Day 14 Short but gruelling

Today was to be a 6 mile walk to Crackington Haven. My guidebook suggests a 16 mile day to Bude but I decided to do walk it over 2 days. I was glad I did.

Today started with a stiff uphill walk, actually, that’s not true, today started with a trip to Boscastle Bakery, but more of that later.

The walk today was pretty much up and down, and up and down. It was quite tiring despite my well-stocked food bag and frequent stops for drinks and snacks. The views were phenomenal, and I’m running out of words to describe them.

It dies have to be said that the ups and downs did rather dominate the day. You can see the path running up High Cliff (again, imaginatively named) as the pale thin line. On the other hand there was a 360 degree view from the top. In fact, it was so lovely that I stopped for my lunch. A pasty, courtesy of Boscastle Bakery.

Nothing to fault outwardly. Pastry, size and crimping all good. Filling perhaps a little potatoey. Pastry definitely better than Philps but filling not as good. But on that level.

I could tell I was approaching Crackington Haven, as there was a headland to skip,which as the day had been rather hot, was a good thing.

The rocks had changed over the last few miles. Gone was the Devonian slate, and we now had other sedimentary rocks -mudstone and siltstone of the Crackington formation. No, not a notice board this time, but the geology app on my phone. It’s a bit fiddly to use and tricky to see in the sunshine which is why it hasn’t made an appearance before now.

Crackington Haven, had a couple of cafes, so I had a passion fruit smoothie to cool down. My campsite was up a very steep hill, so I needed to be in tip-top condition before attempting the last mile.

The other reason I was glad I was in tip-top condition (although in reality I was tired with more blisters) was that my tent pole broke. It had snapped at Padstow but I thought it was mendable. Turns out it isn’t. Still, with a walking pole, some shock cord and some dental floss I was able (after a few tears, and a phone consultation with Matthew) to fashion enough of a repair to get me through the night.