John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 070 - Long Carn to Land's End

Day: 070

Date: Tuesday, 09 August 2022

Start:  Long Carn

Finish:  Land’s End

Daily Kilometres:  22

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  1953

Weather:  Warm and sunny.

Accommodation:  Guesthouse

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pastries/Breakfast bar

  Lunch:  Egg & bacon sandwiches

  Dinner:  Gammon steak, eggs & chips/Chicken breast & chips, strawberry trifle

Aches:  Dave - a few niggles and chafing.  Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  Superb weather hiking along a spectacular coast for our last day, neatly bookending our journey which started exactly the same way at the other end of the UK.

Lowlight:  None really.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

The first bus back to Long Carn, our endpoint of yesterday’s hike, did not leave St Ives until 9:00am, so we had a lazy start to the day.  Well, Dave did.  Julie got up in time to squeeze in an early morning run before we left our AirBnB around 7:45am.  We walked through the attractive winding narrow streets of St Ives, lined with old buildings, picking up supplies for the day en route, and ate our breakfast overlooking one of the beautiful beaches, near where we planned to catch the bus.

The bus arrived on time and we again admired the skill of the driver guiding the big double-decker along very narrow lanes and around impossibly tight bends in hamlets along the way.  We were dropped off at Long Carn and began hiking for our last day about 9:45am.  It was a magic day, with calm seas, blue skies and good visibility as we rejoined the Coast Path for the 20 kilometres to Land’s End.  We were hoping for easy walking for our last day, but it wasn’t to be.  Rocky technical sections and plenty of ups and downs made us work hard yet again for the fantastic coastal views.  A new dimension for today was the number of old mining sites we passed, especially the very large Geevor site where tin and copper (and byproduct, arsenic) were mined and produced until as late as 1930.

We stopped for lunch around 1:00pm near Cape Cornwall, having made slower progress than hoped but still thoroughly enjoying our last day on the trail.  More hilly and technical trail followed, all the way to the crowded Sennen Beach and Sennen Cove where we arrived mid-afternoon.  Julie went for a quick dip at the latter before we climbed to the village and had an ice-cream on the promenade watching teenagers jumping from the harbour wall into the inviting sea.

The last couple of kilometres to Land’s End involved another climb and crowds of holiday-makers.  We briefly joined the crowds at Land’s End and took a few pictures.  It all felt a bit anti-climactic, and we were keen to get out of the place.  It was like a theme park, with all sorts of exhibits, food offerings and experiences.  We could see them setting up for an evening’s fireworks display, but weren’t tempted to stay.

We found the bus stop and, at Dave’s suggestion, took the bus that went the long way round to Penzance.  It seemed like a good idea to enjoy the Cornish coastal scenery that we had just hiked from the luxury of an open-topped double-decker bus, and it was enjoyable for the first hour or so, but after that it dragged a bit and we were happy to reach Penzance about 7:15pm.  We stopped in at a pub for a low-key celebratory dinner on the way to our accommodation, so arrived at the latter quite late.

Tomorrow we catch a train to London where we will stay with friends until next Monday when we fly back to Australia.

The walk has lived up to, or exceeded, our expectations and we would thoroughly recommend it as a great way to see the UK and experience the hiking life.  While walking, we have been thinking about what’s next, and are fleshing out some ideas.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 069 - Loggans to Long Carn

Day: 069

Date: Monday, 08 August 2022

Start:  Loggans

Finish:  Long Carn (then bus to St Ives)

Daily Kilometres:  30

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  1931

Weather:  Warm and sunny.

Accommodation:  AirBnB

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pastries

  Lunch:  Egg salad sandwiches

  Dinner:  Cornish pasties, ice cream

Aches:  Dave - a few niggles.  Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  Another case of just catching the bus.  We had pretty much given up on getting to the bus stop in time to catch the 4:31pm bus to St Ives where we had accommodation booked because of slow progress on the technical trail (see below).  But, suddenly, the trail junction we had been looking for appeared earlier than expected and we hiked uphill on technical trail as fast as we could, literally arriving at the bus stop at 4:31pm.  The bus arrived a few minutes later.

Lowlight:  We thought we were in for a relatively easy day’s walking, but most of the last 20 kilometres turned out to be on difficult rocky trail, boulder-scrambling in a few places, with many ascents and descents.  It was hard work in very warm conditions and much slower than we had anticipated.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We left our hotel just before 7:00am, anticipating a relatively easy day, and began with a few kilometres through the back streets of Hayle to link up with the Coast Path and then made a long trek around the River Hayle estuary, some of it quite unattractive, but other parts along pleasant quiet lanes past lovely old homes and gardens.  

