A weekend at Housel Bay: Part 1 of 2

And we are still walking the Cornish Coastal Footpath and we are still saying "we'll finish it this year". I think we both feel that 2019 will be that year. We've just spent a weekend 'down west' on the Lizard with the aim of completing two of the three remaining stretches we have to do along the southern coastline of the County. It was a case of two down and one to go.

We were staying at the Housel Bay Hotel just outside of The Lizard village. Before checking in, we went to Porthleven for a drink and a snack. As ever, the seas were impressive.

Can you ever get enough of looking at the waves? I can't. We can't.

Our route on our first walk of the weekend. We parked just outside of Helford Passage, caught a bus into Falmouth and then another (actually the same bus but travelling under a different number) to Swanpool on the western outskirts of Falmouth. From there we headed down the Fal estuary and up the Helford River. Around 6.5 miles in total, with a few ups and downs.

From the beach at Swanpool looking up the Fal. The outline of Pendennis Castle can be seen in the mid-ground with the lighthouse at St Anthony Head on the Roseland Peninsular in the distance.

We came from the right and went to the left.

The beach at Maenporth. A nice little family beach with a café that serves rather excellent real sausage hot dogs.

The coast along the south of the county is quite different from that in the north. It was relatively easy walking but not without the occasional strenuous stretch. This is Parsons Beach, by the way, just past Mawgan Glebe.

A rather obliging Robin posed for me. They quite often seem to be pretty defensive about their territory and appear to 'escort' you until you move out of it. Or is that my imagination?

On the water's edge, looking down through the trees.

Looking up the Helford River. Not an estuary but a ria. And a ria is formed by the submergence of the lower portion of the river valley and not by the action of the river itself. Typically a ria has many tributaries and this one certainly has a few.

Not a snowdrop, although there were plenty around, but Leucojum vernum - Spring Snowflake. We'll have to get some for our garden.