Portreath Break: April 2015: Part 4

Motto for the day: don't take distances in guide books at face value! We set out to complete the remaining gap between Godrevy and St Ives, which would mean that we would have walked from Newquay to Helford, just past the Lizard. A distance of some 135 miles and our longest continuous stretch of the Coastal Footpath. Just for the record, the total distance of this (from the Devon/Cornwall border north of Bude to Mountbatten, across the water from Plymouth) is 303 miles. I've no idea how much we've covered so far but it's got to be well on the way to 200 miles.

Back to today. A day of two walks really with lots of beaches and sun. Walk 1: taxi from Hayle to Godrevy and then a 5 miler along Hayle Towans back to Hayle. Walk 2: bus from Hayle to St Ives and then a 7 miler back to Hayle. Not too far off 12 miles for the day, against an expected 9 miles from the guide books. Yes, our feet were a little sore at the end so we celebrated with fish and chips from Pool.

From our customary support-the-local-economy start, we headed to the beach. Godrevy Lighthouse in the distance.

And here's the beach we walked along - all three and a half miles of it. Mostly on the sand (hard going) but with some stretches on the footpath through the dunes.

45 years together in a couple of days.

Nothing special but I did like the reflection of the gulls in the pool.

They take their pasties seriously in these parts. The lunchtime queue outside of Philps in Hayle. By the reckoning of some, the best pasties in Cornwall. I think I agree but I'm always open to being persuaded otherwise.

The starting point of our second walk - St Ives harbour.

A colourful RNLI lifeboat on the quay at St Ives. It's ridiculous that such a vital function is carried out by a charity.

A couple of miles further on and looking back across Porthminster Beach to St Ives.

The line across the centre of the photograph is pretty much the length of our morning walk from Godrevy to Hayle.

We like pottering around graveyards but sometimes we come across something that just takes our breath away. This is one such instance: consider the tragedy of these parents as they buried one child after another.

And for those kneeler lovers, St Uny's church at Lelant had an admirable display to delight the eye.

St Uny's at Lelant. Not a lot is known about St Uny and he/she seems to be one of the many holy people who wandered all over Cornwall in the early days of Christianity. Over the years the church has battled against the encroachment of the sand dunes. Much less of a problem since the dunes have been stabilised by planting marram grass.