Day 2: Port Isaac to Tintagel

N.B. A six-day walk on the north coast of the South West Coast Path (Padstow to Clovelly).

Cornwall Navigation: [Next Day] 

Overview: Some of the sweetest and most abundant blackberries of the trip!

We took a taxi to the start of our day's walk, but managed to follow a series of footpaths that were not part of the SWCP.  Oh well!  The walking was easy there, at any rate.

It didn't take long to find the official path though, and soon our day of climbing began.

There were actually some treacherous climbs today - and I got a bit freaked out with a steep descent near an eroded cliff. Probably safe enough with the detour, and yet I couldn't help thinking of all the worst case scenarios with scree and flimsy blue ropes marking the rerouted path. (As Calvin says: "My mind is trying to kill me!") 

Looking back at a steep descent we'd made

A close-up of the path and the cliff edge

But we were rewarded for the challenges with a bountiful crop of sweet blackberries atop of one of the hills.




Oh, and some spectacular views.

Today's butterflies were mostly orange and black, though I saw a white one on a dandelion.

 I really liked one ascent through a patch of gorse and heather intermixed:

We did six of seven valleys, and then ducked out of the last one by taking a public footpath to the hotel.

An early glimpse of the church overlooking the village of Tintagel

Not all the adjoining householders are keen on the footpath, apparently. One of them put up a high stile on each end of his property (I wasn't tall enough to step over it), and also routed the path narrowly along the stone wall - with a wooden barrier backed by an electric fence! Not to mention the friendly hand painted signs warning us to keep dogs on leads, danger electric fence, and dogs have killed chickens. It felt really good to leave his property.

Soon, we met some mules (behind another electric fence), whom Bill befriended by feeding them mints. They practically tried to get our mobile numbers after that!

After we checked in to the B&B, we went to look at the castle. I split off and took a detour up following signs to a church. As I worked my way down toward the castle, I saw a signpost with an acorn - I had come across part of the South West Coast Path (a part we'd skipped!). So I followed the SWCP to the castle's upper entrance, and looked in to the courtyard. A nice ruin.

The castle!!!

Then followed the SWCP down to the lower entrance, where I met Sarah and Bill. We ponied up for a Land Rover ride back up the hill to the village!

 (Official mileage for this section: 9.1)

N.B. A six-day walk on the north coast of the South West Coast Path (Padstow to Clovelly).

Cornwall Navigation: [Next Day]