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Monday 20 April 2020

SWCP Day 15: Into the Wild

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Day 15

Crackington Haven to Tintagel
Approx. 11.5 miles, 1,065m ascent
26,272 steps


During the night the wind whipped up until it was gusting at about 50mph. We were very glad of our sheltered corner of the campsite, but the wind and rain still woke us through the night. In the morning we hunkered in the shelter of the campsite kitchen to make tea and breakfast, and debated whether it would be a good idea for me to continue to walk with such high winds. As it was blowing on shore I decided to go ahead, and to cut inland if the path looked too close to the edge. We planned to stay at the same campsite for another night, so I got away quite promptly without any packing required. Mum wisely decided to give the morning walk a miss, and we arrange to meet in Tintagel in the afternoon. 

I set out into the wet and blustery weather and very shortly came across the American couple from the day before, who had decided to turn back due to the high winds. Feeling like I was perhaps being very foolish in carrying on, I headed out to the lonely cliffs, and suddenly crossed paths with a magnificent fox, going about its business. For some reason this helped settle my nerves, and after cutting inland a little at the first headland to avoid the cliff edge, I wasn’t worried about being in any danger. As predicted, the strong wind was blowing straight inland, so I wasn’t at any risk of being blown over the edge. A lot of the path was also set a little in land in a peculiar landscape of scrubby rockiness in amongst old collapsed cliffs. I really enjoyed the mysterious terrain, and it felt properly like Cornwall.

Wild scrubby cliffs

I’m surprised looking back at the stats for this day that it was so much ascent, as I remember it being a very enjoyable and fairly easy-going walk. I’m apparently well-suited to wet and wild weather, much more so than hot sunshine! The roaring sea and blasting winds just made me feel extremely ALIVE and full of energy. The huge cliffs and spectacular wild Cornish coastline also helped to speed the walking along. At Pentargon, cliffs formed a deep sheer-sided inlet, with waves crashing and roaring in and out of the caves below, the path scrambled up the sliced rock, with gulls wheeling in the space in between.

Foals utterly unfazed by the roaring sea below

The view coming into Boscastle was magnificent, and with the sea whipped up below, the narrow harbour entrance looked like an impossible route to the calm waters inside. I dropped down the hillside from the headland and found the NT cafe for some lunch and a warm-up. It was surprisingly busy in the village, considering I hadn’t seen a soul since the American couple first thing in the morning. I was pleased to see the village was in very good shape and had clearly bounced back from the horrendous floods that had washed it away in 2004.

Boscastle harbour

After a good hot bowl of soup and the obligatory hot chocolate (was it really mid June?!), I wasted a bit of time browsing the extensive gift shop, then headed back out into the wild once more. The path quickly climbed back up out of the valley, then followed some slightly gentler cliffs, still with spectacular views of the craggy islands just offshore. At Rocky valley the path descended, finally out of the wind for a brief moment. I had been here before many years ago with some friends; at the wooded head of the valley there are some ruins with strange and possibly ancient symbols carved into the rock, the mystical pull of Tintagel not far off. The valley is extremely pretty, and dotted with rockfalls and waterfalls that the path picks its way around, and back out the other side. 

Lookout above Boscastle
Craggy coastline, wild seas

A mile or so further on and I spotted Tintagel. The wind was absolutely howling, having built and built through the afternoon, so I cut off the final headland and headed straight into the village to meet Mum. Tintagel is certainly a strange place, it is a bit over-commercialised, trying too hard to sell the King Arthur legend, with every other business having some sort of related name. We quickly escaped and headed back to the campsite at Crackington Haven, and after a shower and a change into dry clothes went back to the same pub as the previous night, as the food had been so excellent. 

After dinner we made use of the lovely TV room at the campsite, grateful to be out of the weather for the evening. Shortly after, we were joined by the only other campers on the site. The couple were also hikers, but on a somewhat more epic mission, walking all the way from Lands End to John O’Groats. We compared notes, and they spread their maps out over the table to plan their next day, as the route-planning was slightly more technical than my approach of just keeping the sea on my righthand side. They were also keen to get off the coast path as they weren’t enjoying the massive amount of ascents and descents! I followed their blog over the next few weeks, and was pleased to see they made it to the end in August, completing the route in 81 days.
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