After crossing a golf course, we dropped down to the sand beside the river and beach-walked, on a beautiful sunny morning, to St Ives Bay and Hawkes Point, where we climbed back up to the Coast Path for the journey into St Ives.  It was a lovely shady lane walk with a sub-tropical feel, being enjoyed by lots of people.

The attractive old seaport of St Ives was already very busy with holiday-makers shopping, dining or heading for the beach.  We found a grocery store and bought supplies for the day, then walked to the back beach, Porthmeor Beach, and found a bench on which to eat our breakfast in the sun.

Our easy walking ended there, and the rest of the day was slow and difficult (see above), but the scenery more than compensated.  The steep and rugged rocky coastline dropped down to meet a calm and clear sea, disturbed only by a few boats, and we could see a long way along the coast in both directions.  There were a few rocky coves but they were not easily accessible, and there were also the remains of some old industrial/mining buildings here and there.

Hopes of an early finish diminished as the afternoon passed and as we laboured up and down hills on the technical trail, during which time we disturbed a snake (about 1 metre long) on the trail.  We began to think we would have to wait for the 5:31pm bus back to St Ives where we had booked accommodation.  Happily, we just caught the 4:31pm bus (see above), but had to stand all the way back to St Ives (about 35 minutes) as the big double-decker bus was full of holiday-makers, most returning from coastal walks.

St Ives was very busy as we walked through the narrow old streets to our accommodation near the harbour and checked in around 5:30pm.  Despite the late hour, Julie walked down to the harbour beach and had a quick swim, something she had been thinking about since yesterday, and probably her last chance on this trip.

Last day tomorrow.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 068 - St Agnes to Loggans

Day: 068

Date: Sunday, 07 August 2022

Start:  St Agnes (after bus from Truro)

Finish:  Loggans

Daily Kilometres:  28

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  1901

Weather:  Warm, sunny and breezy.

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pastries

  Lunch:  Pastie/Sausage roll

  Dinner:  Burger & chips (Macca’s), chocolate

Aches:  Nothing significant.

Highlight:  None really.

Lowlight:  None really.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

The first bus from Truro back to St Agnes, where we stopped hiking on Friday, didn’t leave until 8:50am, so no early start for us today.  We ate breakfast, purchased the previous night, at our AirBnB then walked down to catch the bus on a beautiful sunny morning.

The bus was on schedule and we were hiking by 9:30am following a narrow country lane down to Chapel Porth Beach where we rejoined the Coast Path.  The sun was shining, the aqua sea calm and holiday-makers were already out swimming, sunbaking and walking.  There was little haze and we could see a long way back along the coast, to far distant headlands, just visible on the horizon, that we must have walked over in the past week.  It seems both unbelievable and satisfying that we came from there so quickly.

The guidebook had warned that there were a few nasty descents and ascents and Dave soon had his poles out to help with the steep and high steps.  Fortunately, the elevation changes weren’t as great as a few days ago, and the climbs not as energy-sapping.  We did, however, see some other hikers struggling with both the climbs and the “heat” (~25°C) under the blazing sun.

The views all day were stunning, and we reminded ourselves how lucky we were to be here, enjoying such great scenery.  We frequently paused to look over the edge of the precipitous cliffs to isolated little coves below lapped by crystal clear water.

Around noon, we descended to the very busy little port village of Portreath where we bought lunch from a bakery which we ate on a bench overlooking a crowded beach.  It’s amazing how a bit of water, some sand, and buckets and spades can amuse children.  There was a small stream (of unknown toxicity) flowing down the beach from some kind of drain and scores of children were happily playing in it.

From Portreath there was more lovely cliff-top walking to Godrevy Point, with its small seal colony and offshore lighthouse. Then it was back to the hubbub of holiday-makers as we descended through crowded carparks to busy Gwithian Beach on St Ives Bay.  For 5 kilometres, we then walked along the hard-sand beach passing clusters of beachgoers at the access points with longer quieter stretches in between.  Very pleasant.

Our accommodation was inland a few kilometres, so we eventually climbed over the big coastal dune and made our way through the vast St Ives Holiday Park - acres of prefab cabins/mobile homes full of vacationers - to Loggans, on the outskirts of Hayle, and our hotel which we reached at 5:00pm.

Later Julie went to the nearby Macca’s to buy dinner, and found them struggling with the number of customers on a fine sunny Sunday, and with equipment failures due to the “heat”.

Only two days to go!

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 067 - St Agnes (but staying in Truro)

Day: 067

Date: Saturday, 06 August 2022

Start:  St Agnes (but staying in Truro)

Finish:  St Agnes (but staying in Truro)

Daily Kilometres:  0

GPX Track:  Click here, here, here and here for Julie’s Strava & Photos from her activities today.

