Wednesday 2nd May: Weather: 9°C to 13°C: Sunny all day with a col north wester behind our right shoulder
Sennen to Lamorna: 21.5k walk: 8hrs 45mins: 9.15am to 6.00pm Ascent 1000 metres
Accommodation: Lamorna Cove Hotel
Sennen to Lamorna
CLeaving Sennen Rise
Costcutters Sennen for bread
Looking back at Cape Cornwall
Lands End in background
Approaching Lands End
Many a shipwreck at Lands End
Disastrous rocks and lighthouse
Cold and Windy at Lands End
Amusement centre sells doughnuts
Most westerly point in England
Wild surf, sea spray and cliff walk
There’s a seal out there
Boulders, beach and blue ocean
Morning tea behind stone wall
Clotted cream, jam, fresh bread
Fabulous seascape
Minack Theatre at Porthcurno
Amazing ampi theatre in cliff face
School kids perform at Minack
Terraced stone/grass seating
Blue Ocean for stage background
Porthcurno beach
Rowena Cade’s Mannick house
Lunch at Porthcurno
Coves, headlands and gorse bushes
Strange subtropical valley
Didn’t see this sign at the start
Lamorna Cove around teh corner
Lamorna Cove Hotel at last
A stunning spectacular day with so many highlights. First off, just 1 mile along from Sennen Cove, is Land’s End, the iconic most westerly point in England. To tell the truth there’s nothing there except the expensive Land’s End Hotel and a mini amusement park with kids entertainment, souvenirs galore and iced doughnuts. Then there were several coves with seals bobbing about, but the real highlight of the day was the Minack Theatre, an ampi theatre cut into the cliff face, where many famous artists appear on the stage. Truly an amazing site and rightfully thronging with tourists like us.
We awake at 6am and the rain has stopped. Better still, 30 minutes later after a cup of tea, the sun is shining brilliantly. A few phone calls and emails, then breakfast at 8am. A lovely spread of museli, home made bread, and a traditional English breakfast which we duly pack into our container for tonight at our self contained apartment in Lamorna.
It's all blue skies when we leave Sennen Rise at 9am and stop at the Costcutters to see if the fresh bread has arrived. Yes, it’s in. Ten minutes later we’re walking out with fresh bread, butter, clotted cream and cheese. There’s still a 1k walk back down the public footpath to Sennen Cove before joining the coast track to Land’s End. There;s a few tourists already walking - Sennen Cove and Sennen are the closest villages to Land’s End and most tourists will spend the night in one or the other and walk to Land’s End. It’s a cool 9°C and really windy as we make our way along the well trodden tourist path. When we get to Land’s End, there’s no tourists at the lookout platform, nut plenty at the amusement centre either eating or buying souvenirs.
We don’t stay long. It’s too cold and windy, but amazingly as soon as we turn the corner, we’re walking with the wind behind us. There’s a few coves with seals bobbing around, and for the next hour we’re seal spotting and watching them play in the white raging waters. It’s warm walking but cold as soon as we stop. By 11.30am, we’ve found a stone wall to shelter behind for morning tea - coffee with a chunk of our fresh bread, clotted cream and jam. Then to another Poldark setting, the little cove of Porthgwarra where there’s dozens of people at a popular cafe.
The track is fairly easy, not too rough and not too much up and down and about 1pm we’re walking into the car park of the Minack Theatre. There’s no sign of the theatre, but there is an entrance to it through a gift shop for £5 each. I can say it was a most fabulous experience to walk through the display centre explaining the origins of the theatre from the 1930’s when Rowena Cade began building the terraces and stage. Stone by stone the ampi theatre was built into teh cliff face descending down to the stage above the water. It has to be seen to be believed - better than any Roman ampi theatre and mostly the work of one woman, Rowena Cade. It’s so fascinating we stay and hour wandering around an watching a group of school children present a play. We had thought about a stop over in Porthcurno last night and attending that show but were pleased we didn’t as it rained and blew a gale all night. The setting was made even more spectacular by the absolutely stunning blue sky day.
At 2pm, it’s time to move on. We still have another 10k to Lamorna. Down to Porthcurno beach then up the cliff on the other side where there’s a seat with a perfect view of the Minack Headland and the stone house built by Rowena Cade for her family in 1921.
The track winds it’s way through overgrown grass and bushes to Penberth cove, a pretty inlet with a few fishing boats and half a dozen cottages. It’s so peaceful except for the surf. There’s a seal bobbing about and we chat to an English couple from Plymouth on holidays who are just sitting in the sun out of the wind watching the seal. Further around the cliffs there’s more coves and more seals - usually just one seal at a time.
The path becomes rugged - really tough. Not just stone hopping, boulder climbing, with long stretches of very overgrown track. We begin to wonder if we’re on the Coast Path, as there’s very few signs. The track emerges into a sub tropical valley with trees and steams and a few pretty cottages at St Loy. But then the track becomes even more overgrown and the boulders become bigger. For an hour we’re doing a gym workout, hopping and scrambling until we finally arrive at Lamorna Cove, a pretty inlet with blue wheltered waters. There’s a sign at the end of the track warning that the coast path is strenuous, uneven and close to cliff edges - now they tell us. There was no sign when we started an hour ago.
There’s still 1k to walk uphill to the Lamorna Cove Hotel, which is very much deserted. We’ve been given directions to pick up the key from the security coded box by email. Our room is a self contained studio with everything we need and it’s warm when we walk in. There’s a lovely view out over Lamorna Cove and while I unpack, Ian walks a few hundred metres back to the Lamorna Wink Hotel to buy a few cold beers which we have with some bikkies and cheese. There’s a washing machine, and a good time to wash everything we’ve worn for the past 6 days since Newquay.
Dinner is this morning's sausages and bacon reheated in the microwave with another beer, watching another guest test the swimming pool water before diving in - he must have been dared for sure. The water would have been 10°C, as it’s been in the shade all day. Time to spread out our washing to dry and blog for a while after another long tough day - but quite spectacular.