The Southwest Coast Path, Cornwall, England, 2015 by Linden B. (Lindy) Sisk

Day Four - Morwenstow to Bude

Please remember each picture is a link to a larger version.

This day was a shorter day - it was a walk of about 7 miles, with 4200 feet of up and down. We are getting stronger, and more used to the climbing up and down. Wilf mentioned at dinner that no one complains about the physical difficulties, or anything else. I suspect that's because people who are unused to exertion and discomfort don't even contemplate a trip like this.

We started with a taxi ride from Hartland Quay back to Morwenstow, where we had stopped the day before, and began walking on another beautiful day. We always say that Tristan, who organizes these trips, has the ability to order good weather, and that seems to be the case on this trip, as June in England is often a wet and rainy month.

As always, the scenery along the coast was fantastic! We also walked by the GCHQ Monitoring Station, which I supposed we were not supposed to notice was there, as photography was forbidden by signs along the double razor wire fences with CCTV cameras mounted on every pole.

An interesting feature of the path are "kissing gates", which are set up to allow human transit without a gate which could be left open to allow animals in the pastures to escape. A tradition is that if you are walking with your sweetie, you must kiss them on either side of the gate, as Tristan and Alex are so kindly demonstrating in the photo below.

Bude is as beach town vacation destination, and as we got closer, we saw more people. The beaches are very nice looking, and long. The water, though, is cold - 54 degrees F. today, according the the Bude web site. But there was one hardy surfer out in the waves as we walked by, but evidently the lifeguards did not like the surf conditions, or perhaps where he was, as they called him to exit the water.

We got in unusually early, about 1:30 PM, and our rooms were not ready, nor had our luggage arrived, so we had drinks and pizza in the hotel restaurant. The pizza was excellent!

I even got in a short nap and a shower afterwards, then Wilf, Ian, and I walked up the hill to the Sainsbury store to get provisions for lunch tomorrow, which is Sunday.

We went to dinner at Hebasca, a restaurant recommended by my friend Terry Hibben, who lives with his family a few miles away. The restaurant was excellent - I had a dish called "Peri-Peri Chicken", and it was very good. Several of the others had hamburgers, which were huge, and said to be excellent. Then it was back to the hotel, and to bed.

Some of the rocks look like asphalt

Start of another long descent, and another long climb up

Kissing gate

Alex and Tristan demonstrating...

Surfer exiting the water

GCHQ Monitoring Station

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