Log No 257. Wed 26th Feb 2014 - Bude to Boscastle, 16 miles (3914 miles walked)

The car park in Bude was cheap enough at £1 for 24 hours and I got going at 08.00 in the sunshine, I just need this bracing wind to stop.

The first hour was an easy low level walk to Widemouth Bay then it climbed up Penhalt Cliff just so I could have a steep descent into Millook.

After a steep climb back out of Millook the path climbed steadily along the edge of fields at the top of the slopes to reach the trig point at 164 metres at Dizzard.

I took a food break on the bench on the top, the ends of the bench gave the distances: 132 miles back to Minehead and 500 miles to Poole.

Of course, from the high point I had to drop back down almost to sea level. I met a chap on the steps down who was doing a survey, recording the actual location of the path and the condition.
He was working for Cornwall Council recording the assets of the council, he spent his days walking all the footpaths in the county, some folk get all the rubbish jobs!

At the bottom of the steps I stopped to speak to 4 female fell runners who had just come down the other side.

It was another day of downs & ups, having no sooner climbed back up from Dizzard then it was down again to climb up Cleave.

This was a gentle climb but I tripped over a stone and landed heavily on my right knee and hand, fortunately my hand took the brunt of the fall with my knee just sustaining a cut.

Going down Cleave and up to Pencannow Point I stepped off the path to let another 10 or so runners come down.

Another steep descent brought me down to Crackington Haven, it was not quite midday but I stopped here to finish off my sandwiches before the inevitable climb back up to Cambeak and continuing to climb more gently to High Cliff, the highest point of the day at 220m.

The next 3 miles were relatively easy coming down through the side of the slopes before getting back to the top of them and then following the clifftop round to Pentargon for the final stream crossing of the day.

I had just one last climb to go up round Penally Hill for the descent into Boscastle.

I thought I might have carried on to Tintagel but I had done 16 miles and although it was only 14.40 there was a bus due here in 15 minutes whereas if I'd carried on and not got to Tintagel in 2 hours I would be stuck there until 18.45.

Tourist Information had told me yesterday there was a campsite open near Widemouth Bay so after getting some supplies in I booked into the campsite to make use of the much needed facilities.

It has been another good days walk and not a drop of rain.