|
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.
|
