Bude to Boscastle

10 September 2009 - Bude to Boscastle

Distance - 16.75 miles

Weather - Bright & sunny

We stayed at - The Wellington Hotel, The Harbour, Boscastle, Cornwall, PL35 0AQ Cost - £114.00

We left Bude on another beautiful sunny autumn day. For the last two days the Hartland Quay Hotel had taken care of our baggage transfers, but today we were far enough round the SWCP to use Luggage Transfers South West, who subsequently took care of our luggage all the way to Lands End. It was a new venture for them and I hoped their kindness and willingness to please was rewarded by a substantial growth in customers. The lady in their office had been great, phoning me each time they were able to add a bit more of the coast path to their repertoire. To address the balance, I gave their name and number to a few walkers I saw struggling with full and heavy rucksacks, who I know then went on to use the service. Some people feel getting your luggage transferred is cheating, but I checked mine and Al's rules and nothing was being contravened! To be honest, I don't think I would have been able to complete today's section with a full pack.

We left Bude by walking alongside the Bude Canal until we reached the restored sea lock, where we headed off to Compass Point. Here we stopped to look at the Storm Tower, which is apparently a copy of the Temple of the Winds at Athens.

We carried on across the cliff tops until we started a gradual descent into Widemouth Bay. The water looked beautiful, glittering in the sunshine and there were already a couple of surfers out on the sea. For a brief time, near Penhalt Cliff, we had to take to the road, as the coast path had disappeared following landslips.

Although the weather was gorgeous this particular day, the wind sculptured trees near Drizzard gave us some idea of what it must be like when there is bad weather.

We walked past Cleave Strand and soon came to Crackington Haven. The photo I've attached will show you why this area is so popular with geology students. For Al and myself, it was a place to rest and watch the families run in and out of the sea. For the first part of this day's walk, the coast path was quite easy with gentle descents and ascents, but as the day progressed the path became progressively more difficult - everything became more steep and there was a lot more climbing up and down. I started to need to stop far more often, even though I knew it was a long way to Boscastle and we should really trot on.

We came across some more feral goats, who showed off by bounding away at great speed. There was no need as I was certainly not going to chase after them!

Finally we swung round a valley and crossed a footbridge above a waterfall and reached Penally Point. A few minutes later we got our first view of Boscastle glittering in the evening sun. I was completely shattered by the time we reached our hotel room, which was absolutely gorgeous. This was the second and final "tour" hotel. We had a bar meal and retired early to our room.