Journal:
I got up at
7am after a bad night's sleep caused by pain in my
bad knee, but was determined to see if reaching Bude
today was possible. I left the Hostel after
saying my goodbyes and walked the short distance to
the ruins of Tintagel castle. The knee felt
better walking than lying in bed! It's
supposed to cost money to visit the castle ruins,
but the gate was open and nobody was around at that
hour of the morning. According to legend it's
the location of Camelot and the Knights of the Round
Table, but apparently this is not verified. I
had been here before, so didn't spend much time
looking around. The castle has a spectacular
location and the morning sunshine showed it to best
effect. I continued on with the idea of
reaching Boscastle for breakfast, but found it was a
bit further than I thought and the path continued to
be slow and hard walking, though the views made up
for it.
I reached the Boscastle
Harbour, which was a geological wonder, protected by
rocky crags and stacks, and with some neat
blowholes, at about 10am. My body already felt
pretty beaten up. My feet hurt and I was stiff
and tired from the big day yesterday. Making
Bude seemed unlikely. I ordered a Cornish
pastie and a coffee at the National Trust cafe from
a very friendly guy and started eating and updating
yesterday's diary which I hadn't had time to do last
night. The guy suggested I move to another
table with a power point nearby so I could charge my
laptop and was interested in my trip. He later
asked for my website URL because he apparently
looked after a National Trust website and wanted to
put a link to mine from there.
I left at about 11:15am
with the goal of reaching Crackington Haven for
lunch. Although a little revived by my
breakfast, the long climb out of Boscastle soon
brought back all of the aches and pains. The
Path continually climbed steeply to the top of high
bluffs, often with challenging high steps, followed
the cliff-tops for a kilometre or so, then descended
just as steeply. The eroded and craggy
seascape was spectacular, and once again there were
abundant wildflowers. There were quite a few
other people out hiking, including one 78yo Dutch
couple I encountered coming the other way on one of
the steep descents. I was a bit worried about
them. The woman was moving very slowly, but
seemed to be coping.
I reached Crackington
Haven at exactly 2:30pm which turned out to be the
time the pub stopped serving lunch. The
barmaid took pity and rushed out to the kitchen to
see if anything was still available. The
Sunday roast was off, but they produced a very nice,
if a little pricey, meal of fish and chips. I
left there at 3:15pm, undecided about how much
further I would get, though very doubtful about
reaching Bude, even though the last few kilometres
were supposed to be a bit easier. Unfortunately,
lunch was followed by two more monster climbs and
descents, and my pace was very slow. I decided
to call it a day around 6pm on top of the last bluff
for the day, in what was likely to be the last place
I would be able to free camp before Bude. I
was camped nearer a minor road than I would have
liked, but otherwise the spot is nice enough, if a
little cold as I type this. By camping here, I
had to forgo dinner (not carrying any food or drink
at all), but I'm OK and will reach Bude pretty early
tomorrow. I can see it in the distance from my
eagle's eerie. Apparently, I'm in for another
tough day tomorrow, with not many resupply or
accommodation places after Bude. Hopefully,
I'll have a better night's sleep and a longer rest
than last night.