9 miles walked today
1194 miles walked in total (10.473 average)
I started walking today at 10.30 am with some trepidation. Apart from one eight miler around Windsor Great Park with Sam recently, I've done nothing since July when we did the Oxfam Trailwalker event. Sarah, Mark, Andy and I took part and three of us finished the 62.5 mile ordeal in twenty-six hours and eighteen minutes. Sadly, Andy didn't finish as he was in Brighton General Hospital with a suspected fractured ankle. Luckily, it was no more than a very badly swollen sprain. Our team raised in the region of £3,000 which will build a school room in Nepal.
My brain's totally scrambled at the moment - Andy's working in Iraq and won't be back until the middle of December. And I was given a bombshell on Thursday when I was informed my job was at risk and I needed to apply for my own job and complete a redundancy consultation questionnaire. Nothing like a bolt out of the blue. Consequently, this holiday has come at an excellent time and I'm looking forward to emptying my head - won't be too difficult for me!
However, so empty is my head already that I forgot to pack some food, only filled my water bottles halfway and discovered my camera battery had run out at Sennen. Marvellous.
Undeterred, I set off from Sennen and strode out along the clifftops, watching Mum and Dad saunter around Whitesands Bay on the beach. I was very envious. There were loads of surfers out today and a number of walkers on the coast path. Not surprising as it's been a belter today - very sunny and quite warm.
I had to do quite a lot of rock climbing today which was quite tricky. The colours have been intense - the blue of the sea, the yellow of the gorse and the pinky purple of the heather - lovely!
At Porth Nanven the path cut inland to avoid a stream. The official path was quite difficult to find today as there were so many different tracks. I figured that, if I stayed on the higher path, there wouldn't be so many up and downs.
It wasn't long until I came to Cape Cornwall. I discovered today that this is only one of two "capes" in Britain - the other being Cape Wrath in Scotland. And, to have the honour of being referred to as a cape, a sticky out piece of land must have a different body of water on either side. Not sure whether we're talking Atlantic, Irish Sea or Bristol Channel though - need to do some more research.
The views were superb and there were a lot of people climbing up to the monument - the chimney marking the 19th century Cape Cornwall tin mine. I stopped here for a cup of tea, a cheese toastie and some nutty banana cake. I don't think I've ever been so pleased to spot a tea van.
From here, it was only a couple of miles through tin mine relics - Wheal Edward (Wheal is a Cornish word meaning "works"), the Crowns, Botallack, Levant and Geevor. All the while I could see the gleaming white buildings of Pendeen Watch lighthouse. Unfortunately, I lost the path again and ended up wandering around the Geevor tin mine and tagged onto the end of a guided tour being given to a bunch of tourists in hard hats and hi vis jackets. Blimey, it's like being back at work!
So I decided to call it a day and head off for sustenance in the tea rooms.
Brilliant day, very pleased with progress.
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