Total Kilometres:  1873

Weather:  Warm, sunny and breezy.

Accommodation:  AirBnB

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pastries

  Lunch:  Pasties

  Dinner:  Pizza, Raspberry cheesecake.

Aches:  Nothing to report

Highlight:  None really

Lowlight:  None really

Pictures: No pictures today

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

No hiking today.

A very relaxing day for Dave, who spent a lot of it on his laptop with either the Commonwealth Games on the TV or the Australian Rules Football on the radio in the background .

He did wander down to the centre of Truro to get some breakfast and later joined Julie for a walk downtown to get lunch and do the laundry at a local laundromat.

Julie, on the other hand, rose early and walked/jogged the 8 kilometres to the Trelissick Parkrun where she ran the 5 kilometre race, winning her age group, and then walked/jogged the 8 kilometres back to our AirBnB.  Later in the afternoon she went for a walk on what was a beautiful afternoon.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 066 - Newquay to St Agnes

Day: 066

Date: Friday, 05 August 2022

Start:  Newquay

Finish:  St Agnes (then bus to Truro)

Daily Kilometres:  24

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  1873

Weather:  Warm and mostly sunny, with a cool breeze.

Accommodation:  AirBnB

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg mayonnaise sandwich/Breakfast bar.

  Lunch:  Chicken salad sandwich/Egg mayonnaise sandwich

  Dinner:  Burger & chips, caramel trifle

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles.  Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  It was nice to have an easy day after a very solid week’s hiking, and to know we have tomorrow off.  We were finished hiking by 2:00pm at St Agnes on a beautiful sunny day, easily in time to catch a bus to Truro (30 minutes away) at 2:30pm and, after a quick stop at a supermarket to buy some afternoon tea, were comfortably ensconced in our AirBnB before 4:00pm.

Lowlight:  None really.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We chose a slightly later departure time today, 7:15am, for two reasons.  Firstly, we knew we had a relatively short-distance day and, secondly, the guidebook suggested that we needed to cross the River Gannel footbridge on the western edge of Newquay within two hours either side of low tide (~11:00am), or we would have to take a 4 kilometre detour.  After walking through the waking centre of Newquay and buying supplies for the day at a supermarket, we descended to the River Gannel and were pleased to see the tidal bridge well-exposed on the wide sandflats.  In fact, the tide was far enough out for us to also ford Penpol Creek, saving us further distance.

We then followed the Coast Path downstream to Crantock Beach at the river mouth where we were surprised to see a lot of holiday-makers already setting up on the beach (it was only 8:00am!) and the nearby carpark rapidly filling with vehicles.  With a sunny warm day forecast, people were clearly keen to get their spot on the sand.  It did look like a good beach, especially for young children.

The Coast Path then followed the coast around some low headlands, though still involving some climbing, and dropped down to several more attractive beaches, each seemingly busier than the last with people staking out their bit of sand.  Approaching Holywell Bay, we made the mistake of sticking to the marked Coast Path through some high sand dunes backing the beach when we would have been wiser to drop down to the flat hard sand beach itself and walk along that.  Lesson learned.

After another long attractive stretch of cliff-top walking on easy trail, with expansive views along the coast and out to sea, we made a steep descent to Ligger Bay and Perrin Sands Beach and walked along the beach, whose sand wasn’t quite as hard as we hoped, for a couple of kilometres.  Nevertheless, it was very pleasant to be walking along the relatively unpopulated broad beach with the breakers crashing to our right and huge sand dunes rising to our left under sunny skies.  Sadly, the tide wasn’t far enough out for us to walk all the way to Perranporth Beach, and we had to negotiate one more headland before dropping down to this very busy beach.  Despite the sun, the breeze was cool and the water apparently cold (~17°C) as most of the many swimmers and boogie board riders were wearing wetsuits.

We had made good progress all morning and still had time to take a second break, for lunch, knowing we would make the earlier bus (2:30pm) at St Agnes, our goal for the day.  We found a spot sitting on what looked like the remains of an old fortification or industrial site on Cligga Head and were entertained as we ate by some parachutists descending to the adjacent Perranporth Airfield, dating from World War II when it was a base for multiple squadrons of Spitfire fighters.

Our last hour of walking took us down to Trevallas Cove, and the remains of historic tin-smelters, before a long climb to the busy village of St Agnes.  From there we caught a bus to Truro where we have an AirBnB for two nights and a day off hiking.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 065 - Wadebridge to Newquay

Day: 065

Date: Thursday, 04 August 2022

Start:  Wadebriidge

Finish:  Newquay

Daily Kilometres:  37

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  1849

Weather:  Warm and mostly sunny.

