Day 129: English Coastal Path.

D129: PORTHKERRIS to LIZARD POINT.

Tuesday 30th April 2024

Today miles: 14.8 Total miles: 2146.3

Not sure what time it eventually stopped raining but I’m just thankful that it had actually stopped. I didn’t have a lot of water in my one litre bottle so unfortunately I wasn’t able to make myself a hot drink this morning. I also unhappily had to put on wet (not damp) socks and shoes which is never a pleasant experience.
It didn’t take me long to walk to Porthoustock, there’s a public toilet and I was able to fill up my water bottle. I eventually got back to the actual coastline at Rosenithon and immediately settled down to enjoy some hot coffee and breakfast cereal. There’s several small, pretty beaches and as I approached one of these (Polcries) I spotted a tent pitched on the sand. It seemed too big to be a solo hiker and as I got closer I noticed there’s a single man standing on the footpath with a bundle of small sticks under one of his arms. We got chatting, he’s very well spoken and quite a talker. It turned out that both him and his wife were made homeless several months ago and they’ve been making their way slowly along the SWCP since then. They’ve been camped at Polcries beach for more than two weeks and he collects a pile of firewood every morning. I eventually made my excuses and was able to carry on walking.

Despite my feet being soaked through and the overhead conditions looking threatening I was still enjoying the walking and all too quickly I arrived in Coverack. As it had darkened considerably and then began to rain I decided to take an extended break at ‘The Loft’ a small cafe which is right on the route of the coastal path. Coverack, is a small fishing port popular with surfers and wreck divers and although I didn’t get to see a great deal of it in the rain, a local lady who I spoke to briefly said it was a wonderful place to visit. Unfortunately the rain had continued so I decided to put on my waterproofs and trudged out of the (wonderful) village. There’s a reasonably difficult climb through the gorse bushes up onto Chynhalls Cliffs. This quarter mile section was slow going, rocky, slippery and fairly steep.
As I turned a corner close to Beagles Point I noticed the RAF memorial plaque and a Holy Cross. It’s sad that in March 1974 an RAF Sea King helicopter crashed near this point. The four aircrew, all in their early twenties perished in the accident. I paused a while and gave thanks for their sacrifice.

The rain had stopped and despite feeling wet and hungry I was in a fairly good mood and (almost) enjoying myself. On reaching Cadgwith I dropped into The Cadgwith Cove Inn. They had a real log burning fire. I removed my wet clothes, not all my clothes, obviously. The girl behind the bar threw on some additional logs so by the time I had left there two pints and two hours later my clothes were now just feeling semi-damp. I also managed to get some snacks and something for my tea from the nice little Post Office at Ruan Minor.
On leaving Cadgwith I contacted Henry’s Campsite in Lizard where I’m staying tonight and I confirmed my booking. At this point I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going to leave the coastal path before heading into Lizard. I decided to just keep going until I reached Housel Cove.

Henry’s campsite is a small family run site in the middle of Lizard. The couple who own/manage the site were very friendly and helpful and their facilities are excellent. The shower and washing facilities were clearly new and some of the cleanest I’ve experienced. I would highly recommend them. Henry even offered to put my wet shoes in front of his log burning fire until tomorrow morning, he’s awesome.