17/8/11 - A Man alone on Brown Willy

Distance - 11 miles
Walk from Trail Magazine
Caches - 6 Found, 1 DNF, 1 Couldn't be bothered to climb another tor (Garrow)

Usually there is one challenge walk on a holiday.  This is it.  My quest to be the highest man in cornwall.  And I did it alone, with the dog lazing around in bed.

Yesterday's update.  As you can tell, I am a man with plans.  The ladies are not.  When I left yesterday morning the kids were going to the cinema.  When I was out, I received a text to say they were going to Newquay.  When I got back, they had gone to Padstow.  Again.  I had a lovely afternoon and we all had a quiet night in.

Brown Willy

Alarm is set for 6am today.  I am up and out at 5:45am.  Lovely red sky and lots of mist.  Drive is very quick and park up at the church at St Breward.  Start of the walk is across lots and lots of fields, leaping over the unique Cornish stiles and managing to lose my water bottle.  Despite the rain, and the squelchy underfoot fields, I feel that I need this, so my first job is to retreive it.  It is covered in sheep poo - so no doubt I will be refreshed and poisoned.

Pick up a cattle track and take a detour up over Alex Tor for the first two caches of the day.  Most of the caches on this round are under rocks, so there is little variety.  Drop down the otherside of the Tor and see my first of many wild ponies.  I didn't see the beast of bodmin.

Top of Alex Tor

Desolation and Wild Horses

Continue along this road and there is a sign saying it's Private - No access.  Not any more my land owning friends.  Thanks to the CRoW act, I can go anywhere over here.  Although the fact that every road sign is pock marked with shotgun pellets means that I don't necessary want to have to explain this.

Up over Logan Rock for another cache and then a fairly mental scamble up Rough Tor.  This is hands and feet on rock and a good old climb.

Rough Tor looks like a proper mountain

Drop down for my only DNF - A cache (you guessed it) under a rock at an old hut circle.  I am on tight timelines if I want my cooked breakfast, so I dont spend more than 10 mins looking.

Then a climb up Brown Willy.  It's much easier going than Rough Tor and just slowly make my way up to get the cache at the top.  No views due to the inclement weather.

That's me - The highest man in Cornwall at around 8am

Drop down and work my way over a boggy field to potential civilisation.  I haven't seen a soul all day but there is this cottage that I have to walk through.  I do have a look through the windows and there is some very spartan furniture but I cannot tell whether it is inhabited.  There is no vehicle access and its at least 5 miles to the nearest village.  Who lives in a house like this?

Lonely, I'm so Lonely

The climbing is done.  I have a long flat walk where I meet a farmer building a wall and come to King Arthurs Hall.  When in doubt in Cornwall, just say that King Arthur did something there.  There is indeed the outline of a building and a cache.  Check out the History.

Honest, King Arthur was here.

Then, its a final return through complex field systems over some very poor terrain.  I have a welcome committee waiting for me at the end of the walk and I am glad to see the spire of the church and get back in the car.

Hurry, the highest man in Cornwall is coming

11 miles, 5 hours walking and I would like to thank my support staff who were waiting with a Full English Breakfast.  Have to reward Ellie's patience by taking her to the nearest City to buy shoes.