Lands end to Porthcurno

I decided despite the slightly grey and drizzly weather to go to Lands end and walk along the coast to Nanjizal Bay. It would be a linear walk, after returning to Land End I thought I could walk the other direction on the coastal path. I caught the number one bus, as there is a fair in town we were diverted inland around it.  Later on as we neared our destination and the roads became ever narrower I wondered if in the summer the buses get horribly delayed? At one point our bus driver, driving a double decker had to reverse quite a distance into a passing place as heading towards us was a larger convoy. When we got to Lands End I noted it was only ten miles back, to Penzance, it was a one hour journey. We were dropped off in the car park and I wandered into the complex, a mish mash of all sorts of things, dare I say some a little bit tacky. I bought myself my usual Cornish pasty, unfortunately the filling was nice, not so the pastry. According to some information nearby the tin miners ate these and gave the crimped bit to the “Knockers”,  the spirits of the tin mines. By doing so it continued they avoided consuming Arsenic where they held the pasty. Another sign said the Hotel here was hit in WW2, the bar destroyed and one person killed. Of course the famous sign post was there to see , you can have it personalised and a photo taken with you in situ.

Enough being had of the Lands End site, I headed off along the coastal path. I reached a farm soon after where there were two Llamas in an enclosure. My first photo opportunity despite the weather, was an arch, in the rock, Enys Dodnam Arch. It’s a bit of a murky photo but you get the idea.

Despite the murk, I could hear the sea crashing into the rocks. It was also in parts emerald in colour. There was a lot of what looked like Thyme growing and also Honeysuckle. Where it was in profusion you could smell it. I also saw big bushes of Wild Roses too and the ever present Bracken. There were quite a few people on the path, in parts the Bracken was nearly as tall as me. Unfortunately in a few places, there were a few signs of humans having walked this path, with empty water bottles and so on. From looking at my online map, I could see I was making good progress. An alternative plan of today’s walk started to come into my mind. 

I came across a sign that warned walkers to keep on the paths as the Cornish Choughs were nesting at this time of the year and to keep dogs on a lead. The Chough is the County’s National bird. It looks a bit like a Blackbird. Ironically I came across a couple who were walking towards me with a black dog, free of its lead, it came bounding towards me, and wanted to give me a big hello, which I returned. I then met someone who was heading in my direction, he was from nearby Bracknell, we had a chat, he told me one of the bridges over the Thames which has been closed for several years is now open again. We traded places in our own little race to my new stopping place that is Porthcurno, near an open air theatre I have seen before. I knew my bus on its way stopped off here. 

I also spotted something that momentarily puzzled me. Every so often on the path were little paths of sawdust. I realised soon after that it was a marker for runners or  walkers. Over time it would decompose as if it had never been there. Clever. I then came to my original stop and turn back point, the oddly named Nanjizal Bay. It’s had a nice gurgling steam into it, and a slit in the rock but not a full arch, but in a few thousand years it will probably open up to be one. Later I came across a Cafe which was open, as I told the people I met after passing it, which cheered a few fatigued walkers up! There was a lovely beach nearby at Porthgwarra with an arch and a warning..

I then passed a sign for St Levans well, which seemed more like a stream to me, and passed around the Minack Open Air theatre. I have seen it before, and I wanted to see something I had not seen before. I then came across the beautiful triangular beach that is Porthcurno.

I then walked inland towards the village. What I wanted to see was a Museum of Communication in the village. I saw it from the bus. What was it doing there? Once I got inside the museum had many artefacts of ancient communication, for example morse and gradually moving towards more modern methods. But the anchor point of the museum was the fact that the original telegraph cables that ran under the sea came ashore in this little village

Suffice to say there was an entrepreneur at the heart of this, a John Pender, known as the “Cable King”. His original intention was to have the cables come inland at Falmouth but the boat activity was deemed too dangerous for the cables longitivtiy. There is an underground bunker built to protect the operations in WW2, there are now fibre optic cables coming ashore now, to replace the old metal ones. Much has happened to communication technology since then and the museum does an excellent job of telling that tale. It brings us up to date with Mobile technology, with a display showing many devices I could remember, including a gold coloured example of the Nokia “banana phone”. Here is an interesting statistic, 

As the service expanded more buildings were put up. The fascinating story is much better told here. Eventually I left the museum and waited for my number one bus. The Museum had a parting gift for us, whose mobile signal was inoperative in the area. A nice strong WIFI signal at the bus stop, which enabled me to do the  Evening Standard crosswords while waiting. Porthcurno comes up trumps! Later in the evening I went for a nice meal and was not molested by Seagulls at the Boatshed in Penzance.