a 200 foot sheer cliff edge	Dramatic Boscastle. Fantastic place

The island with Tintagel castle ruins. I didn’t visit – though would have liked to – as I was a bit short of time and also feeling a bit tired!