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.
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