Day 2 - Hayle to Zennor

On 26th April 2017 Linda and I decided to walk the easier route of Hayle to St Ives a meagre 5.6 miles, this was mainly due to the fact that yesterdays excursion had taken it out of me and I needed to be broken in gently again.
However as you can see, as we reached St Ives by lunchtime, we decided to continue on, doing what is known as one of the most severe stretches St Ives to Zennor, another 9 miles.

Hayle started badly with lots of wrong turns in the main streets until we found an acorn sign (SW Coastal Walk Sign) on the exterior of the town.
I noticed an elder gentleman dressed like most walkers and looking as lost as we were.
I asked him if he was on the Coastal walk and if he knew which way to go, in his American accent he replied that he was and he had hoped we knew the way and was going to follow us.
We walked with him for about 3 to 4 miles, he had given himself the trip from Texas as an 80th birthday present and so far had walked from Minehead.  He was meeting his family on 8th June hopefully at the finish in Poole. He did take a photo of Linda and I so we actually have a photo together.

Yes that is his thumb but at 80 yrs old, I was happy we were in it.

Hayle Footpath had sprung a leak.

Once on the correct path the route was easy and flat walking around the estuary.

Walking through Lelant village was nice although too early for the one pub I spotted.

Gate sign that caught our attention.

Tree house in one of the lovely cottages in Lelant.

We then followed the gentle path between the Railway and the beaches.

Approaching St Ives

1st time I had seen a Love Lock, nice idea.

Dreaming of a pub.

Eventually after false hope of thinking we were in St Ives but realising we were in Carbis Bay, we got to St Ives.
Food and Drink were our 1st thoughts...well mine anyway.
As we were in Cornwall it was only right to have a Pasty.

Very nice it was.

 Then off to the pub, I choose the Sloop inn (http://www.sloop-inn.co.uk/) and was not disappointed by the ale choice, I choose the Dartmoor Ale 4%. But only the one as Linda and I decided to break the back of the Big one. The walk that is deemed the hardest of the SWCW. St Ives to Pendeen Lighthouse is listed as 13.9 miles of the hardest terrain. They also mentioned there are no rest stops on route, so liquids and food should be taken. But they did mention if you venture inland at Zennor there is a Pub. By my calculations it was about 4 miles away. (1st mistake).

Porthgwidden Beach as we left St Ives.

A rain storm that thankfully missed us.

Well this was a very hard walk which I had totally underestimated the distance, it ended up being another 9 miles of hard terrain,
Amazing scenery but my legs and body ached, when we reached the Tinners Arms I was way to tired to consider photos. I guess Linda was the same.
http://tinnersarms.com/
The Landlady could see we were tired, when we told he we had walked from Hayle she was shocked and stated she had never heard of someone doing that much in a day, made me feel slightly proud then I felt stupid with the amount of pain I was in,
The Landlady offered a pint of water before the beer which I downed in no time, one, because I was thirsty and two, because the choice of beer was alluring.
They had 5 tipples of which I managed to get a taster of each, settling with the Boilers Cornish Golden Ale 4%, two pints went down well. Linda had a unusual Gin with an Elder-flower tonic after a Cornish Lager.
I could barely walk after a meal and struggled to move at all for anything (Linda didn't notice any difference)...lol.
Although I did manage to walk (hobble) to the Bluff Inn from the Holiday park with Luke to watch the Tottenham Vs Crystal Palace game and have 2 pints of Hobgoblin one of my favourite ales.

A very tired and aching couple, but proud that we had accomplished a good portion of the hardest path.

Day 3 to follow.......