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Kynance Cove circular via Old Lizard Head and Lizard Village

February 16, 2015February 17, 2015ricketyramblerLeave a comment

Monday 16th February 2015 (Day 1, week 7)

Hello Everyone

Hope you’re all having a good evening whatever you’re up to. Here are the latest ramblings from a great day out with Ms B.

Thanks for reading

Julie

P.S. At the end of the post are some pictures of pen and ink drawings by Mr RR – have a look, they’re lovely!

Target – 1000 miles in one year. Weekly goal – 20 miles

Total achieved so far – 132 miles (target 140)

Achieved this week – 4.1 miles

Kynance Cove circular via Old Lizard Head and Lizard Village (4.1 miles)

Well, what a treat I had today! I was joined on my first walk of the week by my very good friend Ms B, who kindly collected me from home and drove us both to our starting point. It’s good to walk and talk with a friend and today, having discovered that my previously ‘good’ shoulder is now not so good, proving that I am indeed ‘rickety’, a walk and a talk followed by a wholesome lunch – and a little chocolate – was just what I needed.

The earlier downpours had abated and we set off towards the Lizard, in bright sunshine with just a few fluffy clouds overhead. Standing and looking out over the choppy waves we could see Kynance Cove with its dramatic rocky islands to our right.

The heathland behind us is a conservation site and is managed by several organizations including the National Trust, Natural England and Cornwall Wildlife Trust. It has many national and international designations, which help protect it, as it is host to a range of rare plant and invertebrate species.

As we walk along the cliff path we hear the raucous sound of a pair of rooks having a lively conversation perched atop a drystone wall. They are enormous, these birds, with deadly looking bills – as we watch they seem to have reached agreement about which direction to take, and fly off towards Kynance Cove.

Walking on we scramble down over the hill and up the other side before passing through the electric fence enclosing the grazing ponies. Here every year, this herd of pretty Shetlands, are brought in to help conserve the heathland; they are gentle and quiet, though I’m not convinced about their proximity, being as I am, wary of large four-legged creatures. Ms B, however, does not worry about such things and approaches slowly for a chat:

Ahead of us, silhouetted against the skyline is Old Lizard Head, with his nose pointing to the sky as if checking the weather.

And indeed, as we walk towards him, the rain starts to fall, although it doesn’t last long.

We go down over the hill towards Lizard Point – no choughs to be seen – and I point out that sign, remember the one that made me smile before? The way down to the beach is steep – if you climb down, you may not be able to get your dog back up the ladder!

Back up the other side and from here we can look down on the old lifeboat station, now disused, but stationed here for over 100 years until the mid 1900s when it was moved around the coast to Kilcobben Cove. We carry on past the lighthouse with its spooky foghorns, silent today as the horizon is clear, but I’ve walked underneath these monsters in the fog – and they are loud!

Carrying on along the coast path we scour the bay for seals, but they’ve moved elsewhere today and all we see down on the rocks are gulls. Down over the steep path to Housel Bay, a little inlet, but with the wind now whipping up ferocious waves its not a place to linger – except to watch a wagtail hopping about the rocks between the waves before fleeing the sea to take shelter further along the coast.

Here we decide that it’s lunchtime and head inland, following a tumbling stream uphill to the road, and then walking through Lizard Village in a quest for lunch at my favourite café – sadly it’s not to be! Still closed for a winter break. So we move on across the green to the high path along the hedgerow, giving us views of the whole walk that we’ve completed so far from Kynance Cove to Lizard Village. The wind is getting up now and its bitingly cold up on this high wall but a couple of stiles and muddy fields and we’re back at the car and heading off to Mullion Meadows for lunch.

Illustrations may be for sale – please contact the artist if you are interested in finding out more – amajorart@yahoo.co.uk

Long Rock to Marazion via Marazion Marshes and back again.

February 15, 2015ricketyramblerLeave a comment

Sunday 15^th February 2015 (Day 7, week 6)

Hello,

I hope you’ve all had some glorious sunshine today too!

This is walking day 26. There have been 25 other walking days before this one – I may eventually get them all on-line. Thanks for reading.

Julie

Target – 1000 miles in one year. Weekly goal – 20 miles

Total achieved so far – 127.9 miles (target 120)

Achieved this week – 20.3 miles

Long Rock to Marazion via Marazion Marshes and return (4.2 miles)

What a glorious day, my oh my, plenty of sunshine and spring is in the air – I’m convinced.

Today we had a stroll from the car park at Long Rock, along the cycle path beside the railway track to the outskirts of Marazion and crossed the road to enter Marazion Marshes, where we had a wander about before heading on in to Marazion for a cup of tea.

The bright sun reflecting off the calm waters of Mounts Bay was in our eyes as we set off along the busy track. The neglected and derelict land, with half built or abandoned buildings on our left was a sharp contrast to the stunning views of the beach ahead and the bay on our right. We approached the Marshes stopping for a squint at the reed beds to see what was around and spying several rabbits, a couple of swans and an egret immediately.

Marazion Marshes is an RSPB maintained sight, contains Cornwall’s largest reedbed and hosts hundreds of species of plant, animals, insects and birds. Next to the protected marsh we can climb a low stile and enter the site, tramping over wet ground towards the lake and following grassy tracks between the reed beds. Along the way we catch sight of a small brown bird flitting through the trees, a reed warbler we think, although a look at the internet later reveals that Cetti’s warblers have been seen here only yesterday.

(Photos courtesy of Mr RR – you will come to know that I am always forgetting my camera!)

Leaving the marshland we walked on along the road into Marazion traversing the length of the village before finding an open café where we had tea and excellent cinnamon toast.

We return along the same route, the sun still shining. While we’ve been away a small flock of oyster catchers have come to pick over the grass for worms and two large geese have landed at the edge of the water – difficult to identify, we first of all think they are Barnacle Geese, but another search of the internet reveals that these are probably hybrid geese.

Hello world!

February 15, 2015February 15, 2015ricketyrambler1 Comment

Well hello!

This blog is the story of my walking. Let me tell you about it and why I’m rambling on here.

At the end of last year I had surgery on my shoulder, following which I was pretty inactive for 6 weeks or so. Then one day early in the new year, my physio said that the best thing I could do now was to walk. Walking gets your arms moving (it also distracts you from the nagging pain!). The very next day my Country Walking magazine plopped through the letter box announcing the 2015 ‘walk 1000 miles in a year’ challenge. For some reason, I instantly announced to Mr RicketyRambler that I was going to do this – walk 1000 miles in the next year. ‘Ha!’ he replied. ‘That’s about 20 miles a week, every week’. ‘Ha ha’ said I. ‘I will!’ And so it began.

After the first walk, I decided I had to keep some sort of record otherwise a) I would be tempted to overguestimate the miles walked (a bit like calories but the other way round) and b) no-one would ever believe I’d done it! So I wrote a diary of the walk and sent it to Mr RR and our offspring, Ms RR and the Messrs RR and also to my lovely friend Ms B. All were enthusiastic and have been very encouraging, so – to make it easier to access, I’ve decided to make the diaries into a blog – and here it is!

Why ricketyrambler? Well, first, it’s really difficult to find a blog title that someone hasn’t already got and second, when I looked up ‘rickety’ the meaning was so right: ‘aged’ ‘imperfect’ and ‘dilapidated’ is exactly me!

Anyway…..feel free to read (or not) and comment. Also – please remember that these posts are just my ramblings, they are what I remember of each walk, what stuck in my mind, what interested me. In no way should they be used to plan your own walking – if you want to walk one of these walks – do it safely – get a map, wear the right gear, watch the weather and then have fun!

Thanks for reading.

Julie