Trebarwith Strand to Port Isaac. A thigh-bursting walk

"Strenuous", "the most difficult stretch on the Cornish Coastal Footpath" and "not for the faint hearted" are just a few comments others have made about the Trebarthwith Strand to Port Isaac leg of our footpath saga. In the event, it was all of these - but we did it. In my case, not with much style. With this one under our boots, we've just got two more segments to complete and we'll have done the entire circuit.

Not a very inspiring photograph as it was taken on the car park at Port Isaac. But it has the merit of showing our walk in its entirety. From this distance, it looks relatively flat. What was the fuss about?  How hard could it be?

Take a look at the elevation profile and the fuss is obvious. It's one of those walks when, if you are not going up, you must be going down. We clocked 7.2 miles which was very gratifying - after the event. The weather was good all the way along and the visibility gave us some excellent views.

We joined the walk at the back of the Prince William Hotel in Trebarwith Strand and were immediately faced with a near vertical climb up 203 steps. No, I didn't count them, the figure comes from a footpath guide. This was a taste of what was to come. It has to be said that Mrs P shows commendable ability at scaling these ascents, me far less so.

Looking back along Trebarwith Strand. At lower tides, there's quite a good beach. It's also got an excellent reputation amongst the surfing fraternity.

Gull Rock, just off Trebarwith Strand.

Looking due west. Unusually, as the tops of some of the waves show, the wind was coming off the land rather from the sea.

All walkers need sustenance. On the left is a chunk of homemade egg, ham, chicken and sausage meat pie and, on the right, a piece of Mrs P's reknowned fruit cake. Food of the gods.

Looking due east, with Gull Rock in the distance. Some surf but there was not enough wind to whip large waves.

The lump in front is aptly named 'The Mountain'. The route up is clearly visible and it was as steep as it looks. Mrs P was way ahead of me at this point and can be seen on the footbridge.

The predominant mineral along this part of the coast is slate and it has been quarried for centuries. Today, the only working quarry is the world famous one at Delabole. There are very few traces of the quarries left and what there are, are not that easy to make out. Slate had many uses and this fence is a good example of that.

Daylight came to an end just after we'd finished the walk. We were glad that we were off the path before darkness fell.