Day 9: Boscastle to Widemouth

Today was my first fail, in that I did not reach Bude as planned – fell about 3 miles short, though for good reason.

My host Christopher Darwin dropped me back at the Wellington Hotel in Boscastle. I had stayed there in about 1998 on a residential as part of my TCO1 counselling course (excellent course). A few years later came the terrible Boscastle Floods, where the Tv showed images of the Welly with waterfalls coming out o the upstairs windows!

Today was the first day that was not humid, and there was a nice breeze all day. The best walking weather so far.

I had a good morning and stopped for a sandwich in the lovely Crackington Haven (very steep to get in and out of).

I then went via a hamlet called St Gennys, in order to take a short cut. However the footpath there had been closed and so I had to do a very steep and strenuous part of the coast path which took 90 minutes, at which point I arrived where the closed footpath would have come out – it should have taken only 15 minutes.

The rest of the day was good path and road walking, with some more very steep bits, but because I was behind I decided to stop at Widemouth rather than do the remaining 2.5 – 3 miles to Bude. 15 miles of that hilly terrain was enough, thank you.

The Darwins treated me to an excellent supper – liver from one of their own lambs, which had been slaughtered only 2 days before. It turns out that Christopher Darwin lived in Oxton as a boy and went to school in Halam – just a mile or so from where I live in Maythorne!

After supper we went to hear an excellent folk band, ANNOWN, rehearsing, as they do regularly, in the Darwin’s lambing shed. www.annown.co.uk

Then I retired to my room to revise my route for the next two days – by avoiding the Hartland peninsula altogether (a pity) I can catch up enough miles to be back in step by Sunday.

---

To support any of the four charities go to https://linktr.ee/guygoesnorth

---

Daily Data

Days left until John O’Groats	67
Route miles walked	125.03
Estimated miles until John O’Groats	924
Evening and rest day walking	3.5
Counties walked through	1
Ferry miles	0.4
Number of walking companions so far	2
Number of stiles crossed	37
Current sponsorship total	£12,183.82
Cast of characters	Jeremy Pemberton, Laurence Cunnington, Brad Poulson, Adele Poulson, Graeme Parkhill, Andy Hellwig, Patrick Lynn, Esther Lynn, Emma Rayner, Quentin Rayner, Sara Low, Robbie Low, Christopher Darwin, Heather Darwin

Support the Charities

To donate to any of the four charities, click here.