Hiking Without Supervision

The first five miles today were along the Camel Trail which follows the River Camel. Weather was cool and overcast, but no rain thankfully.

As we made our way into Padstow, it was packed with tourists. I think it was the last day of the Easter holiday and everyone was making the best of it before having to go back to work and school. After a breakfast of coffee and bacon butty, we took the ferry from Padstow to Rock to continue on the coastal path. I was curious how the ferry was going to get from one side to the other as the tide was out and it was mostly mud flats.

Once across the river, we headed along what we thought was the coastal path but was actually just trails that people had made through the dunes. A person could get lost in those dunes though.. I’m talking mountains of sand, some soft, some hard. But we plodded along for many miles passing people out with their dogs, all looking at us like we were mad for carrying these ridiculous packs.

Note to self: learn how to insert video. Pictures don’t do justice to what I am seeing.

Experienced my first rope assisted climb today. The people that maintain this trail don’t believe in switchbacks, so climbs are basically straight up.

Because we decided to book accommodations for this first part of the trip, we have to reach villages where we can catch a bus to where we will be staying that night. Today we made it by minutes. We had to truly hurry up and down cliff faces and through fields of mud and cow-dookie. Once we reached the village we thought we could breathe and wait for the bus. Oh no, the bus stops at the top of the village, the very top of the village. We made it with minutes to spare. (Last bus of the day on Sunday).

So that’s us in a little fishing village called Boscastle. We went to the pub for something to eat and were entertained by some of the men who spontaneously started singing several sea shanty (again I need video).