Day 14 - Zennor

Beer drunk: 2 pints, Distance walked: 10km, Time taken: 4 h (3h 15m walking)

Today's walk was rated severe and estimated to take 5 hours.  It was rocky and/or boggy underfoot in places and there were 2 stretches of about 50 metres each where you were scrambling across rocks rather than walking along a path but "severe" was a bit of an overestimate.  If they want "severe" there are some tracks in Italy I can show them.

I was a bit disappointed by the misleading rating.  If I'd known it wasn't going to be that hard I'd have headed straight to Zennor and had lunch at the pub, the Tinners Arms.  Instead, I bought yet another pasty and some fruit and took a lunch break on the trail.  I made up for it by having a pint when I got to the pub as my afternoon tea.

When I started the walk I felt pleased to have gotten away from all the crowds in St Ives.  Then I came round a headland and there was a couple resting on the grass, another with their dog admiring the view and yet another headed towards me.   When I looked back there was a group of 4 (plus a dog) coming up behind me.  It only got busier through the day.  The walk to Zennor by the coast path, lunch at the pub and then a shorter walk back by the inland path (or just a bus) apparently is a favorite with tourists. The pub did a roaring trade.

One point about the path. When I say it was boggy that is exactly what I mean - boggy not just muddy. My foot slipped off one of the stepping stones at one point and it sank into the bog to mid calf before I was able to grab onto something and stop putting weight on that foot.  I don't know how deep it went but I do know I hadn't touched the bottom.  I managed to pull my leg out, with boot still attached, with a lot of effort and much swearing.

After arriving at Zennor and having my therapeutic pint I checked into my B&B.  Since this was a house attached to the (13th century) pub this meant crossing the courtyard.  Very civilised.  The place had 4 bedrooms, 2 doubles with their own bathrooms and 2 singles with 1 shared bathroom.  There were two of us staying there so of course we had the singles, which I thought was a bit mean.  The other guest was a German girl.  We met at breakfast the next day.  She planned to walk from St Ives to Penzance but isn't feeling well.  She has a terrible cough.  Given that she also told me her usual breakfast is a cigarette and a coffee I can't say I'm surprised.

I spent the afternoon in Zennor seeing it sights - the church (dull) and the local museum (fascinating).  The museum has a collection of about 5,000 objects put together by a local eccentric.  He has collected implements from farming and various trades (cobblers, wheelwrights, smiths, coopers, and of course, miners and fisherman) as well as items from daily life like a working kitchen, a room full of old irons and washing implements and another dedicated to how to make butter and cream.  There is also a working mill and you can by grains ground by the mill in the shop.  I'm so glad I was born into my generation.  Life seemed just so much hard work not so very long ago.

After puttering around I had some local ice-cream from the Zennor Moomaid company (Zennor is famous for its mermaid - don't blame me, it's not my pun).  The milk was provided by Daisy, Molly and Sid Vicious and the rest of the herd.  They take local produce very seriously here.

I had dinner at the pub - given there was no alternative.  It was very good though.  At least the main was.  I had  confit duck leg (tasty with crispy skin) in a red wine jus with spinach and new potatoes.  For dessert I had rhubarb crumble with custard, which sadly was sickly sweet.  A pint of the local drop, the Mermaid Ale, helped.  And then across the courtyard again and to bed.  It doesn't get dark here until well after 9pm but I'm mostly so tired I'm asleep before sunset.