Day 18

August 26^th Depart Pendeen Watch

Arrive Sennen Cove Accommodation: The Old Success Inn

Distance 14.7 KM | Cumulative Distance: 389.4 KM | Grade – Moderate

Ascent 1,923 FT | Cumulative Ascent: 52,142 FT

I remember getting up once in the night to go to the bathroom, and eventually woke up at 6-30 feeling well rested. It's amazing the effects of a good nights sleep on the body. Eventually got up at 7 and jumped in the shower, and then packed both my bag and Liz's. We went down early for breakfast (7-50 am as opposed to 8-00 am) to see if we could get a jump on the day, and Liz had a bowl of cereal while I enjoyed a glass of orange joice. Our landlady came in with 2 plain and 2 chocolate croissant's and took our order for tea and/or coffee. For some reason when breakfast arrived I ended up with the "full English" which consisted of sausage, egg, mushrooms, fried tomatoes, toast and beans, and which I had not ordered. I ate a couple of the mushrooms but discarded everything else other than the egg, beans and toast. After breakfast I told Liz I was going to see if I could find lunch, and to check if Bill had arrived at his hotel. As we were only doing 9 miles I picked up a couple of flapjacks, which are packed with energy, and the obligatory chocolate bars. I then went to check if I could find Bill but he wasn't in the breakfast room, and so I was hoping he was having a well deserved sleep in, with today being a short, straight forward walk.

We set off at 9-05 am, and the weather was threatening but only spitting with rain at this point. At times we could see the ocean and other times it was hidden in a mist/fog. We had to back-track the road I walked the night before in order to pick up the trail at Pendeen Watch, and the path led us to Geevor and we had returned to another area of a bygone era with lots of ruins from the age when Tin Mines dominated the landscape. We took lots of photo's which you can find below. The one mine that took my attention was the one at Levant and I was shocked to find that it actually extended out to sea 1.6 kilometres (1 mile) and was almost 600 feet underground.

The trail was very easy and in no time at all we had reached Kenidjack Castle, which was a ruin, and we then had to turn left and find the path through the ferns for the long descent to cross the Kenidjack valley, which then led to a long climb back up the other side! Liz was handling everything in stride, and I was very happy for her, as I wanted her to have a good experience instead of suffering like she had yesterday. So far she was handling everything that the trail was throwing her way, we soon reached our goal of Cape Cornwall at about 11-30 am. It took mere minutes to climb up and down to the lookout point at the Cape, and by 11-40 am we were sat at the picnic table enjoying the spectacular sunshine that had graced our presence at about 10-30 am. After a twenty minute break we now faced a steep climb up a road with the path turning right up another steep track and 1/2 way up our senses were assaulted by loud hideous music!! Two guys were doing renovation work on a property and had the car door open and the music was blaring! I almost ran the rest of the way up the hill as the past 2 1/2 weeks has been idyllic with nothing but the natural sounds of nature being my constant companion. Once on top we found the trail descended to a road where a sign post pointed down the road, and the sign read Sennen Cove 4 miles. We set off down the road and crossed just before a small beach, and we then had a climb back up to the cliff top where we enjoyed some excellent walking. Some of the climbs were quite tricky, especially the last few steps to get up and over the top, but Liz was a trooper and doing a great job. Obviously all the time she spends working out with her personal trainer, and at Spin has helped her fitness levels. As always the last two miles always seem the longest, but the worst bit came about an hour from the end when for about a quarter of a mile we were accosted by a plague of flies!! It was awful. Finally we outpaced them and decided it would be better to drop on the beach for the last half mile rather than endure the uncertainty of the sand dunes. We finally arrived at The Old Success Inn, our accommodation for the night, at around 3 pm.

Tomorrow, very early in our walk we will be at Lands End, the most Westerly point in England, hopefully the great weather continues and we can get more great photos. Speaking of which, here's today's offerings. I'm starting by showing images of a bygone period in Cornwall's rich history.