A very late start today! Tea didn’t arrive til gone seven and we set out on the path after I had recharged batteries etc. All this photography and emailing soon drains a girl’s resources!
What a beautiful (I realise that I over did the “lovelies” yesterday) proper summer morning and it has stayed that way all day!
A day of beaches and dunes to die for with a couple of headlands thrown in for good measure!
Fizzy had to be put on a lead for the first time as it was rabbit heaven on the way from Crantock Bay to Porth Joke and she nearly went over the top! Kevin Gosling to the rescue!
On to Holywell Bay where the sand dunes were enough to challenge Lawrence of Arabia but we walked along the beach and over Penhale Point (where there is a funny old MOD place) and down on to the glorious Penhale Sands.
From the top off the dunes Russell spotted his first mermaid of the day basking on a rock!
On closer inspection she turned out to be a human (although very lovely!) with rather a noisy Alsation!
On we marched across the sands until we spied our second mermaid but this too, alas, was fictitious and made from beach combings. As the tide was in we climbed over the headland to finally drop down to Perranporth beach.
We stopped and watered at the “Watering Hole”, a former stamping ground of Jodie Smith. We had intended going a little further perhaps to St Agnes but we both suddenly hit the wall! The backpacks seemed heavier than ever for no good reason and our feet seemed to be made of lead! So on Perranporth Beach we lay and slept in the sun for over an hour! Bliss!
Slightly refreshed Russell decided to make it a three mermaid day and sculpted the final one in the sand! Of the three which do you prefer?
Then on to find campsite and victuals for tea. Tonight it is to be noodles with added delicacies enjoyed with a newspaper (first of the trip!). Biggest treat of all for me tonight is that the campsite has a bath! Hooray!
Shame all the same stinky old clothes have to go on again afterwards!
Looking forward to meeting up with the gogeousnesses that are Mr and Mrs Alex Le Puill en route tomorrow and the wonder of a real bed and sheets tomorrow at Robert and Angela’s in Camborne (for me and Fizzy) and a gurt mansion in St Ives (for Russell).
Tomorrow’s destination is Portreath.
Happy Birthday to Jane (Bodsworth) – or is it the 14th?
PS We would like to wish two German students who we met in Newquay yesterday a fond farewell and wish them luck with their studies in Munster!
Lessons learnt today:
1. We won’t be joining the Foreign Legion!
2. Perhaps scheduling a rest day would have been wise!
(Forgot to mention the two hiking girls we met on the beach who’s dog also had a rucksack – but don’t let Fizzy know as his cost £65 and you know how these girls like all the latest gear!)
witterthewalk 
Is there something about mermaids being washed ashore along this stretch, or is it just a holiday destination. You’ll also be getting us from Friday morning, lookout for a white van and a cup of tea/coffee/???? and someone wandering about with a lot of hair.
Loving your blog and reading it every day. What a huge surprise to see birthday wishes to me live in the blog (yes it is the 11th). That was a great birthday present!! I’m very touched. So impressed by what you are doing. Keep putting one foot in front of the other! Lots of love, Jane and co. Xx
PS Licks and woofs from Sasha
Also just noticed that you are increasingly coming to the attention of Google, wondered where there were gurts in St Ives, typed it into search and this page was number 6 of 5,680,000 hits, so now Russ must be an authority!