The Southwest Coast Path, Cornwall, England, 2015

by Linden B. (Lindy) Sisk


Day 13 — Walk from Portreath to Hayle

Please remember that each picture is a link to a larger version!

This is the last day of walking, a day of regret that the walk and comradeship of the trail will end, but also with readiness to move on.

When planning for this trip began, Tristan MacDonald asserted that the coast of England was at least as beautiful as anything we had seen of previous hikes, even the one in the Chilean National Park Torres del Paine. In my opinion, he was quite right, and so it was again on this last day.

On this day, Alex was missing, having gone to her sister's house, as a foot problem had finally gotten unmanageable. We would be joined down the coast by Jill Eddy, a friend of Tristan and Alex.

We climbed out of Portreath up to the cliff top on yet another beautiful and clear day. The weather on this trip has, for this region, been remarkable. While we had a couple of cloudy days, we've had only one rainy day in which to walk, though we took one day off because of the weather. For this country, and this coast, that is remarkable, which, I suppose, is why I am remarking on it...

The flowers and the sea continued to provide great beauty. This was a pretty easy day of walking, with only a few spots where we had to huff and puff to climb down toward the water, and then back up. Throughout the walk, the lighthouse at Godrevy Point was in view, as was a small sailboat running parallel to our path well out to sea, running downwind with only his mainsail up. When we finally got to the point, everyone stopped to take pictures, and enjoy the view for a moment before continuing on.

As we rounded the point, we saw the astounding beach, the longest and widest beach I had ever seen, a continuous stretch of beach more than three miles long, and probably a quarter of a mile wide — for scale, note the RNLI truck in the picture. We stopped just around Godrevy Point at a cafe for lunch — and, for some of us, ice cream!

After lunch, we elected to walk along the beach rather than on the path just above it. The tide was out, and walking on the beach was easier, we thought. It was a long walk on the sometimes soft sand, and we reached the end of the beach, and the town of Hayle, just as the tide returned. We walked on into town to the White Hart hotel, built in 1838.

At dinner that night, the hiking group was joined by Ian's wife Lynn, Jill and her partner Des, and Alex's sister Pam with her husband John. We met for drinks at 6:30, ordered dinner at 7:30, and continued eating and talking for two hours or so, celebrating the end of the walk. Tomorrow we will spend the night in St. Ives, but spend the day doing different cultural activities in the area.

The adventure continues — but not for long!










L-R: Jill, Ian, Wilf, Tristan, John, Sally





Sally and Jill

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