To a Long Steep Hill

  Going Home via Jamaica Inn and West Hill We check out and head down to the harbour to buy fish and a lobster to take home. Driving gently so as not to arrive at Becky’s too early, we stop at Jamaica Inn.   It’s a tourist trap, but Chris has never been there.   I buy her a copy of the Daphne du Maurier novel.   We eat our sandwiches in the car park and get to Becky’s in time for coffee.  We have now walked 329 miles on the Southwest Coast Path.  We are not quite halfway. Next year...

  Sightseeing in Penzance We were supposed to be going home today, but we are staying an extra day to compensate for the days lost by the train strike.   We gave our hostess £50.00 cash. We had a good lie-in because it’s a sightseeing day.   We start at the Gallery in Newlyn on a hunt for pictures from the Newlyn School, but it is entirely devoted to an Indian artist called Biswas.   Doesn’t float our boat.   We have a coffee and move on to Penzance.   We head for the Exchange Gallery.   More Biswas, but at least we are able to locate Chapel Street.   We find the Egyptian House and the Union Hotel, where the first news of Trafalgar was announced.   We head for the excellent Penlee House Gallery.   Finally, we find pictures from the Newlyn School, and a one-man exhibition of pictures by Fred Yeats.   They have a great café.   We sit out in the sunshine and have delicious soup and bread.         ...

                                                                                              Aida    Gunwalloe to Mullion Cove This will be our last walking day.   We agree that we will avoid buses and taxis and just walk to Mullion have lunch and walk back.   The stretch to Mullion is longer and harder than we expected. I formulate a plan to walk up from Mullion Cove to Mullion village.   We then locate (with difficulty) The Old Inn.   It’s a friendly old pub and we settle down to a proper pub lunch.   It turns out that the pub is well on the way back to Gunwalloe, so we walk down the road and are soon back at the NT car park, where I did remember to print the ticket. ...

  Praa Sands to Gunwalloe Logistics now getting tricky.   It would be two buses to get to Praa Sands with timings uncertain, and it’s a long way for a Newlyn taxi, so we book a taxi from Helston.   I have spotted a possible rendezvous and parking at the Hazlephron Inn.   I thought I heard the driver (on phone) say he knew where to park.   We drive to the Inn and when he turns up, he is a) Lithuanian b) doesn’t know anywhere to park.   I take a chance and tell him to follow me down the road.   And there is a lovely NT car park. As members we can park free.   He takes us back to the Sandbar at Praa Sands. It’s a long way, and the meter ticks up £49.50.   He settles for £40.00 in cash.   The loos are locked, so we are forced to get coffee at the Sandbar.   It is another beautiful morning and there is a huge temptation to just hang out here.   We resist and set off along the beach. As we walk, a tiny doubt starts to grow.   ...

   Marazion to Praa Sands We are out early to get the Mouse bus outside the house. It doesn’t come.   No bus comes down the other way either.   In puzzlement, we head down to the bus stop at Newlyn Bridge where a woman tells us that there is a bus strike.   While waiting for a taxi, an old chap ‘has a fall’.   Two women from the café come out and help him onto a chair.   I find his broken specs and put them in his pocket.   He has a nasty gash on his forehead and they call an ambulance. Meanwhile, we offer a taxi lift to the woman who told us about the strike.   But she was only going to the library to change her book and declines. The taxi to Marazion  costs £20.00.   The driver takes us through the town to where the path starts.   This probably saves us half a mile – another little cheat… Weather is still beautiful but there’s a cold wind.   We walk though tamarisk hedges with glimpses of St Michael’s Mount slowly di...

     Mousehole to Marazion We look forward to a nice easy day.   I leave my poles and don’t even put on my boots.   We get the Mouse bus to Mousehole and walk back to Newlyn. Going through Newlyn we pass the memorial statue to all fishermen lost at sea. Then on along the seafront to Penzance, where we explore the town a bit, go to the bank, do some shopping and find a café for lunch on Market Jew Street. 'Jew' has nothing to do with Jews, apparently.  It's a corruption of an old Cornish word meaning Thursday so it's 'Thursday Market Street'. The town is a bit down-at-heel.   Becky tells me later that it’s known in the rest of Cornwall as ‘Menspants’.   Still, not as bad as Ilfracombe. We walk on to Marazion, keeping an eye on the tide, because we are going to visit St Michael’s Mount.   We don’t make it in time, though and find ourselves queueing for the first boat. The boat fare is £2.00 per head each way – i.e., £8.00 in total.   B...

   Porthcurno to Mousehole Caught the big blue coaster bus at 10.38.   It is packed and takes us to Porthcurno where we ended up in August. We are on the path by 11.25.   We chat to two guys who have come from Mousehole (our destination) yesterday.   They warn us about a very muddy bit we will encounter.   Oddly, instead of heading directly towards the Minack Theatre, they come with us in the opposite direction. “There is a bit down to the beach which we didn’t do last night” they say. “We have taken a few short cuts” I reply. “No one cares”. “Yes, but you will go to your grave knowing that you didn’t really walk the whole path” That’s me told. This is a long hard day, although the weather is beautiful.   We managed the mud hazard well, meeting there a guy who says he lost a shoe in it last time.   Much more problematic was a beach near Lamorna.   Not really a beach – more of an extent of large boulders by the sea. I lost my balan...

                                                                               Newlyn Harbour   On the road to Newlyn We pack the car with groceries as well as our usual kit because we are doing Airbnb again.   We are on the road 09.10 and get to Newlyn by 16.30.   Could have been earlier, but we dawdled and stopped for tea near St Ives because we didn’t want to arrive before check-in time.   Bit disappointed with the Airbnb. It is up a steep hill above Newlyn, and has no outlook whatsoever. Also, rather pokey. There is no parking as they are redoing their drive.   They have arranged for us to park at the neighbour’s.   We walk down to inspect Newlyn and identify the bus stop for tomorrow.   Chris cooks spaghetti carb...

  Penzance sleeper to nowhere Panic. We have booked the Penzance sleeper in both directions for the next stage of our SWCP adventure.   But a phone call from GWR says the sleeper is not running due to the rail strike.   The helpful guy says that we need to go to any station and we can book on the next available train.   I go to Twickenham.   It seems there is only one train running tomorrow and it’s obviously fully booked because the booking office clerk can’t get me on it.   I am about to rush to Paddington to try my luck there when I pause and look at the refund conditions on GWR website.   It’s very clear that they will refund both journeys, even if there is no strike on the return day.   So, I come home and we abandon the whole train thing.   We enjoy a good night’s sleep in our own bed.  [GWR were as good as their word and refunded us the entire cost of tickets and sleeper supplement].