In 1999, when Alasdair was 12 years old, we had a long walk
in the Auvergne. This was a formative experience for both of
us. Now he is back after 8 months in Central America and is
shortly to go to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. In 1999 he was
starting secondary school; 7 years later it seemed a good idea
to celebrate another milestone in his life by having another
walk.
Day 4 - Wednesday 13th September 2006
This was our last day, we were due to finish
in Penzance and then make our way back to St Ives. But
negotiations over the phone resulted in us agreeing to be
met in Mousehole and driven back from there. This was
reasonable as the Coastal Path is on or beside roads all the
way from Mousehole to Penzance.
It was still quite a long walk. The
countryside is very up and down but it is much more bosky,
presumably because it is south facing. The tops of the
cliffs are open but when you go down and there is a bit of
shelter trees appear.
We set off after a good breakfast and soon
came to the conclusion that getting to Mousehole by 12 was
impossible. So several telephone calls changed the time to
something a bit later. We also got a text telling us that we
(actually Alasdair) had taken our key with us. We promised
to send it back. This led to me finding that I had the key
for Sennen Cove in my pocket. I promised myself that I would
send it back - and we did!
After a long walk we got to Mousehole about
1:30 and had a quick look round for Chris and her mother. We
couldn't find them or get them on Chris's mobile so we
decided to use a high tech search technique tailor made for
the circumstances. We got a seat in the Ship Inn, near a
window. I got some beers while Alasdair looked out the
window at the passing throng. And within 10 minutes we found
them! We dragged them in, told our tale, and headed back to
St Ives.
The Google Map below shows our route. Tick the boxes to see the details. This
link
gives it in full screen mode.
