Day 20. St. Ives to Gurnard's Head.

A bus timetable in Cornwall is just a rough estimation of when (and if) a bus may come along.
The bus to St. Ives arrived eventually and took two hours to get to St. Ives.
The town was looking as beautiful as ever.

The Harbour and Town Beach

 Porthmeor Beach

Stopped in the Golden Lion to get some phone power and internet and only had a soft drink because I knew I would need full concentration on the tricky path to Zennor.

I'd never walked this section in summer before.
It had always been with heavy duty boots, full waterproofs, three or four warm layers and a rucksack containing a survival kit, but today, with the forecast for a warm and sunny day, I was in walking trainers, shorts and tee shirt.
This was going to be so easy that I wasn't even carrying a day pack.

But it was HOT !

The path from St. Ives to Zennor is one of the most popular walks in the country but is notoriously rocky and difficult with fantastic views over the ocean all the way.

There's usually a wind from the sea and often a gale but there wasn't even a slight breeze.

But I was loving it and was fairly skipping along and soon reached the trig point at Trevega Cliff.

This rocky coast is steeped in iron age, bronze age and Roman history.
Not just grassy bumps and scattered granite blocks but quoits, circles, barrows, fougos, forts, castles and henges.

There was a set of stones near Treveal Cliff that had one vertical slab about six feet high with a semi circle of horizontal stones around it.

I thought it may have been the Fred Flintstone surf school.

I had originally planned to walk from St. Ives to Pendeen with a stop for lunch at the Gurnards Head but I had already exhausted my food supplies and all the water I drank seemed to immediately flow out of my pores.

Climbing Zennor Head I started to get the wobbles so made a detour inland to the Tinner's Arms only to arrive there five minutes after the kitchen closed.

Went around the corner to the Chapel Cafe but it was the same situation.

Peanuts and cake were not enough to get my strength back and two pints of water hadn't quenched my thirst.

The going got tougher and the rocks were getting hot in the afternoon sun.
By the time I reached Gurnard's Head I was starting to feel a bit sickly and my ambitious plans got reduced from reaching St Just, to reaching Pendeen, to reaching Morvah to turning inland and catching the bus from the Gurnard's Head Hotel.

Gurnard's Head

I was almost on my knees when I reached the bus stop.

It was 29°C and the heat had completely drained me.

Winter walking was a doddle compared to this.