Final South Walk: Coverack to The Lizard

Sunday July 19th: Today was the final leg of my 630 mile mission to walk the whole of the SW coast Path - not in one go, but in stages throughout the year. I had started it on the weekend of August 8th, 2008, and committed myself to completing it within my 50th birthday year. Unusually, I had decided to walk it from both the start and the finish in opposite directions - finishing at The Lizard which is near enough halfway. Also raised some money for the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation along the way!

For my last day of walking, I had been joined by my friends Jeff and Marie Weeks and we stayed overnight at Cadgwith, a small fishing cove nr the Lizard on the Saturday. I had explained to J & M, that apart from just finishing the walk- I was also on a mission to see Dolphins, which had been noticeably absent on the previous 618 odd miles of walking. AND having just missed seeing a Cornish Chough near Lands End, and subsequently finding out a bit more about them ( they are birds!) - I knew there was a breeding pair on the Lizard somewhere - SO - that was the second mission - "Spot the Chough" Eyes would be peeled!

The first problem was to organise transport - the Bus Services were limited particularly as it was a Sunday. In the end, it was easier all round to get a Taxi from the Lizard to Coverack, our starting point and leave Jeff's car at The Lizard.

It was a relatively short stint of 10-12 miles to be walked, but with a fair few ups and downs. Jeff and Marie weren't regular walkers, but were looking forward to getting a bit of a taste of the Coast path. (Marie had packed enough goodies for an assault on Everest - but we were glad of it later!)

Meanwhile, we had had a hearty full English at the Cadgwith Cove inn which needed to be walked off. I had last ended my walk at Coverack at the Paris Hotel near the harbour on Dolor Point, so this was where we started from. It was a lovely sunny day - but forecast for a few showers later.
After a quick bladder check we set off in tandem, with Jeff setting a cracking pace at the front.

The path climbed steeply out of Coverack and then followed the cliff around to Perprean Cove and onto the rocky outcrop of Chynalls Point. It was good walking weather, not too hot but very windy. The views were good as we headed towards Black Head, with it's disused Coastguard look-out hut and then ascended steeply into Downas Valley. Our first target destination was Kennack Sands which would be about our halfway point and a good place for a coffee stop. So far, so good - after a few miles, Jeff and Marie were still blisterless, both had dodgy joints to look after - Jeff with his knee, still recuperating after keyhole surgery last year and Marie with her Netball Ankle injury!

As we approached Kennack Sands across the gorse and heather of Eastern Cliff - the clouds gathered ominously. There are two beaches at Kennack - North and South and by the time we approached the Southern beach, the one with the cafe's it was raining quite heavily. Fortunately after a nice coffee break, the rain had passed and it was onward and upward.

We soon reached a little place called Poltesco and Carlean Cove which used to have a thriving Pilchard fishery. In the 1860's some of the fish cellars were converted into a factory for producing ornamental products form the local rock, Serpentine. At one point up to 20 people were employed and products were taken by barge to ships in the bay for distribution. The old buildings are now owned by the NT.
We were now not far from Cadgwith Cove where we had stayed the previous night. As we passed around Enys Head - we met a group of 6 wild Ponies. One of them made a bee-line for us and seemed intent on following us. Marie shot off like Usain Bolt with Jeff in pursuit. I tried to halt the beast with a pat on the nose - he was just after some of the goodies in our backpacks, but we fooled him with a pincer movement in opposite directions and he lost interest.

We soon got a good view of Cadgwith Cove from an old Coastguards Watchouse at the head of the bay. It is a very picturesque village with thatched cottages and working fishing boats on the beach.


Cadgwith Cove
We were ready for another pit stop so stopped for a quick snifter at the Cadgwith Cove Hotel and sat out in the sun watching the bizarre sight of a girl with bright pink hair, tiny tight shorts and fishnet tights who was part of a group on a cycling trip! My attempts to take a sneaky photo ( just for this blog) were thwarted. Leaving Cadgwith, tucking in to Marie's sandwiches - we passed by the unusual collapsed cave known as Devil's Frying Pan with it's bridge shaped inlet and then for the next mile or so, the path was quite open - and we had clear views of the Lighthouse complex at The Lizard.

The next point of interest was Church Cove, another former Pilchard Fishery which had been converted into spectacular private dwellings with a superb setting nestled into the cove.
Around the next point was Kilcobben Cove, the dramatic setting of the Lizard Lifeboat with steep rails carrying the lifeboatmen down to the boat in carriages.

Still no signs of Dolphins or Choughs, although there had been a few false alarms with the odd distant Raven being mistaken. Choughs,are black but have distinctive red beaks and red legs and an unusual high pitched chi-ow call.

At Bass Point, where there was a large Coastguard station, it didn't look as if we had far to go - Lizard Point being just the other end of the large Housel Bay. Overlooking the bay, was the superbly situated Housel Bay Hotel which looked inviting. As we traversed across a wide open area heading towards the lighthouse complex, Marie suddenly piped up - " look - Chough's" I glanced up, expecting to see just about anything vaguely black with feathers except a Chough, but to my astonishment, 3 black birds with red beaks and legs were flying at high speed across the low cliffs below us. I grabbed my camera, but they were gone in an instant. Well, what could I say, they had made an appearance right on cue - we were only 20 minutes away from the Lizard - now, where were those Dolphins!

The next walkers we bumped into, I excitedly told them about the Choughs, but I probably just sounded like some eccentric twitcher.

We reached the edge of the lighthouse Complex and then just a bit further on around the corner we got our first glimpse of the rather shabby looking Lizard Point. Disappointingly, there was the distinctive choking smell of raw sewage pervading the area and looking down you could see the sea tinged with brown. I found it unbelievable that they could let that happen in such a landmark area - particularly on such an occasion - ie the grand finish of my walk! I would have liked to have collected a sample in Marie's tupperware sandwich container and posted it 1st class to the Head of Cornish County Council!
We reached the Point, a collection of small buldings all claiming to be the most Southerly - gift shop, cafe and National Trust office.

The walk was over - 630 miles done and dusted - photos were taken, but I was more interested in getting my laughing gear around another Cream tea. Not even the whiff of human effluent could put us off and we sat in the sun and tucked into Scones, cream and homemade meringue.

It had been a good day's walk, the promised rain never came to anything, and it was good to finish in bright sunshine. Finishing the whole thing was always going to be a bit of an anti-climax, but it was nice to have had some company at the end. All in all, I was quite Choughed!