Monday, May 18

Today was the last and the longest of our walking days - 12.5 miles. I wanted it to be a stroll through the beautiful Cornish countryside, but it ended up being an endurance hike because of - you guessed it - the wind.

The freakin' wind. Not gale force today but still annoying enough to take the pleasure out of much of the walk - at least the first half.

One good thing about the wind is that it blows the clouds away quickly. So, if there is rain, it's gone fast and if there is cloudiness it's gone fast.

One other good thing - today we saw a beautiful site at most of the rocky inlets (and there were several) - the wind was whipping the waves and water into such a frenzy that it actually created sea foam - and it looked like snow. Magical. It would wisp up in spirals and cover the sky like a snowstorm. (Hopefully, my pics of it came out well enough for you all to get the idea.)



This part of the path (and Cornwall) is not nearly as pretty and quaint as the more northern part. As a matter of fact, Newquay (where we ended our walk and where we are tonight) is a tacky beach "resort" - lots of surf shops and T-shirts shops and ticky-tacky gift shops and bad hotels on a main drag. The people look hard and we wondered what kinds of places they were coming from if this is where they come to get away from it all.



Oddly, for a resort, the town closes up at 6. We had a heck of a time finding a place to eat dinner. We asked a waitress at a beach snack shack where she would go if she wanted a good meal out - she recommended a Greek restaurant so we high-tailed it there. A great meal with good atmosphere and good wine. It saved Newquay for us. Still, we're both looking forward to getting the train out tomorrow morning and heading to London.



Our B+B tonight is on the quirky side - our room is up under the rafters, funky shower/bathroom set-up (no doors anywhere) and situated in the middle of a working class neighborhood. Plenty roomy, as long as we remember to watch our heads around the edges of the room.

So, some general trip stand-outs:
*When the days were clear the scenery was spectacular
*Best meals at PotWallopers in Westward Ho! and The Bush Inn in Morwenstow
*Most amazing wildflowers I have ever seen anywhere
*Best castle - Tintagel
*Best bed - The Avalon in Tintagel
*Best town - Port Isaac
*Best breakfast - The Avalon in Tintagel
*Best host - Wendy at the Cyntwell in Padstow

This was a challenging walk - so many assents and descents made an average hiking day seem much longer than it was (and, of course, the wind didn't help.)

Probably won't come back but happy and proud to say I walked a good portion of the wild Cornwall coast.