07/12/20 - St Michael's Mount and the Dock Inn Penzance

Distance - 6 Miles

Geocaches - 2 and an Adventure Lab Cache

Walk Inspiration - Pubs Walks in South West Cornwall, Walk 9

There can't be many more beautiful places to start a walk than on the beach at Marazion, opposite St Michaels Mount.

Starting the walk at High Tide

Come in the Winter and you can even avoid the £4.50 Car Parking charges.

We pick our way up through Marazion - spying potential post walk watering holes, that we fully expect to be closed on a Monday Lunchtime.

Our access to the coastal path is downhill past the cemetary, where in true Cornish style, the sign telling you the cliffs are eroded, dangerous and closed is at the bottom of the hill.  

Down past the cemetary to pick up the Coast Path

Putting this sign at the access point would have been too obvious

I swear they do this kind of thing on purpose.

Back up the hill and an alternative higher level route through Trenow Farm. Eventually, we pick the coastal path back up at Maen-du Point and continue around to where we leave the sea and head inland at Perranuthnoe.

It has the three things that make Cornish villages great. A pub, a cafe and an art gallery.  Only one of these facilities was open and it wasn't the one that sold its produce in pints.

High Tide at Perranuthnoe

You may be luckier

Two things dominate the views when you head inland and look up - St Michaels Mount and Tin Mines.

Timeless, Other-Wordly

Once an Engine Room, now someones House

Through Goldsithney, which has a couple of pubs - if we had turned right instead of left - and out of the mud along quiet lanes from Tregurtha.  

As expected, the Fire Engine Inn and the Kings Arms were both closed up.  

We take Guide Dog in Training Abi for a last wash up so she can look good for Penzance.  

Tide retreats, causeway revealed

There's an Adventure Lab Cache to keep us entertained - showing the landmarks of  the docks, war memorial, Egyptian House and rather aptly, the oldest pub in Penzance - The Turks Head.

But we are looking for a Good Beer Guide Tick. It's been a couple of months and two are normally available, but on a Monday - only the Dock.

It's good to be back, especially when oxblood Chesterfields are involved. Lively chat from a couple of dockers, who must think that Stella is going to be illegal after a no deal brexit and a nice old boy who took a real shine to Guide Dog Abi. He was not the only one.  The barman is a friend for life, having fed her dog biscuits.

A first Potion Number 9 from Penzance Brewing Company demonstrating why they had made the bible.

 

It's the First Good Beer Guide Tick since October in Oxfordshire

Where's the Biscuits?

06/12/20 - Sennen Cove and Land's End for Tier 1 Coffees.

Distance - 5.5 Miles

Geocaches - 3

Walk Inspiration - Country Walking Magazine March 2005, Walk 1

Sun is shining and we are about as far as you can get in Cornwall before you get your feet wet.

We're out early and the first to park at Sennen Harbour.

All the hard work is completed early on, as we leave the harbour and climb to the cliff top.  Endless photo opportunities and once again, Geocaching takes me to something I would have otherwise missed.  This time, the wreck of RMS Muhlheim, which ran aground in 2003. 

Looking back over Sennen Cove from the High Ground

Shipwreck Cache GZ

Everyone knows what's coming for the refreshment stop.  The Legendary Lands End Experience, where you can still pay a man in a kiosk an unverified sum of money to have your photo taken with a sign that tells you how far it is to New York.

We chose to channel our inner urchin and look through the hotel windows at the dystopian sight of people in masks serving full English breakfasts to hungry Cockneys.  With plentiful outside seating, superb views and the 9:30am sun bringing almost balmy conditions, we decided to chance our arm to see if they do takeaway coffee.

They did and it cost that arm (and a leg). 

Legendary Lands End

Tis the season to be jolly careful, or your will pay £7 for 2 

I am going to wait until the end of the week before commenting on Cornish hospitality.  I do, of course, recognise its been a tough year but my third hospitality transaction suggest last night's encounter with the landlord at the Star Inn, St Just, may not have been a one off.

Moving on, past the delightful farm at Carn Greeb, the coast becomes its most rugged.  Guide Dog Abi in training is tethered to Mrs M and one mistimed lurch and I am a widower.

