Despite the low temperature there were several people surfing. Brrrrrr, they breed them tough in Cornwall. If you look carefully at the picture you might even see a head or two bobbing about in the surf.
We followed the South West Coastal Path out of the town and through Wrestlers Field where we came upon a monument erected in the memory of those drowned off the coast and buried where they lay in unconcecrated ground until the passing of the Gryls Act of 1808
Then we continued along the path enjoying the rugged and beautiful coastline with old ruined tin mines perched precariously on the cliffs. It blew my mind trying to contemplate how the miners operated in such conditions.
We stopped for lunch at Praa Sands in a gorgeous beach hut type cafe obviously built to cater for the surfie community with surf board decorations and a copious menu... Yum! Well fortified we walked on still mesmerised by the coastline.
Passing Prussia cove and rounding Cudden point the path was becoming increasingly degraded from the storms the coastline had been subjected to. We were careful to look out for signage and so were surprised to find ourselves confronted by a barrier and a sign which read DANGER follow signed alternatives. Oh dear! There were none.. To the left was a steep cliff, to the right an uphill climb through prickly bracken and brambles and behind us? We'll suffice it to say there was no way having come this far we were going to head back the way we had come! Sooooo that left only one alternative: go forward over the barrier. We could see the cracks in the path where the cliff was shearing off but we are fairly light and we trod VERY carefully and leant heavily to our right, and.... We made it and finally clambered over the final barrier into safer territory :)
Continuing on (with the occasional appreciative glance behind us) we rounded a bend and there before us was St Michael's Mount on its rigged island
The path was obviously fairly degraded along this stretch and we encountered other barriers and so, deciding distression is the better part of valour we headed up to the road and trudged wearily on to Penzance and the YHA hostel at Castle Horneck and a welcome pint: Betty Stoggs for Keith and Cornish Knocker for Lynne.
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