Short take -- short day.
Mel and Jan left early this morning (unfortunately!), so we were seven when we set off shortly before 10. My customary Captain-Bligh-like attitude was softened somewhat because the hike was short and the weather forecast unproblematic -- clouds and sun, mild temperatures, and a light breeze.
The climb out of Cadgwith was steep and, as has from time to time been the case, between high hedges set close together (it's kind of like going along a one-way tunnel at times... and it is just as well that there haven't been too many other hikers on the Coast Path because passing one another is not always easy!).
Actually, I'll continue with the aside... I've wondered why we haven't seen many other hikers (the last couple of days excepted... a special case because it has been a bank holiday weekend), and I think that one reason is that this past winter has been exceptionally long (basically it only started to get warmer about a week before we started our hike). So people here in the UK, who make up the bulk of the hikers along the Coast Path, have been thinking more about how to avoid going outside, rather than planning hiking trips.
The other alternative is that only the insane go hiking in England in early May. But that seems unconvincing, right?
Returning to the main body of the narrative... fairly shortly we came out onto the cliff tops and walked over springy turf (a couple of days ago it was so thick and springy that it was like walking on a trampoline), or on serpentine rocks often polished smooth by walkers' boots, between wild-flowers and yellow-flowering gorse, with weathered outcrops of grey stone and ancient overgrown hedgerows, and always with these wonderful views down the cliffs to the sea below.
After a while we came over a stile upon which there was a sign saying "Ponies grazing"... and shortly afterwards there were the ponies. They might have been wild, but if so they were so used to people that they didn't even bother to get up as we walked by them lying on the ground.
A little later still, we three men were walking ahead, and the four women came across a little snake. "Cute", they thought, and got up close to take photos... which when they showed me later I immediately identified as an adder. Perhaps we should hike together more often.
We arrived at Coverack around 2:30PM even having walked at a very leisurely pace, found our hotel, checked in, and spent the rest of the afternoon taking baths, playing games, catching up on emails, and so on. A short day, but a nice one.
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