Back at Cape Cornwall today for another tough up and down boulder strewn walk to the Minack Theatre at Porthcurno to meet Fiona for a tour of the Minack Theatre. The immediate view when looking at Cape Cornwall from the car park is of the Brisons - those of a certain age were able to see an image of General de Gaulle?
The first objective was to Sennon Cove which Justine remembered visiting with her parents many years ago, but not before we passed some amazing bays and headlands such as this one near Aire Point...
Sennon Cove, on the day we visited, did not overly impress us, apart from DavidL who appeared to be distracted when walking along the sea front by a pair of wobbly bottoms (photo not included for family viewing reasons!). We decided to push on quickly to Lands End but not before we stopped to eat lunch near the NT Lookout at Penn-men-du just above Sennon Cove. Here we spotted an interesting rock formation and again thought of Justine's dad and wondered whether this was where he did some of his climbing training and instructing.
The rock is called The Irish Lady but it turned out to not be one that Ernie had climbed. Justine contacted her dad who confirmed that he did his climbing nearer Lands End, but also at Sennon, and sent her a picture of him doing his "Pass In" test many years ago in order to be able to do the Royal Marines Climbing course.
Amazing. Subsequently as the lead instructor, if a candidate refused the jump then they could not join the course, if they chose to jump and didn't make it then .......
Moving on, we passed Lands End, very quickly as it is VERY touristy ...
... and reached our next stop at Porthgwarra, a very attractive fishing cove with a lovely small refreshment shop selling ice creams and hot chocolate with whipped cream!
It wasn't that the Davids were not talking to each other by now but rather that DavidA was trying to draw attention to the fact that Justine was trying to take a photo!
The final bit of the walk to Porthcurno was quite tough for the final stretch of the day and probably DavidL's legs were getting tired as almost within sight of the Minack Theatre he stumbled and fell into gorse bushes at the side of the path. The bushes were lower than the path so it was impossible to get enough purchase to haul himself up. Justine was first on the scene and noticing blood all over his arm pulled him back on to the path. The arm looked worse than it was, not scratched but covered in multiple thorn pricks from the gorse bush but, after Justine had wiped it clean and dried with kitchen roll, one of the multiple health and safety products that thankfully DavidA carries in his rucksack, we continued on to Minack where Fiona said that she had been vindicated when last year she banned me from walking the coast path on my own.
As an addendum to this incident, as I write, it is now a week on and yesterday a thorn appeared out of my elbow and a very sore small lump is developing on part of my arm where I suspect another deeply buried thorn is trying to get out - happy memories.
We had all booked for the last tour of the day at the Minack and it was a perfect day not only for justing looking at the views but also for the fact that there was an ongoing rehearsal for the first performance that evening of a Dr Doolittle show that was being put on all week for school children and adults, and to which Fiona was going the next day for the 10:30 performance.
Finally, Fiona drove us to Newlyn for drinks a local pub at the end of a long but very eventful and satisfying day.