Polzeath walk August 29

Once we had overcome our exhaustion from trips to The Continent, we resumed our exploration of this lovely county, Cornwall. Here we are at Polzeath, an area recently getting its 15 minutes of fame for being where the holidaying British P.M. unexpectedly had a baby arrive. (This was some time after we had an explore of it, I might add.)

This was not one of the famous pub walks. Wayne found a good site on the internet about circular walks that involved the Cornish coastal path, without having to imbibe pints of ale afterwards. (Well, okay, that is always an option, but you don't have to circle about a pub). So this time we found a beach car park and payed an outrageous £4 or so to stop driving. Then we wound our way through the main street, very full on this sunny day. It was on our way through a caravan park, cutting up to a footpath, that we had our first moment of bliss. Blackberries! I hadn't picked them since my girlhood days on the Queanbeyan river. Yum!

Interestingly, there were some small trees with what looked like oval blueberries on them, high up, interspersed among the brambles. I later found out they were sloes, growing on Cornish blackthorns. So now I know what the poets meant when they talked of sloe-eyed maidens. Another box ticked! Apparently sloes are the primitive fruit whence modern plums were bred. Sloe gin is very tasty... sloes themselves are not, although not poisonous. Jack and Annie tasted them, and reckoned they (sloes) sucked all the moisture out of the mouth. A bit like a mouthful of alum, then...

We forgot our camera, but Wayne remembered his phone could take photos. (My phone died after being doused in water from a leaking bottle). This is why he is not in any of these pictures. So, we started out in the lanes near green fields and contented cows. We stopped often to browse on the blackberries...

Here are Jack and Annie resting on a stone wall, quite rare in rural Cornwall where hedges rule. You see the hay baled up in large cylinders behind them. The footpath then took us through the fields towards the sea.

Here are the girls in front of an island just offshore. It was a glorious day for a walk.

Then we came upon the coast walk proper, and set off southward along the cliffs. We actually saw some other children on this walk. (I think our children had heretofore thought they were the only 'rambling' children in Cornwall, if not Britain.) The summer brings them out... and actually, the last bit of our walk was not far from a large surf beach, with many families making little forays in all directions.

Here is Annie near an interesting cleft in the cliff. Jack did not like these cliff bits. Not afraid for himself, he thought everyone else might topple at any moment.

Eventually, we rounded a headland and looked down on Polzeath beach beneath. It is quite renowned for surfing. Anyone in the water had a wetsuit on - the day was warm, but the water was not. The beach was a wide expanse of flat sand that was suitable not only for beach cricket, but a full test match, Wayne reckoned. People sunbathed everywhere.

We thought we would have to come to the north coast around here again.