Oh no! Woke with beginnings of a cold! The joints & muscles of the body feeling strong, but that icky, headachey cold-y sensation threatens to derail me now. Nothing for it though, but to drink lots of orange juice at the fab hotel breakfast (delicious eggs Benedict), and head up the hill back to the cliff tops. Turns out that very fresh air blowing at 30mph with gusts of 45 is great to flush out any cold symptoms! Completed a long 14.1 mile day in 9hrs. 8 for walking and 1 spent in the pub in Trebarwith Strand staring out at the ocean while eating my second amazing meal of the day and toasting our progress over a fancy spritzer drink.

Today was tough, but I think I’m adapting to being on my feet all day, maneuvering along a rocky, hilly trail. I start slow, but at some point I realize that my whole body has dialed it in and every part is doing its job: breathing, heart pumping, muscles flexing & stretching, skin adjusting to changing temperatures of the inclines and the cloud cover, eyes and ears engaged, spine tall and moving in sync with arms and legs - I am amazed at the machine of my body and how it keeps me moving safely forward. These ascents and descents are no joke. According to the guidebook we ascended a total of 3800ft today, and each one of the down to the water and up again (there were 11 of them) took an average of 800 steps to climb back to the cliffs.

The wind was a little scary blowing so hard. Fortunately, it was at our backs much of the time. Sometimes it blew from the side, but fortunate again that it was blowing onshore; the path was uncomfortably close to the edge, and there were plenty of signs and reminders in the guide book that the cliffs here are notorious for collapsing. I did get knocked to my knees a few times, even with using my poles to stabilize myself.

As usual, though, it was a beautiful day. Rain was forecasted but it held off, just a little spitting here and there. Wore my sunglasses most of the route. This was a more remote section of the SWCP, and there were plenty of warning signs for this too, that there was no access to roads for x amount of miles: “take caution”. Highlights of the day: baby bluebells just about to unfurl, Norman (1080) St. Materianna Church that sheltered us for a bit so Kimberly could do some pack readjustments (love it that they take contactless payment for donations!), the Cornish Celtic crosses in the churchyard, the tip from the ice-cream seller in Tintagel to find Bronze Age labyrinths carved into a hillside up Rocky Valley 2 miles further along the coast path, having to divert from a field of very large cows to a field of sheep whom we scared into a cacophony of baa-ing, and ocean spray that was being blown up the steep valleys that looked just like snowflakes falling upwards. Sadly Impossible to get a photos of the last two.

Walking into Boscastle and making our way to the youth hostel was another delight. It absolutely charmed our exhausted selves, so we dumped our packs and immediately headed out to explore its lanes. No surprise we found the Cobweb Inn pub quickly, and after ordering a Guinness (I needed something stronger this evening than a shandy!) I dug into my Ploughman’s. We deserved three of the best meals today!