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pastries

  Lunch:  Egg salad sandwich/Ham & coleslaw sandwich.

  Dinner:  Fish & chips/Burger & chips. icecream

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles.  Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  None really.

Lowlight:  None really.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We were walking by 6:30am on a mild and partly cloudy morning, with the intention of buying something for breakfast in Padstow, 10 kilometres away.  Our route firstly travelled along some country lanes before joining the Camel Trail, a railtrail linking Padstow to Wadebridge.  The attractive trail followed the tidal River Camel and we enjoyed the peaceful early morning scenery of river, mudflats and sandbanks bordered by pretty farmland.  There were a few people out for walks, runs and bike rides, but mostly we had it to ourselves.

At Padstow, a little town on the river that has become a yachting and tourist centre, we happily found a bakery open (they don’t open very early in England) offering yummy pastries and we bought some to eat for breakfast later on.  We left the river here and walked across to the coast on a series of field paths to Trevone Bay, a small beach resort, where we rejoined the Coast Path.  It was turning into a lovely day and many people were already out walking or setting up on the beach.

For the rest of the day we followed the Coast Path westwards along the attractive rocky coastline.  The cliffs weren’t as high as for the last few days, but still high enough to be spectacular with brilliant white breakers crashing on the rocks below.  Every so often, the path descended to attractive sandy coves full of holiday-makers  - Treyarnon Bay, Porthcothan, Mawgan Porth and more - with the obligatory cafes, pubs and ice-cream kiosks.  They were all buzzing and the mood was happy in the welcome sunshine.

On the cliffs above Watergate Bay, as we neared Newquay, there were some massive marquees and stages being set up for the upcoming Boardmasters Festival - a great location ….. in good weather.

We reached Newquay, a traditional English beach holiday town with a plethora of fast food joints, games parlours, hotels, etc., at 4:00pm and checked into our hotel.  Although we covered a lot of distance today, there was always something to look at and the time passed quickly and easily.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 064 - Tintagel to Wadebridge

Day: 064

Date: Wednesday, 03 August 2022

Start:  Tintagel

Finish:  Wadebridge

Daily Kilometres:  29

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  1812

Weather:  Overcast, foggy and drizzle until mid-morning, then mostly sunny and warm.

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Cereal, toast & jam

  Lunch:  Cornish pasties

  Dinner:  Chicken pasta salad, rice pudding.

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles.  Julie - admitted to tired legs after the climbing of the last two days, and Dave noticed that he was actually keeping up with her on some of today’s climbs.

Highlight:  The village of Port Isaac was interesting and lively. An old seaport with narrow winding streets, very old houses and an attractive little harbour, it is now a tourist attraction and was very busy with holiday-makers on a beautiful day.  We each enjoyed a yummy large Cornish pastie for lunch, seated on a wall by the harbour and watching the passing parade of tourists.

Lowlight:  As we walked down the edge of a field in mid-afternoon, Julie’s cap was knocked off by a low-hanging branch and fell into a cow pat.  On a more serious note, we had a scary kilometre of walking along a narrow and very busy road with poor visibility soon afterwards.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

After making and eating our breakfast in the hostel kitchen, we started walking around 7:30am on a grey foggy drizzly morning.  First we went down to see the ruins of Tintagel castle, which sit precariously on some rocky outcrops high above the sea, but we could see very little because of the fog.  Fortunately, we had visited here and had a good look around four years ago, so didn’t feel quite so deprived.

From there we headed westwards along the Coast Path in the dreary conditions, with the ghostly dark outlines of the cliffs dropping down to the sea, just visible below.  We feared more of the roller-coaster trail of yesterday but, initially, there was easier walking as the the path followed the field edges along the cliff-tops.  The first big descent came as we dropped down to the tiny harbour of Trebarwith, followed by a lung-buster of a climb up a steep, and seemingly never-ending, chain of high rock steps.

More ups and downs were to come as we continued on, but the weather cleared dramatically, and we were finally treated to superb views up and down the spectacular coast from the higher elevations. We reached the very busy, with holiday-makers, Port Gaverne and Port Isaac around noon.  Originally, we intended to buy some sandwiches on our way through and eat them later but, instead, bought some pasties and ate them by the harbour watching the world go by.  Very pleasant.

It was amazing how the crowds disappeared just a few hundred metres up the steep road out of Port Isaac and we were soon walking on our own.  Our guidebook route left the Coast Path at Port Isaac and followed a more direct course towards Wadebridge across fields, along country lanes and through cute little villages on a warm afternoon.

We reached Wadebridge and our hotel around 5:00pm, very glad of an earlier finish than the two previous nights.