I thought today was going to be a bit less spectacular than the first two days. I mean everyday cannot be the most amazing. And when we started out from Portreath, we did some serious hill climbs. Three in a row up and down.

And then it was true. For awhile, we just walked along, a bit off the cliff side. Easy to put in miles. These times are quiet. I set my step to Ric and we just walk. Some conversation, but mostly just quiet. It is actually one of the most relaxing times. We don’t have to pay attention to our feet or the map. We just walk in stride together.

And then we stopped to eat our cake on the side of a cliff. Yes, cake. The pub made us homemade lemon cake with lemon curd and cream cheese frosting. Such a treat. And we’re sitting there, Ric thinks that he hears a person in the bay on the beach. We peer over the side and a local woman appears behind us and peers over the edge too. She says. “Look at those baby seals. And there’s the mama.” And true enough, there were five little white fat blobs scooting around on the beach. And then we saw we saw more adults swimming around near the beach. It was a lovely moment.

And it was in a place called Hell’s Mouth, rumored to be named that because people have thrown themselves off the cliffs into the bay. Not so cute and sweet.

After Hell’s Mouth, the day changed course. I don’t know how many times a person can say breathtaking in one day, but we exceeded it. It really feels cliche to say it now, but for goodness sake, the beauty!

After a good long rest cliffside, we rounded the bend onto Godrevy Beach. A 3 mile long, 1/2 mile beach with the most perfect sand. We walked the last three miles barefoot in and out of the water.

We finished up today in St Ives. A storybook village, really.

We are taking the day off tomorrow and the next day before we start walking the really challenging parts of the trail.

Tomorrow we will do laundry and rest out feet and enjoy sleeping in a bit.

Today’s stats:

Portreath to Hayle

Total miles: 13.8 miles

Total elevation gain: 781 ft

Total time: 6 hours 20 mins.

PS. I am writing this on my phone. So please, forgive the typos and other strangeness. Also I just hiked a shit-ton of miles and I’m laying flat on my back in bed while I write this. 🤪