The recognised walk in this area is from St Ives to Pendeen Watch but because of the G7 conference and also that the walk is classed as severe and 13.7 miles long we decided to split the walk and spend the first 3 days walking from Gurnards Head back to Penzance.
Fiona drove us to Treen by the Gurnards Head Hotel about half a mile inland from Gurnards Head, but she dropped us off further down the lane towards Gurnards Head much to the annoyance of a local who quite rightly was concerned to protect their properties from illegal parking at peak periods. Here we had the obligatory TeamSWCP start of week photo ...
Gurnards Head is so named because of its similarity to the shape of the fish, but it does depend from which side the head is viewed and not all of us agreed with the similarity particularly those who had never seen the named fish!
At Commando Ridge we wondered whether Justine's dad had done some climbing there as he was a climbing instructor in the Royal Marines. We searched all over for a supposed plaque but could not find it, although later we did read the SWCP brochure more closely to discover that it was on the opposite side of the ridge. There were a number of climbers at various points on the ridge (see top right) - rather them than me!
After 3hrs of very strenuous walking with rocky paths most of the way we arrived at the lighthouse at Pendeen Watch. Here, by the wall of the lighthouse property we met a group of very well spoken people just packing up their lunch break and who enquired as to whether DavidL was a botanist as they had discovered a single yellow orchid like flower. I mused over it in a professional manner without coming to a conclusion and they left us to settle down for our snap (lunch).
As we were all walking in shorts (as we were all week) Justine was fidgeting around mithering about the prickly grass and eventually sat on her light top for protection only to discover when she got up as a result of being bitten that she had sat on a nest of red ants! Oh, we did laugh.
The walking from Pendeen Watch to Cape Cornwall was much easier on mainly level paths through old Cornish mine workings including the classic view of the Crowns Engine House. After DavidA (aka David Bailey) had spent ages getting the best view, note that Justine could not resist a bit of photo bombing AGAIN...
It was along this part of the route that we spotted some weird pinky strands covering some of the gorse bushes. Our resident botanist (aka David Bellamy) was put on the case and pronounced that it was Common Dodder, a parasite that grows on gorse bushes. Thereafter for the rest of week it was a common sight wherever we went.
At Cape Cornwall Fiona was there to greet us and ferry us to a local pub in St Just for a well earned first day drink or two before driving us back to the house, via of course the drive-through Costa in Penzance for Justine to have her daily fix of hot chocolate and cream. By the end of the week we were all proficient at ordering this special drink.