To a Long Steep Hill

  We have to leave by 09.00, which we do and head to the Moomaid for coffee.   By the time we are on the road to the campsite, the rain has started.   We kill time by visiting Geevor Tin Mine.   This is extremely interesting.   It was still operating until 1990 and everything is in place. A model of the workings shows how huge and complex it was. “There is still plenty of tin down there” says our guide.   “The low price is what killed it”   They are looking at re-opening South Crofty now, because the price is really high now.   If mining ever started here, they would probably sink a new shaft. We go into the Kings Arms at St Just again for lunch hoping the rain will ease off, at least long enough to put the tent up in the dry.   We park up at Brae Vean.   The rain is relentless and forecast to continue through the night.   We call it a day and hit the road home.     Brae Vean on a sunny day.  Very different wh...

  Land's End to Porthcurno It’s our last day at Gorse Barn.   A change in the weather is forecast.   It’s tonight that we go to the Minack, and we are hoping the weather holds.   We get the bus to Land’s End and walk to Porthcurno.   The path here is rather crowded, and we have to ask a loitering family to let us through.   We are in a bit of a hurry to get an early bus so we can get home to be ready for the theatre. The path actually runs through the Minack car park.   There is a beautiful cove just before at St Levan, but we must hurry on. We get the bus at 14.15, but we are now so far from Zennor that the bus takes an hour and a half.   However, we have time to shower, change and have a light supper of omlettes. The play is terrific.   Going to the Minack fulfils a life-long ambition for me.   The company are the Derby Shakespeare players.   It’s an amateur company, but they are very good indeed.   It is nearly midnight ...

  St Just to Land's End At the bus stop, we talk to two walkers who are camping and carrying huge packs.   They have walked from Minehead.   38 days, of which 28 were walking days.   They say that they have found everything expensive, including camping.   “This is not a cheap holiday”, they say.   They met one walker who had planned to do the entire walk, but ran out of money before he got to Cornwall and had to give up and go home. We get off the bus in St Just.   I buy stamps and post my pc to Stuart.   He will probably have left Highdown before the post card reaches him, but at least I have kept my promise.   Last time I write that address after two years.                                                                        ...

  The Tinners Arms It is still very hot.   We don't walk today.  Kath Tom and their four children come for lunch at the Tinners.  It's Daniel's birthday.  It is a lovely family occasion.   They are camping in Kathy’s aunt’s garden in St Agnes. Afterwards we all walk a little way along the field path to St Ives, then they drive to St Ives, and we get our swimming things and go to the beach at Marazion.   This is the nearest beach, even though it is on the south coast.  The beach is busy - but more accessible than St Ives.  We cool off and look at St Michael's Mount and wonder when we will reach it..                                                                                       ...

  We catch the first Coaster at 09.25 and get off at Pendeen to walk down to Pendeen Watch. We are skipping the short distance from Morvah, having no wish to go back there yet again.  I leave a message with Brae Vean Farm camp site and they confirm four nights there for next week. We pass through an interesting landscape of former tin mines. George calls and talks about his impending job at Amnesty International.  He starts on Monday.  There is a wildfire in the distance at Botallack.  Fortunately, the wind is driving it away from the village.  We eat our lunch at Kenidjack Castle where we are bothered by flies.  Soon after lunch we are at Cape Cornwall.  It’s a grand name for a low mound with a chimney on top.  But there is a café in the NT car park where we get ice creams and rest for a moment.  A gabby NT volunteer lady is persuading people to join up.                     ...

                                                                                 I paid £30 for this lovely dish at Morvah Cafe   Morvah to St Just Set off by car to Morvah and started the hunt.   Very hot.   I am very stiff and tired after my marathon yesterday. No luck at first, so we head into the café.   We have had a wigging from the farmer for trespassing in his fields, but when the situation is explained, he is friendly and helpful. Tish, at the café, is helpful at guiding us and at her suggestion, after coffee, we find the proper path, walk slowly up, ringing my phone.   Then, right in the middle of the first field, I hear the ring tone.   There is the phone, and my green handkerchief.   I must have pulled t...

  Zennor to Morvah To start with, let’s shout out for the Land’s End Coaster.   This is an hourly bus service using lovely blue semi-open-top buses which run hourly right round the coast in both directions as far as Penzance.   Brilliant.   We don’t spend any cash on taxis or use our car.   The Coaster takes us and brings us back every day.   And it accepts our Freedom Passes.   That’s the good news today – bad news follows.   We set out from our front door and follow the lane down to Zennor Head, where we started our ill-fated walk back to St Ives in March.   This time we head in the opposite direction towards Pendeen. It’s very hot and we decide to call it a day at Morvah.   The path is tough here, although not as bad as the St Ives – Zennor section.   We don’t locate the connecting path up to Morvah and cross some fields, climbing gates as we go.   We end up walking though the churchyard and find the Morvah Schoolhouse café,...

  Tuesday 9 th August Heading down to Zennor, hoping to get to Land’s End.   We are trying a different accommodation method this time, having got tired of tiny and expensive pub bedrooms.   Chris has found an Airbnb actually at Zennor.   It ain’t cheap. £1,575 for a week. but nothing is cheap in Cornwall in August. We left home at 09.15.   Oh, and the car is loaded up with camping gear.   We have only booked the Airbnb for a week.   If the weather holds, we might find a camp site for a few more days.   We have booked Source Kitchen and Fish Café in St Ives and a performance of ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ at the Minack Theatre, so we are well prepared.   Unfortunately, Becky can’t have us for the usual lunch stop, so we drive past and stop for petrol at Okehampton.   There’s a café next to the filling station where we grab a quick lunch.   I have homity pie.   A potato and cheesy thing very tasty.   Petrol has got n...

  [Close followers of these blogs will remember my right knee twinges in March.   They didn’t go away. I recognized the same symptoms as previously with the left knee.   Cutting out the middle man, I went straight to Mr Morgan my left knee surgeon. He sent me for a scan at Byfleet the very same evening and rang me next day to book me in for surgery two weeks later.   He signs me off a couple of weeks later.   Physio and exer cises from the excellent Jules Mackie follow.  My knee is fine and my wallet is £6,000 lighter.  I clapped for the NHS, but they don’t even aspire to that level of service.]