We promised ourselves another chill one today. No point in pushing ourselves like we’ve done in the past, when all is said and done we’re inherently lazy. We’re not trying to set records or impress anyone. Also everything fucking hurts so even if we wanted to challenge ourselves various joints making up our lower limbs would have strong opinions on that.

So we packed down, had breakfast, shuffled up a hill to bag a lovely trigpoint as the sun’s rays cascaded down through a particularly nice looking cloud, then walked (read: hobbled whilst complaining a lot) the easy two and a half miles into Harlyn to abuse their facilities. Which were closed. Boo. Except the disabled toilet was unlocked! Yay! We celebrated by having a nap in the car park. I’m really fucking enjoying naps and, in fact, find it hard to get through the day without one. I’m never going to be able to reintegrate into society after this.

It wasn’t long after Harlyn where we found a coffee van. Oh, go on then, as we’re on holiday. We sat on a wall by the beach with our legs dangling over the side. Not on the beach because it’s full of fucking sand, but close to the beach. Close enough to enjoy the beach without having to scrape half of it out of my orifices afterwards. We hadn’t managed to get enough signal to check the weather and there was a cloud looming which screamed, “RUN FOR COVER!” but we figured that all these people had access to weather reports and they looked like they were setting up for the day with their chairs and windbreaks and bodyboards. We’d be fine.

Tell you what, though. Cornwall really needs to up its acorn game, it’s bloody awful! It’ll send you off in a direction with a well placed fingerpost, then you’ll just be cracking on with it, taking the paths you can see before you realise you should have taken a left somewhere and you’ve just cut off a chunk of the headland you were meant to walk around. Now-me just sort of rolls her eyes and gets on with her day but three-years-ago-me would have had a small meltdown and insisted we go back and do it. Yeah, she was exhausting.

We were intending to get through Padstow and across to Rock on the ferry before we had lunch but the way the trail takes you means you can see where you’re heading a lot of the time, but then it steers you off along a convoluted walk-around to avoid a stream. It feels like someone is picking Padstow up and moving it further and further away. Fuck it. We went and sat on some compacted wet sand on the beach to assemble some butties. Do not adjust your sets, I said on the beach. Despite our best efforts everything is going to have sand in it for weeks.

In other lunch news, we’re using cucumber rather than crisps to add that delicious crunch to our sandwiches because we’re healthy now. I’m intending to eat at least one green thing a day, not including Pepperami. I’m quite sure this kick won’t last too far beyond today, we only had the cucumber with us today because we’d bought it in Newquay and worried what they’d think if they found a cucumber in the fridge after the lesbians vacated the room.

I think the Padstow to Rock ferry should be our last water based transport for the rest of the hike. I can’t think of another reason we might need to get one. It leaves from a different place depending on the tide but you can see it as you descend so you’ll know where to go. It deposited us on a beach and we walked to the jetty to pick up the trail after applying a particularly tasty fruit smoothie to our faceholes at a café. If my internal organs aren’t happy with what I’m offering them right now they can fuck right off. I’m proper spoiling them with all these nutrients and shit.

The climb up to Pentire Point, and fuck me, it’s a climb, affords some astounding eyehole fodder. We could see all the way across to Trevose Head. On the other side of the headland is The Rumps, a particularly sexy chunk of corrugated earth crust which had been recommended as a camp spot by Daniel who we’d met whilst sheltering from the weather at Black Head near Coverack. It’s exposed but actually there are plenty of acceptably slopey places to plonk a tent. It wasn’t forecast stupid winds but we put the ground anchors in anyway to make us feel better.

It’s nice getting to where you want to be early enough to enjoy the evening. Fifteen or sixteen mile days are definitely more us than the eighteen to twenty miles we put ourselves through sometimes.

STATS
Day: 50
Day on South West Coast Path: 40
Day on LEJOG: 9
Distance walked today: 16.1 miles
Total walked so far: 671.56 miles
Weather: Sunny all day again.
Coldest temp last night: 11.88°C inside / 10.25°C outside
Trigs bagged: 1
Trigs to date: 40
“Have you read ‘The Salt Path?'” (Running Total): 7

Jump to “Useful shit to know…”

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Trevose Head, Cornwall to Rumps Point, Cornwall, England

Stayed at: Wild camp on Rumps Point

Useful shit to know…

• Toilets at Harlyn are open every day Easter to September and only at weekends the rest of the year. Someone showed up at 9ish to open and clean them. They’re free to use.
• Porthmissen Beach, Padstow, Rock and Polzeath have toilets but I don’t know if they’re free or not. The toilets at Daymer Bay cost 40p cash, or the disabled toilets take contactless, and they will literally shout at you to not hold the door open to let people in without paying or an alarm will sound.
• Polzeath has a drinking water refill fountain next to the trail.
• You have to walk off the trail and through a golf course to get to St Enodoc church, watch out for flying golf balls!
• The Padstow to Rock ferry varies its hours according to the season and the launch point according to the tide. You can find the times on their website and you can pretty much see where it’s launching from as you approach from the Padstow side. From the Rock side, once you’re on the beach you’ll see where you need to go.

BUDGET for one person (based on two sharing)
Tea/coffee from the van: £2.58
Toilet: £0.20
Smoothie, Blue Tomato: £5.50
Padstow to Rock ferry: £3
Grand Total: £11.28