Famous last words

Day 9
Distance : 30, Cumulative : 273
Location : Lands End

The campsite we had set down in on night 8 was fairly basic with no shop or food facilities so we set off on day 9 on empty stomachs but we didnt let that bother us as we knew that if we pushed for just 30 miles we would reach Land's End by the end of the day. It didnt take long to pack up the tent and get back on the road.

As it tuns out the village we had stayed in the night before was extremely close to Hayle which had been our target the night before and we were soon through Hayle and heading from the north coast to Penzance on the south coast.

Shortly after hayle I raided my emergency stash of a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar for a healthy breakfast which I sat and ate sitting in the car park of a local church in St Erth whilst we watched photos being taken for a baptism.

Full of sugar in my system we pushed on once more.

After quite a lot of cycle lanes we turned a hilltop to see a coastline. We knew we had to ride beside the railway for a while and so were unsure where we were. A few minutes later and we came in sight of St Michael's Mount. The town we could see in the distance must be Penzance.

We found ourselves charged with renewed energy at the thought of being so close to the finish line headed in to Penzance. Our progress slowed somewhat as we aproached Penzance from beside the railway line as Steve's love of trains kicked in and there was a lot of slow cycling and pauses for photos. For a town of its size it was surprising how small the train station was.

I checked the NCN route map and after finding out we were still 18 miles from our destination I suggested we push on in order to make it by daylight. One thing we hadnt accounted for was being in Penzance on a sunday. Every single food shop was shut so we rode on a short distance up the coast to Newlyn where we managed to find a costcutter that was open and made do with a light lunch from there eaten watching the ships out at sea.

We left Newlyn and passed through Mousehole following the NCN route back inland before heading out to Land's End. This meant going from a village on the coast at sea level up some extremely steep village lanes for which we both got of and walked, there was just no way to ride up they were so steep.

What followed was just lots of fairly featureless country lanes but we werent too bothered as Land's End was now about 12 miles away and definately within reach.

As 5pm approached the lanes opened out to reveal the Land's End cliffs and the village of Sennen Cove nearby. We took the coast footpath and at last crossed the Land's End "finish line" at 5pm to be greeted by a rather gaudy tourist trap. However, walking around the side of these few tourist stores revealed the actual Land's End behind them.

I had been forewarned that the famous spot with the sign post stating you were at Land's End was run by a private family business and to have your photo taken with the sign was £5. However we had brought a compass and found the much more nondescript area of gravel just beside the sign was further west so Steve and I contented ourselves with photos taken at this spot instead.

After a quick drink and a few sweets from Steve's stash we set off once more to find a B&B for the night. It was at this point we discovered Sennen Cove had one booked out B&B and one booked out inn. We then climbed all the way back up the extremely steep hill from Sennen Cove and discussed what to do from here as it was now about 7 and we still had nowhere to sleep.

We tried an inn at the top of the cliffs declaring itself to be the last inn and found out that it didnt rent out rooms (thats just a pub to my mind). As we cycled along we saw a sign for a holiday park and decided we might as well get a spot there as we had the tent. Turns out their reception was only open for 1 hour at about 11am on sundays so we couldnt even book in. I was too tired to go on so we headed on in to the site to put the tent up anyway.

We found ourselves in the "wild camping" section stuck the tent up (so much for no more camping) and then found that the showers were only accesible with tokens from guess where, the locked reception. This presented a problem as it also meant no toilets. We then decided to walk back to the "inn" for dinner and also avail ourselves of their facilities.

After a meal and a couple of drinks we headed back to the tent and spent the night trying to sleep whilst a bit of a storm raged overhead. Thankfully the tent was up to the job and we remained warm and dry all night.

After this experience I had no interest in the original plan of staying a day in Sennen before heading home. I wanted to be off as soon as possible so we decided to head back to Mousehole or Newlyn in the morning and get a B&B there tomorrow and have fun wandering around the town.