Day 9 - Lower Longbeak (Widemouth Bay) to Crackington Haven (14.8 miles return)

Hello again, I'm back on the North Coast and, once today is finished I'll have walked from Devon to Boscastle along the coast path (a total of 53.6 miles return).

Starting at the Northern end of Widemouth Bay, I get out of my car and am almost knocked over by the first gust of wind! On the plus side, the wind is blowing from behind me all the way to Crackington Haven, but the flip side is coming back, when I'll be more tired, it'll be in my face. Let's hope it eases and that the rain it's bringing stays away until around 4PM!

Today's walk starts very gently for the first mile and a half, as the picture above shows, and with a few minor exceptions is only moderately difficult going for the first four and a half miles. Being the North coast though, it makes you pay over the remaining three and a quarter miles!

Three steep sided combes with steps into and out of them soon getting me back to the "why am I doing this?" question. The answer as we all know is to try and raise some money for the Royal British Legion. A worthy cause, but standing in a supermarket shaking a bucket would be simpler!

Rounding the last of these combes, the 400ft Pencannow point, the path leads steeply down into Crackington Haven.

I make my way from Crackington Haven off the coast path, slightly to visit the Church of St. Genny's. A church has been here since the 11th century and the view from the Churches Graveyard is beautiful, across fields and wooded combes to the sea. I sit and drink some water and munch an energy bar. I could of taken a picture, but thought it would be a more appreciated view if you wandered here yourself dear reader.

Making my way back to Lower Longbeak, I rested often, despite the ever increasing threat of rain.

The path leads through the only remaining wood of stunted sessile oaks in Cornwall, the bark of these trees were used extensively in the tanning process and that, coupled with coastal gales, has put paid to the rest.

The rain eventually comes when I am about one and a half miles from my car, initially hard enough to force me to put the 'non waterproof waterproof' on (readers of the BLOG written during my remembrance walk will perhaps be shocked that I still haven't replaced this!), the rain let up nicely and allowed me to get back to my car only slightly damp. Once in the car the rain became biblical for the majority of the hour and a quarter drive home.

So, let's summarise where we are in this venture - The boots have given up the ghost almost completely, the waterproof isn't waterproof, the weather for the next few days is not looking good and, to round things off, the company I did occasional days work for before lock-down, have telephoned and would like me to start working again from next week!

From Monday I'll have 47 days left until the end of July, my Cornish Coast path walkers guide is broken down into sections, of which I'll have 52 approx. 5 mile sections left - no time there for working!

I will have to have a re-plan of this walk though. Doing the coast in order is OK, but some of the sections are massive if you want to be able to park at each end (so as to be able to do return trips).

On June 20th, Football starts again and my beloved Charlton have nine games to avoid the drop (I can't attend, but as a season ticket holder I can stream the games for free, so there's 5 Saturdays that I have to be back by 3pm.

Thanks to all that have donated so far, £118.70 from five donors and another donor who has promised to double that, so £237.40 raised so far. If you can give please do, Cheques, Cash or BACS can be accepted, contact me for the details.