It’s 9am and I’m at the car park in Treyarnon. There is only one other person here – a young surfer with a red sweat shirt and green jeans checking out the surf while humming a tune to himself. It’s still icy cold on the hands and face but the clouds have now disappeared andContinue reading “SWCP – Treyarnon to Harlyn Bay, February 9th 2025”
Category Archives: South West Coast Path
SWCP – Porthcothan, February 8th 2025
It’s almost three and a half months since I was last here. It’s not that I don’t like walking in winter. I love it, unless it’s heavy rain but other things have been happening and hey, as always, what’s the rush? At my girlfriend’s house I have a favourite mug with a picture of aContinue reading “SWCP – Porthcothan, February 8th 2025”
SWCP Griffin’s Point to Porthcothan, October 29th 2024
Here I am still staring at the sunbeams that lance downwards onto patches of Towan Head, the small finger of land that points out to sea west of Newquay, the green of the land brighter inside those shafts of light. I think back to Newquay and the empty road train rumbling along the High Street,Continue reading “SWCP Griffin’s Point to Porthcothan, October 29th 2024”
SWCP Griffin’s Point to Porthcothan, October 29th 2024
I sleep soundly in my little cabin near Newlyn East until I am shaken awake at 4.30 by a cockerel crowing about 2 metres from my head. It’s still raining, the pattering constant on the leaves in the trees surrounding me. I find the breakfast room, a small whitewashed barn – or probably an oldContinue reading “SWCP Griffin’s Point to Porthcothan, October 29th 2024”
SWCP – Watergate Bay to Griffin’s Point October 28th 2024
There is a sheen on the road leading down Tregurrian Hill from my car towards Watergate Bay. It’s nearing 4 O’Clock but instinctively I can feel the day is nearing its end. It’s the mental adjustment we all make in the days after the clocks have gone back each year (it was last weekend). WeContinue reading “SWCP – Watergate Bay to Griffin’s Point October 28th 2024”
SWCP – Ligger Point to Holywell May 11th 2024
I wake to the feeling of cool air on my face, feeling the dawn before I see it. It always takes me back to camping trips as a boy – that initial strangeness of waking up OUTDOORS, as exciting as the feeling of waking up in a new country. I sit up in my sleepingContinue reading “SWCP – Ligger Point to Holywell May 11th 2024”
SWCP – Wheal Charlotte to St Agnes Head March 2nd 2024
I had another dream about Ukraine last night. I was going to meet a couple in West Ukraine to deliver aid – comically being carried in a caravan on the back of a van – and was getting their details and all the relevant information to cross the border. This was all just at itContinue reading “SWCP – Wheal Charlotte to St Agnes Head March 2nd 2024”
SWCP – Portreath to Porthtowan January 13th 2024
I wake up slowly, softly in my bed at The Ship that looks over Mousehole Harbour. The first thing I’m aware of – apart from the quiet of the room and the cries of seagulls outside the window – is the great sense of relief, that I’ve made it through the night again without resortingContinue reading “SWCP – Portreath to Porthtowan January 13th 2024”
SWCP – Gwithian to Godrevy Point October 7th 2023
I get my early call from the sea, its cool air stroking my face and in the first seconds of waking I get the tingles from knowing I’m in the wild. It is a reminder of my earliest camping trips with dad down on the moors in Somerset with his orange tent and his lethalContinue reading “SWCP – Gwithian to Godrevy Point October 7th 2023”
SWCP St Ives September 25th
It’s only fifteen minutes since I said goodbye to Robert and I am walking towards Porthmeor Beach passing the world and their dogs on the way in. I find it funny how many people get nervous about their dogs approaching strangers on a walk but I guess that’s because I like dogs and I guessContinue reading “SWCP St Ives September 25th”
SWCP: Carn Naun Point to Higher Burthallan September 25th
I’m having my lunch and watching a solitary magpie fuss about in the heather before it appears with a silvery squiggle in its mouth. The magpie flicks its head vigorously from side to side in a little blur of energy while the shining squiggle contorts into different shapes. Surely that strategy doesn’t work to tryContinue reading “SWCP: Carn Naun Point to Higher Burthallan September 25th”
SWCP – Carbis Bay to Lelant September 26th 2023
I wake at 7 to the sound of excited shouts. It’s those first few seconds of waking – rising to the surface of consciousness- that I always find intriguing: the not knowing where I am and then the feel of cold air on my face and the sudden reminder that I am enshrouded in myContinue reading “SWCP – Carbis Bay to Lelant September 26th 2023”
SWCP St Ives to Carbis Bay September 25th
I’ve been thinking a lot about walking slowly over the summer. I was walking the Monarch’s way. I was walking in the Pindos mountains in Northern Greece (to the bottom of the Vikos Gorge, the steepest gorge in the world) and just walking daily around Dorset, Somerset, Bristol or Suffolk. On one of these walksContinue reading “SWCP St Ives to Carbis Bay September 25th”
SWCP. Zennor to Carn Naun Point February 14th 2023
Jackdaws, my only consistent company around the Western tip of Cornwall, fly fast and straight over the cliffs from some crag, their glossy black bodies perfectly still as they disappear over the edge. I’m facing north into the wind at Zennor Head. It’s morning and I am alone on the path. Turning east I disturbContinue reading “SWCP. Zennor to Carn Naun Point February 14th 2023”
SWCP. Zennor February 14th 2023
I leave Zennor on a road that turns into a track that turns into a path. The sun is out and revealing the brown and green coat of the land and the grey rocks that people every part of this landscape. My step and mood are lighter today. What a difference a day can make.Continue reading “SWCP. Zennor February 14th 2023”
SWCP Zennor February 14th
I woke in the middle of the night, got dressed and let myself out of the old building attached to the pub. There was a wind whipping the ivy on the granite wall just outside my bedroom window. Behind it the squat block of Zennor church was silhouetted against the sky; stars burned above itContinue reading “SWCP Zennor February 14th”
SWCP. Portheris Beach to Porthmeor Sept 11th 2022
I don’t sleep well above Pendeen Cliff. I keep waking up. I’m aware that other people are sleeping next to me and one person is clinging onto me. I wake up and have that horrible immobility which seems to last ages as I try to move in my twisted sleeping bag. The person huddled upContinue reading “SWCP. Portheris Beach to Porthmeor Sept 11th 2022”
The slow walker. SWCP Porthmeor October 24th
I disembarked from the pilot cutter, Mascotte, at Falmouth yesterday at 5 pm. I spent two nights in the sumptuous mahogany panelling of that old beauty and two long days sailing from Falmouth to Fowey and back again. When I got back to my car I booked a last minute room at The Beach ClubContinue reading “The slow walker. SWCP Porthmeor October 24th”
SWCP – Cape Cornwall to Porthmeor September 10th 2022
The Union Jack on the squat tower of St Just church is at half mast, the cloth caught around the wires that support the flagpole. The shape appears like a crooked 8. The bottom flaps joltingly like an animal trying to free itself from something. We are in a period of national mourning for theContinue reading “SWCP – Cape Cornwall to Porthmeor September 10th 2022”
Tramping Diaries. SWCP – Porth Nanven to Cape Cornwall October 25th 2021
I have been stopped by a stream. The sun is out and dances on the riffles of the water, sending flashes into my eyes like cartoon explosions. The light hovers in the branches above my head the way sunlight wobbles on a swimming pool floor. There’s something a bit UFOesque about it. Am I feelingContinue reading “Tramping Diaries. SWCP – Porth Nanven to Cape Cornwall October 25th 2021”
The Slow Walker 