Today, Ann's friend Jane, picked us up in Marazion car park and drove us to Porthleven for the start of our walk. That was really kind of her 'cos it was so much better than getting on one of those big horrible buses. It cost us £5.30 to park at Marazion. That was for an all day ticket because we didn't know how long our walk would take.We started our walk at 11.30am and we got back to the car at 4.10pm. It was a reasonably easy walk today but in a lot of places the path was very narrow so I couldn't deviate off it too much. For the first hour or so of our walk there were loads of furry caterpillars on the path. I didn't really take much notice of them but Ann said that soon the coastal path would be full of butterfles.
After we'd been walking for about half an hour I did something really naughty and made Ann cross - I wallowed in a black, sticky, muddy ditch. It was such fun but when I came out I didn't look like a black and white collie anymore, I just looked like a completely black dog. Ann was furious with me. She said if I didn't find some clean water quickly the mud would dry and it would be almost impossible to get me clean because it was embedded in my hair. I have to admit I didn't actually feel very comfortable. I tried rolling around on the grass to clean myself but that didn't work. And Ann was right - as it started to dry I could feel, that it was indeed, embedded in my hair. Ann had already told me that if a shower didn't clean me when we got home that I might have to have a haircut and I didn't like the sound of that. I've never had a haircut but somebody coming at me with a pair of scissors - no thanks. Fortunately after about another half an hour of walking I found a small pond. I wallowed and swam in it and all the mud disappeared. I was just about to come out and show Ann how clean I was when a couple with a toddler spotted me. I heard the lady say to the little kid, 'Look at that lovely dog, he's having a lot of fun isn't he?' I was a bit cross that she thought I was a boy but decided to show off a bit. I swam from one side of the pond to the other, then I did a circuit of the pond jumping in and out of the water and finished off with one final big wallow where I even put my head under the water. After that I went bounding back to Ann. I could hear the couple saying what a great dog I was and Ann was pleased with me because I was completely clean again. Though she did say I was a bit stinky!
There were a few tin mine towers along the first part of our walk which were really interesting and we also had really good views of Penzance and out towards Lands End in one direction and the Lizard Peninsular in the other direction. There was a lot of people out walking today. We weren't sure if it was because it was a popular section of the walk or if it was because it was a Sunday and more people had time off work.
Some parts of the walk went close to cliffs. I like to go right up to the edge and have a look over. Ann likes me to keep to the path. However the only time I had to go on my lead was when we got to Praa Sands. I love Praa Sands - it's a really long beach. Unfortunately dogs can't go on it between Easter Day and October so we had to walk on a little road past some houses. There weren't any cars around but Ann said just to be on the safe side I had to go back on my lead. The only other time I had to go on my lead was when we got to Marazion and had to walk all the way along the main road to get back to the car park.
It took us about two hours to get to the beach cafe/shop at Praa Sands. Ann was worried that we didn't have enough water with us so she tied me up by the path down to the beach while she went to get some more. I so wanted to go for a play on the beach. There were loads of people doing different activities. Praa Sands has about three cafe/pubs and Ann said the menus looked quite nice. She says that we might try and organise some of our other walks so that we can have a proper lunch and sit down at picnic tables. That would be good. When we got to Praa Sands she said that we'd have lunch at the next suitable stopping point. The trouble with the coastal path is that there's not many seats and on this walk there weren't many rocks either. We eventually stopped at 2.15pm and sat on a rock while we ate our tuna fish sandwiches.
When we got to Cudden Point we had a really good view of St Michaels Mount, Penzance, Marazion and Perranuthnoe. By this time we didn't think it would take us very long to get back to the car. It was 2.30pm and it took us another 1 hour & 40 mins! However, it was a really easy walk from there with lovely views. We saw twelve kayaks that had been in the water since before Praa Sands.
The weather wasn't too bad today. When I went out for my morning walk it was very cold for May but when we started our walk at Porthleven, Ann had to take her fleece off, though for the last couple of hours of our walk she had to put it back on again. However we were amazed at the number of people that weren't properly equipped for walking. We only take a tiny rucksack with us, but in that we have anorak & waterproof trousers for Ann, a foil sheet (that Ann got when she did the Great North Swim last year) - she says this is incase either of us gets hurt and we have to stay in one place for some time, water, mobile phone, map, plasters, tissues & poo bags. And these are just our essentials. We also have other stuff like camera, pen & paper, snacks and lipstick.
Today we actually saw women walking the coastal path with their handbags and others in totally unsuitable shoes?? Mad, mad, mad!
Anyway it was lovely to get back to the car and not have to wait for a bus. Ann says we've walked 28,318 steps today (including our morning walk). At least she says that's how many she's walked. She thinks I've probably walked more. She's going to have a look on the internet now to see if she can buy me a doggie pedometer. I don't hold out much hope - she's not even bought me my foldable doggie drinking bowl yet and she promised me that after the first SWCP walk we did. But I don't really care. There's been loads of streams on our walk today so I didn't need to share Ann's water.
Now I'm lying flaked out on the living room floor. I've had my dinner and I probably won't budge from here until Ann wakes me up to take me for my wee before bedtime. Our summer project to walk as much of the South West Coastal Path as we can is fab. I'm such a lucky little dog.
No comments:
Post a Comment