Crackington Haven to Tintagel - 11 miles



At the start of our walk

 What a hot, hard walk I’ve had today.  This walk was described as moderate to strenuous on the official SWCP website.  The majority of it was strenuous – even for a super fit collie like me.  Ann parked her car at Tintagel (£2 for all day) and then Angela drove us to Crackington Haven where we also parked for £2.



Cooling down in the trough



It was very, very hot today and unlike our walk yesterday there wasn’t much of a breeze.  As there hasn’t been very much rain recently a lot of the streams had dried up so I found it really difficult to keep cool.  I found a little bit of mud to wallow in but that just made me feel sticky and uncomfortable.  Ann shared her water with me and I had my super duper travel water bowl with me so having a drink wasn’t a problem – but keeping cool was.  I found a little bit of mud to wallow in but it didn't really cool me down - it just made me feel sticky and uncomfortable until I found a trough to wallow in.  



Relaxing



Between Boscastle and Tintagel there was about 4 stream so that section of the walk was much better for me.



What a lovely herd of goats!



I was allowed off my lead for pretty much the whole of this walk.  There were a few sections that had notices up saying that livestock may be grazing but apart from a field of cows there wasn’t any livestock in the fields.  The only time I had to go on my lead was just after we’d started our walk.  I’d only been walking for about half an hour when we came upon a whole herd of goats with babies.  I was desperate to go chasing but fortunately I came back to Ann when she called me.   She was pleased with me because there were loads of people about so they all saw how obedient I was.  In fact there were loads of people on all sections of this walk.  There again it was a very hot sunny Sunday.

This walk was hard though.  There were sections of it where we were just walking along the top of very high cliffs.  But, there were an awful lot of up and down bits which were very steep.  Normally I’m super speedy and race up and down them no bother but even I was glad of the many rests we had today.

We started the walk at about 10.30am and got to Boscastle just after 3pm.  Admittedly we stopped for water/rests after most steep ascents but it was only just over 6 miles from Crackington Haven to Boscastle so almost 5 hours walking just shows how hard it was.

At Boscastle we went into the National Trust Cafe and sat in their courtyard area (though I was allowed indoors as well).  The humans had a pasty & drink and I had a huge bowl of water all to myself and I also got a bit of pasty.  We must have been in Boscastle for about an hour.



The end of our walk



Then I got to have a really nice wallow in the water.  Then we had to walk the remaining 4-5 miles to Tintagel.  Fortunately in this section there were about 4 streams that I could wallow in.  But that also meant there were four steep ascents/descents that we had to go up and down.

The humans, especially Ann, were getting really tired.  She was also getting very burnt on her shoulders and the back of her neck.  Her own fault really for trying to get a tan too quickly?

Anyway, we eventually made it back to the car in Tintagel at about 6.45pm.

I love my walking holidays – but I have to say they make me very exhausted.  I’ve had no sleep time today at all so now I’m flaked out in the B&B we’re staying in.