Penultimate stretch of the Cornish Coastal Footpath.

This week's walk was a total contrast to last week's - Cornwall rather than Devon, coastal rather than moorland and as a couple rather than with a group. And rather special because this was the penultimate stretch of our circumnavigation of Cornwall via the eponymous Coastal Footpath. By the end of this walk, we would be left with a final stretch of 2-3 miles that would take us up to the Devon border at Marsland Mouth. But that's me getting ahead of myself, we had to get this one done first. Reputed to be some of the hardest miles to walk, and rated severe in all walking guides I've read, we were ready for a challenge. We were not disappointed.

The best way of doing this particular stretch was as a linear walk - my attempts at finding a reasonable circular route failed. So we parked at Morwenstow by the church, booked a taxi to take us to Sandymouth Bay and walked back from there. It came in at 5.3 miles. Sounds easy. But take a look at the elevation profile on the right. It says it all and any other comments from me would be superfluous. This was about half the distance of our previous walk and a reasonable estimate would put it at four times as much effort.

A glimpse of Sandymouth Bay just down from the cafe - their sausage baps are highly recommended as good preparation for a walk.

The geology in this area is unique and it's all down to the Bude Formation - a series of dramatic folds in the strata. Here, on Sandymouth Bay, are upstanding ribs of sandstone - a hard stone which is resistant to erosion. Those in the geological know will immediately recognise the anticline as the ribs plunge downwards towards the sea. 

Looking back towards Sandymouth Bay from the first incline on the Coastal Footpath - there were more to come.

A little further on and we were looking over Warren Gutter Beach. 

Next up was Duckpool, with more of the sandstone ribs. They come from the Upper Carboniferous era, or so I read. Geology really isn't my forte but I can recognise folds and ribs when I see them.

Looking down on Wren Beach.

Wren Beach from the east. And guess what that is in the middle?

Looking back down the coast westwards across Bude Bay towards Pencannow Point by Crackington Haven. Quite a view, eh? It's equally as good in the opposite direction as well. Lots of cliffs which means lots of ups and downs.

The satellite dishes of GCHQ Bude (formerly called the GCHQ Composite Signals Organisation Station, Morwenstow) are visible for miles around. This is a satellite ground station located at Cleave Camp, between the small villages of Morwenstow and Coombe, operated by the British signals intelligence service (GCHQ) with some heavy help of the USA. It's a listening post for telecommuncations of the highest military secrecy. It is on the site of the former World War II airfield, RAF Cleave, and you come across the foundations of some of these old building as you go by. There are currently some twenty one satellite antennae of various sizes. Given all this communication hardware, it comes as a bit of a surprise that there's no mobile phone signal in the vicinity. 

We came across a single patch of Common Toadflax (Linaria vulgaris), just before we dropped down to Stanbury Mouth. A little splash of colour in the otherwise barren edges of the footpath. The name Toadflax, by common consent, stems from the resemblance of the mouth of the flowers with the wide mouth of a toad. The general similarity of the plant in early summer to a Flax plant, accounts for the latter part of its name (hence Linaria from linum - flax). The light orange and yellow flowers also give it its country names of Butter and Eggs, Eggs and Bacon etc.

The footpath down from Harscott High Cliff, on the right, to Stanbury Mouth and Beach. And it was as steep as it looks. Climbing up to where I took the photograph was pretty steep as well. At an earlier point on the walk, we said to each other "this walk isn't as hard as we thought it was going to be". How wrong we were.

Looking towards the rather aptly named Sharpnose Point.

You can, if you wish, take the narrow footpath out to the end of Sharpnose Point but, given the rather strong winds at, we thought we'd reserve that for a calmer day.

There's no name on the map for this little beach but it's at the bottom of a cleave called Tidna Shute and the cliffs above are called Vicarage Cliff. These are where a past vicar of Morwenstow Parish walked and rode about. Our final ascent of this walk was up from the bottow of Tidna Shute to the top of Vicarage Cliff. Tough but we managed it. Not bad for two septuagenarians, if I say so myself.

And now for something completely different - the smallest building in the care of the National Trust. One of the most unusual surprises on the Coast Path is this little driftwood hut built by the eccentric Victorian vicar of Morwenstow, the Reverend Robert Stephen Hawker, who liked to smoke a pipe of opium here now and then with his literary pals Charles Dickens and Alfred Lord Tennyson. It is easy to understand why he chose this spot for it. There's room for three with their drug paraphernalia.

Hawker’ s Hut is known for its graffiti. Mostly it’s of a rather mundane nature (‘Charlie and Alfie wuz here’ sort of thing) but I really liked this one. ‘Correlation does not equal causation’. "Correlation is not causation", "Correlation is not causation", "Correlation is not causation" is a statistics mantra. It is drilled, military school-style, into the heads of every budding statistician. "Correlation is not causation" means that just because two things correlate does not necessarily mean that one causes the other. Despite it embodying a very important truth, the phrase has not caught on in the wider world. It's easy to see why. Our preconceptions and suspicions about the way things work tempt us to make the leap from correlation to causation without any hard evidence. Lazy journalism and unthinking analysis quite often ends up with "correlation must be causation" and that's why unfounded and misleading, even dangerous, false links are made. Try 'going to Eton produces intelligent politicians'.

The leaning tower of St Morwenna and St John the Baptist Church at Morwenstow. Not really. Not sure what went wrong there but it was good to see the church at the end of our walk.

But not as good as seeing that the Tea Rooms were still open! What better way to end a walk? Hopefully, we'll be able to celebrate here when we complete the last leg. That might even call for a full Afternoon Tea.