LEJOG: Lands End to Penzance

I arrived at Lands End around 9:30, having got the overnight train to Penzance and then an open top bus to Lands End. Lands End was once described to me a pier on land and it is an apt one. Not the sort of place you want to hang around, it was still empty and I made my way to the famous sign and took a photo of it, and did the same for another walker I met, he wanted a photo with him in it which I didn't. He was walking the South West Coast Path and had made it to Lands End on day 13 which was pretty impressive. We chatted for a bit and then headed off, me going Northwards along the coastal path towards Sennen Cove. it was a nice walk but I took it easy and slow trying to help my bad foot.

Once at Sennen Cove I headed down towards the beach chatting with 3 women whose husbands were all cycling to John O Groats, while they had a bit of a holiday. It was hot now and i sat down for 15 minutes and put on some suncream and applied some Ibrupofen gel to my bad foot. I was soon at the top of the Cove , heading inland along some dusty footpaths. A helpful farmer pointed me in the wrong direction, though not maliciously and it took me a while to get back on the right course, thankfully finding a caravan site that allowed me to fill up my water bottles. I was fine for water but lacking in food only having a self concocted trail mix of nuts, seeds and dried fruit.

After a bit of road walk I had my first encounter with Cornwalls notoriously bad footpaths, I wanted to use a group of them to continue but could only locate a massive dense area of bushes with no way through, so I ended up taking a longer route over Carn Brea with its ancient burial cairns, the views from the top were great. I headed on over Tredinney Common where there were lots of large and small dragonflies, the small ones were a beautiful bright blue colour. After leaving the Common I felt the need to get out of the sun for a bit and at a shaded bridleway I stopped and took of my shoes, socks and shirt, sitting and relaxing for 20 minutes.

Continuing on I was soon at a small collection of buildings called Brane, where I headed on though some badly maintained footpaths. Some were overgrown and others had crops where the footpaths should have been. There were plenty of stone stiles showing that the footpaths existed and I eventually found my way to the church at Sancreed. It was not too far from here to the YHA in Penzance so I set off along some good enough footpaths and was soon on the outskirts of Penzance. The last footpath did defeat me, it was totally overgrown and not marked in any way, having had enough of bush bashing I headed to the YHA via some roads and was soon having a welcome shower. It had taken a fair while to walk the 17km but at least I had started, I was tired but glad to be here.