Precarious

We leave the coast at Nanjizal and head inland.  A steep climb back up the headland to crop fields and Abi is allowed a free run.  She gets muddy and there is little need to bring you photos of that.

Instead, here she is after a December dunk at Sennen Cove beach.

Spic and Span

05/12/20 - The Tors at Belstone

Distance - 3.5 Miles

Geocaches - 3

Walk Inspiration - Country Walking Magazine, August 2001, Walk 2

Meet the new lockdown, the same as the old lockdown.  With one week's annual leave remaining, we head to the South West in search of Cornish Hospitality.

But noone attempts a 246 mile journey in one go.  Fortunately, Dartmoor falls nicely between Worcestershire and the "End of the World".

Belstone is a tiny hamlet on the edge of Dartmoor and just off the A30.  There's a couple of Tors to aim at - a brooding one in the mist, Belstone Tor - or a nice one that has a phone number displayed outside for required bookings.  Its the latter that we take advantage off, with our phone call met with the information that a table is available but the menu "is limited".  

The walk was meant to be a 6 miler but the sleety conditions deteriorated enough that we abandoned it at the midpoint. Still, a three mile walk along the River Taw offered a better alternative than Exeter Services.

The High Ground over the River Taw

Guide Dog in Training, Abi, showing the way across the River Taw

Three Geocaches and we are ready for refreshment before continuing the journey to the promised land where beer can be served inside, including those with 5 friends.

A foyer in the Tors allows us to remove wet boots and don face masks and we are shown to the back room, but not before I take a glance at whats on at the bar.  It's been a month and maybe I am out of practice, but I don't see any taps.

We are presented with two menus - a double page fold out that is just the drinks and a single page food menu, containing just two choices.  A vegan friendly meal instantly dismissed or beef bourguignon.

It was superb.  Dauphinoise potatoes, the new chips.

And the lack of taps?  The beer is from a choice of three gravity fed barrels held over the bar.  The first sip of a lifeless Black Tor Brewery Pride of Dartmoor was all that was required to know the serving style.  A shame, as it was a fine tasting bitter.

Potential Punters, wondering if they are allowed in.

Been a while since I've had the "Pint, Mrs M on the Phone" Blog Photo

Onwards we go.  Forever South, forever West. 

28/11/20 - Chiltern Chain Walk - Stage 9 - Chalfont St Giles to Amersham

Distance - 11.5 Miles

Geocaches - 4 and an Adventure Lab Cache

Walk Inspiration

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8

Final Weekend of Lock down 2, so I come prepared for the latest leg of the Chiltern Chain Walk with my own picnic of scotch eggs, malt loaf and Timothy Taylor Landlord.

Stage 10, I may be able to go into a boozer for a substantial meal.  All depends on the Tiers of a Clown called Boris.

The walking on today's leg cannot be really recommended too highly - but there's plenty of interest at the two villages that bookend the route.

Leaving from Chalfont St Giles, it's lanes and horse fields to Jordan's.  Not she of several autobiographies fame but an ancient hamlet that contains a Quaker Meeting house from 1688.  Was it worth the diversion South and lengthy stretch on a boy racer lane?  Maybe not.  But then, neither were the views as I reach the featureless map squares of the high ground above the Misbourne Valley.

How do you spend your Saturday's?

Only Amersham can save the day. 

An Adventure Lab Cache does a good job of pointing out places of interest in the Old Town.  Without it, I would have surely missed the Almshouses, the jail inside the Market Hall and the no need to rub it in, Brewery.

Amersham locals providing a warm greeting to rambling cachers

The Kings Arms Hotel - location for a substantial meal on Stage 10?

Amersham Church

Any hopes of saving money by the pubs being closed are dashed through the reckless decision to have a take away coffee at the Grocers, a rather smug looking delicatessen.  My incredulity at the 15 minutes waiting time was superseded by the £2.80 price of an Americano.   And I'm sure it was only a half.

The route back is easy walking along the crystal clear River Misbourne - taking me all the way to Chalfont St Giles.  No point checking out the Merlin pub, so I head in the opposite direction to see the Milton's Cottage - a place of refuge when the poet escaped the last but one plague in London.

Seems fitting, in its way.

River Misbourne

Miltons Cottage