11.5 miles walked today
1216.5 miles walked in total (10.487 average)
Another good day. I left St Ives this morning at 10.00 am and started off along the back of Porthminster Beach. As little as I like St Ives, the views back on the town were lovely! It was a swift up and back down to Carbis Bay and it was a popular pram pushing/ dog walking track before I got back onto the footpath out to Carrack Gladden.
A sign on the path pointed to an artist's studio and I thought I was all arted out. However, on seeing the garden of Penn Carwardine, I had to go and have a nose round.
Sadly, Miss Carwardine was out shopping but I chatted to her husband for ages, bought some cards and photographed their garden. It was in an absolutely perfect spot with fantastic views over Porth Kidney Sands and over to Godrevy Point, my destination for the day.
Upon leaving their house - Edge o'Cliff - I got back out onto the path which became a wide sandy track through the dunes, under the railway and through a golf course to Leland and its church.
From here, it was a very uninteresting slog on roads through Hayle and on to Gwithian. Hayle was a one horse town which rather belies its importance in history, when copper, tin and a foundry established there in 1779 made it the busiest Cornish port for more than one hundred years.
There were a number of pleasure craft at the head of the estuary and I had a good chuckle at one boat called "Hayle Mary"!
From Hayle, I carried on to Gwithian by road as my guide book said the coast path was a "tortuous route through the dunes with a long hike back to the road and a long hike along it" and the "one compensation for walking the whole route along the dunes is the unexpected cowslips in spring".
From Gwithian, I got back on the coast path out to Godrevy Point, where I stopped for a coffee in the lower car park. I'd arranged to meet Mum and Dad at 4.00 pm, but, as it was only 2.30 pm, I took it very slowly up the hill, stopping to chat to the National Trust chap about the seal colony there. However, as I got to the top car park, Mum and Dad were already there. In fact, they'd been there for two hours, had their lunch, gone for a walk on the beach and a scramble over the rocks. Having a right old birthday!
The views back over to St Ives and to the lighthouse on Godrevy Island were fantastic. A very popular spot too, judging by the number of people there.
Brilliant day.
