Mussel point
Each day HF Holidays offers three hikes. Today's were 6 miles, 9 miles, 11 miles, each along the Cornish coast, but dropping down to the coast at different points. I took the middle distance hike. As we hiked out of St. Ives to an inland path, I got to know Anwar, who is retired from Oxfam.
The nice thing about hiking with HF is you get to meet interesting people--Helen the cellist, Andrew the chemistry teacher, Elinor the fiber optic engineer, Simon who works for an intellectual property firm, Catherine who works on Covid policy in the Secretary of State's office.
We hiked inland on a public path through fields. This is a potato field. Another field had cows in it. Bill Bryson commented on how remarkable it is that the public can traipse all over Britain due to the generosity of landowners. I guess these paths are millenia old so the landowners have no choice.
Here is the HF description of today's hike:
"The inland section of the walk crosses prehistoric fields, passing the hamlets of Trevega, Boscubben and Treveal. We reach the coast at Mussel Point then follow the undulating rugged path over the cliffs and headlands back to St Ives."
What the description didn't mention was the miles of stiles--lots of steep stone stairstep constructions that divide the fields. A bit tricky as often a steep drop. But we all got up and over--a dozen in our party, plus our guide, Nigel.
Scabious, or pincushion, below. This photo failed to capture the intense blue color of the flowers. Most of my photos don't capture the full range of blues/greens/aquamarines on show all day.
Mussel Point. Breathtakingly beautiful.
The teals and aquas in the moving sea seemed fluorescent. But the photos make them very flat.
We saw five seals today, two were hanging around while we ate lunch, and three were in a cove further on. They looked like corks bobbing in the boiling ocean.
I enjoyed the variety of grasses, ferns and lichens, and two types of caterpillar and a cinnabar moth. We could hear skylarks but they are difficult to see in the grasses. Also saw some diving gulls.
The weather was gorgeous. Here was the lunch spot.
Where I rested.
I'm a terribly lucky person. In so many ways. I do feel guilt at my good fortune when the people of Ukraine have lost everything. I talked to my friend Joe last night--just back from Kinshasa, where 11 million people live without the basic necessities of life--clean water, electricity, sewage treatment. It's hard to square a fate that is so fortunate with those that are so bereft. I should ask Anwar how he reconciles these notions. I think a bit about what Alice Walker wrote in the Color Purple--how God gets pissed off if you walk by the color purple and don't notice it.
The photo again doesn't capture the purple brilliance of the heather against the blue sea.
This hike is the antidote to a year of living and working in the same place--my life feels a bit claustrophobic as each week draws to a close and I want to get away from the four walls of my house. I love my home, but I also need this:
Donegal is just as beautiful--but a 3 hour drive away and maybe not as warm and sunny as Cornwall. The one glitch in the hike was our final approach to St. Ives. All of the guides are volunteers and many haven't done the hikes before. They use detailed maps and trip notes. As we neared St. Ives, Nigel took us into an overgrown path, where the bracken was up to our shoulders and there were a lot of raised roots ready to catch our ankles. We went down down down, trying to reach the coastal path. We hit a dead end--surrounded by prickly gorse bushes. Then another dead end. Then he found a path that got us out of the bracken and onto the coast path.
He felt awful about straying off piste. When we got to town, he bought us all ice cream! My photo yesterday was of the harbour side of St. Ives. This is the other side, where surfers ply their trade. The big white building on the right is the Tate St. Ives.
This is a wee garden in St. Ives. I haven't had a chance yet to explore St. Ives. Today is Sunday. We hike Monday, then have Tuesday off, so will likely visit the Tate then.
Chy Morvah, the house where I'm staying, has a pool. I swam back and forth, back and forth for a while, then a quick shower, dinner, and an early night.
26 June