Day 7 Windy, windy, windy (and wet)

There are two sorts of blog posts. There are those that give you vicarious pleasure, views of places that look nice even if you don’t really want to go there- blue seas, perhaps a picture taken relaxing on the beach with an ice cream, that sort of thing. Then there are blog posts that make you think “I’m glad I’m not doing that”. This is one of those blog posts.

The day started alright. My waterproofs were dry, and my shoes weren’t too wet. I thought I’d get away without waterproof trousers. I headed down the road to the beach and when the full force of the wind hit me I realised that I needed the waterproof trousers for their wind proofing ability. I put them on. I carried on and after another couple of hundred metres realised my hat was going to blow away, despite being under my hood. More rummaging in my backpack, although no zipping/unzipping palaver. Beanie on, hood up, so windy I had to brace myself with my walking poles. Up and over to Chapel Porth (porth being the Cornish word for beach). A few people on the beach, the RNLI lifeguards having fun (possibly working as well) on their quad bikes and, wonder of wonders, an open public loo. There are a lot of public loos near the beaches here but they are mostly closed so this was one of the high points of my day. Which says quite a bit about the rest of the day’s walk.

The wind got worse. There were a few slight showers and a bit of a downpour at Trevaunance cove. I, and about ten other people headed for the pub to get out of the rain. . Suitably refreshed, and the rain having stopped, off I set again. The wind was rather unpleasant now. I had to brace myself with my poles, and because the path wound round the cliffs, the wind came at me from different angles. I found myself cutting corners rather than go all the way round the headlands. To add insult to injury, there was a hail shower, right in my face. Yuk.

I was not enjoying myself very much at this stage. I didn’t stop much to look at the views but I did take more photos (yes, zip/unzip etc because in the pub I’d put my phone back in its waterproof case, and carefully placed it in my trouser pocket).

There were a lot of mine ruins as well, including one (Cligga) which they think has been worked for 2000 years. Pretty impressive. Anyway, I tried to distract myself with being glad that I wasn’t a miner on my way to work… and with thoughts of a cream tea. That was, until the path seemed to go straight over the cliff edge. I was not going there. The alternative was wandering through an area of mine shafts. I stopped to consider my choices and noticed an old, corroded nail on the ground.

My choices were-head over the cliff or pick a route through the old mine workings, complete with concealed shafts. Hmm, I wasn’t sure what to do until I saw a couple of people arise from the cliff edge. Well, if they can do it, so can I, I thought, particularly as they looked quite cheery and not at all traumatised, and I headed over the edge. Of course, as is the way, the path wasn’t quite as bad as it looked. Mind you, the wind was ferocious, and I got blown over twice. Happily there was no one around to witness that. Also happily, the end was now in sight so I took a few more photos.

Now I am sitting having dinner in a pub overlooking the beach. The sun is shining, I am indoors so there is no wind, I have had a cream tea and all is well with my world. Apart from tomorrow’s weather forecast. More heavy rain. At least the wind will have died down.