Martin incomes his cream tea, scones, and a nicely deserved relaxation alongside the South West Coast Path.
Once in a while a notice lands in our inbox that we need to learn twice. This one got here from a hiker simply house from a multi-day stretch of the South West Coast Path with Hillwalk Excursions written with the form of element you solely get from somebody who slowed down sufficient to essentially see a spot. It captures precisely why this nook of Cornwall will get below your pores and skin and stays with you. Whether or not you’d moderately take it slowly on one in every of our Light hikes or cowl a bit extra floor every day on a Average hike, the magic Martin describes is ready on each step of the path. Learn on for a flavour of what a hike on the South West Coast Path has to supply.
A coast that adjustments by the hour
The surroundings, Martin wrote, was “the star of the present” and it’s straightforward to see why. Up on the cliff-tops, he discovered “a panorama blooming in shades of yellow, blue, and pink with gorse, foxgloves, and primroses.” He was struck that “vegetation that in Germany are discovered solely as small summer season or houseplants develop wild right here, some reaching a number of meters in peak.”
Then the bottom falls away. “Rugged cliffs generally black, generally purple alternate with kilometer-long, hundreds-of-meters-wide sandy seashores and dunes many meters excessive, lined within the best sand.” On a superb day you’ll share these seashores with “a number of surfers, kiteboarders, and sure even the occasional hardy swimmer who jumps into the 14-degree ‘heat’ water.”
The ocean does its personal factor fully. Martin watched “the water shimmer from darkish blue to turquoise,” with waves that rise “as excessive as a home” towards the rock earlier than flowing “again, foaming white,” all below “a white-and-blue sky.” And the climate? He wouldn’t have it another method. “You must benefit from the wind,” he wrote, “and also you shouldn’t draw back from the occasional quick however intense rain bathe, adopted by sunshine. However that solely enhances your immersion in nature!”
Two surfers driving breaking waves within the sea off the South West Coast Path in Cornwall.
The locals: seals, hovering crows, and one very daring seagull
You shortly realise you’re not the one one who loves it out right here. Sheep stand within the gusts getting windswept new hairstyles, seals lounge on the rocks, and gulls experience the updraughts alongside the cliffs, generally hanging immobile within the air only a few metres out of your shoulder. Which brings us to our favorite line in the entire notice:
“In the event you’re leisurely munching in your sandwich, you’ll be able to usually get a a lot nearer take a look at the birds for a second earlier than they take off once more with the sandwich of their beaks.”
Take into account your self warned. Elsewhere alongside the trail the crows placed on a present, hovering and diving down the cliff faces whereas one older chook watches the entire thing like a flight teacher. Rabbits duck into the gorse and at times a horse or a cow leans over a stone wall to see who’s coming alongside.
A hillside blushing pink with sea thrift in full bloom.
A shoreline that remembers
There’s historical past woven via each mile right here too. Cornwall spent centuries mining tin, copper and tungsten, and the coast, Martin famous, is “dotted with mines usually solely faintly recognizable, however largely well-secured mine shafts,” alongside “the stays of former mine buildings with their slender, towering structure and infrequently ornate, embellished chimneys.” These chimneys as soon as housed the steam engines “wanted to pump water out of the tunnels, a few of which prolonged far beneath the ocean.”
Then, extra sobering, the remnants of World Warfare II defences which Martin described as standing “like a raised index finger,” a quiet warning “towards repeating such errors.” It’s the form of layering that turns a stroll into one thing nearer to a dialog with the panorama.
The stays of a Cornish mine engine home standing sentinel above the ocean.
Why all of it felt so easy
Right here’s the factor a few stroll like this: the surroundings is simply restful if nothing else is nagging at you. That’s the half we take to coronary heart. Martin described the journey as “completely organized,” praising “the fantastic little lodgings, a fully heat welcome, and a breakfast that offered loads of vitality for every day’s hike.”
Then there’s the bag you by no means have to hold: baggage transport Martin referred to as “fully dependable,” shifting on forward whilst you stroll gentle. And the route notes, which he singled out as “extraordinarily complete tour supplies,” together with “detailed descriptions of the route, potential alternate options, and factors of curiosity, proper all the way down to suggestions for eating places and pubs.” It’s the distinction between merely following a path and truly understanding the place you’re strolling via.
The half we will’t put in a brochure
We are able to plan the beds, transfer the luggage and write the notes. What occurs out on the trail is yours and our walker captured it higher than any advertising and marketing line we may write:
“Anybody who walks this path will overlook the world and immerse themselves in nature. Worries, stress and the hustle and bustle fall away. You hike feeling relaxed and content material, and are stunned to search out your self ‘already’ at your vacation spot though, trying again, the place to begin appears so distant.”
That’s the sensation we’re actually within the enterprise of, creating the form of experiences the place you allow the enterprise of on a regular basis life far behind you for some time. And the closing line of the notice instructed us every thing we would have liked to find out about whether or not the journey landed it wasn’t a criticism, however a request for extra:
“Please supply a number of extra sections of the Coastal Path. Who else am I supposed to show to? ;-)”
We’re busy increasing our assortment of trails proper now. We’re presently including new Portugal strolling routes together with a Lisbon & Sintra-Cascais Pure Park and a Porto and Douro Valley path via the terraced vineyards alongside new extensions to the Pembrokeshire Coast Path in Wales. And there’s extra on the way in which: we’ll be asserting a number of brand-new trails throughout 2027 and 2028, so regulate the web site.
Fishing boats hauled up on the slipway in a quiet Cornish cove.
Come stroll it
If that is the form of slowing-down you’ve been needing, the South West Coast Path is ready wildflowers, sea spray, sandwich-thieving gulls and all. We’ll deal with the planning so you are able to do the one half that issues on the market: search for, breathe out, and hold strolling.
Discover our self-guided strolling excursions →
