St Just to Treen

One of the problems I am having is marrying up the bus routes with walks along the coast. Today had me start the work at a town called St Just, when I got there I really liked it, there were lots of interesting shops, a real town. I had myself a Pasty, and a drink to top myself up for the walk. I have been using a reused plastic bottle to carry water on the walks. 

I left the village, walked down a hill, and where there was a stream bubbling away like all the others, I turned into a narrow road. I met several people who were walking their dogs, one lady told me that she knows of someone who takes a bucket of water from the stream every day and drinks it. It looks clear enough, but I am not sure I would be so brave. One thing I noticed on my way here is the profusion or old Tin mining structures, usually a chimney and some remains of other buildings. 

In amongst these buildings was one of those triangulation point concrete structures seen around the countryside. The coastline was very rugged, more waves pummelling the rocks below.  I saw a  structure that puzzled me, a circle of stones a metre high, enclosing what looked like a hole. I don’t think these structures used to be chimneys but I might be wrong. Some clever person had put a sign in a field saying “is this the sign you have been looking for”. I then came across a National Trust site “Levant Mine”. There were several signs explaining the site, this mine extracted Copper and Tin, under sea, to about a mile from the mine workings, to a depth of 549m below the seabed. 

One can only imagine the in trepidation the miners felt as they were lowered down the shaft. And so they should, tragically on October 20th 1919 a linkage broke which resulted in 31 miners crashing down to their deaths. Those deeper levels were never worked again.

Not far from here is the Geevor mine, the last to be shut down. It looks more like a modern mine, such as the coal mines we all remember from not so long ago. You can go and visit, go underground and see around the workings. I carried on heading in the direction of St Ives. The coastline is truly beautiful and the relic of mining reminded me somewhat of Mega Livadi, on Serifos where I lived, there they were working for Iron. 

Another thing that reminds me of that Greek island are the flowers. Because these coastlines are not actively farmed, nature is in full flow. Because the climate is not like a Greek island, we have greenery and flowers all summer through. Flowers that you don’t see in my part of the country.

Next to be seen, was the Pendeen Lighthouse including what looked like fog horns. 

The walk continued, heading up and down, with more wonderful views. Where the down part of the walk ended there was a beach, a cove or a river running into the sea. 

One thing I also liked on the path, were the gates, wooden ones rot, a lot of these were metal but made so they looked attractive and pleasing to the eye. There was a wooden one, which I really had a lot of trouble opening, I was about to climb over it, no mean feat when it gave way to my tinkering. I saw a herd of Highland Cattle munching away in a field and after another gate we were warned wild Ponies were present. I did see a few. There was a flower head with some very brightly coloured insects on, which did not look real!

My last glimpse of the coastline before I turned inland was near Treen, after a short walk I reached the Gurnards Head which at three pm was still open. I had time to kill as my bus wasn’t for a while. However another bus arrived and two locals told me to jump on it, as I could get a connection back to Penzance. However although this was good advice, there was another wait at the next stop, which was by another pub! My two local friends went inside and it seems to me there is always a bus stop by all the pubs here! After a while they came out, just in time to catch the bus. The two bus journeys were white knuckle adorned, places the lane was barely as wide as the bus. If you are a nervous passenger maybe don’t drive these country roads. I imagined that these buses probably need repainting more often than their urban relatives, but the driver had everything under control. Where he knew the driver of the other car a short conversation erupted between them, including on one occasion, “ you, twice today !,”.  

After a well deserved rest, I walked out for dinner and saw this lovely old boat, registered in Spain, unfortunately no one to tell me more about it unfortunately.