Day 3 Very windy

Today, gales are forecast. With some rain. I put off leaving my B&B in case things got better, but they didn’t. I didn’t follow the Coast Path today – didn’t really fancy being blown off the edge of a cliff so I took the inland route. I set off over the path I had taken to Zennor last night. I could hardly walk in a straight line, the wind was buffeting me so much.

Today’s main hazard was the stiles. Cornish stiles (at least the ones round here, I’ll report on those further north in due course) are made of large slabs of granite-rather like a cattle grid made of stone. There are also ones arranged in a stepped way. Neither are good on a wet and windy day-either you risk slipping into the potentially ankle-breaking gap, or being blow over when a gust of wind hits you at the top.

The path to Zennor is the old coffin path, hence the use of the flat stiles. Despite the weather, it was a nice walk to St Ives. I didn’t meet a man with seven wives although I did meet a group of hikers with only one man. Possibly the modern take on the seven wives thing? Unfortunately, I didn’t count the female hikers… I was very pleased to see them though as I had started to have negative thoughts of the “Will this path end in a barbed wire fence and I’ll have to go back?” variety. These thoughts weren’t helped by the view.

Happily, the rain stopped and, the field path being more direct than the coast path I was in St Ives by midday. I had walked all of six miles. I sat in a shelter and had my lunch -cheese sandwich and an apple today- before wandering round St Ives.

There were several things about St Ives. The light really is different. I think it’s because the town (the old part) is on a narrow spit of land with water on both sides and a white sand beach both of which reflect back the light. The second thing about St Ives was the people. Lots of people. It felt very odd to be in a crowd. The third thing is that I am staying in Carbis Bay which is another couple of miles down the coast. The coast path takes a traffic-free route past more white sand beaches, past the G7 summit hotel (lots of fence putting up activity, and notices about the path closure for the duration) and eventually to a very nice cafe (decaf latte and a gluten-free carrot cake) about a minute’s walk from my Airbnb.

9 miles today, one blister, and a rest day tomorrow.