Was a sunny day...

.. not a cloud was in the sky, not a negative word was heard from the people passing by. Thanks to Paul Simon; it just about sums up the mood today.
Beautiful sunny weather so when I made it to the Lizard in good time I thought not to waste it and carried on to Kynance. This picture doesn't do justice to how glorious the day was but it will have to do. You can find it and many more on Komoot as usual here.

A cloudy start in Coverack but the mist soon burned off for unforecast, much appreciated sunshine. The damage suffered by Coverack was underscored by path diversions where the cliff had collapsed during storm Emma (all the worst storms are women, according to the taxi driver. Other opinions available). Not long on the trail and I came upon a complete surprise - the path went directly through a sculpture park! Great fun, all the more so for being unheralded. Reminded me of Tout quarry on Portland (see earlier blog).

My favourite was this one but there are more on Komoot. It's all the work of Terence Coventry. He's been exhibiting for years in the Pangolin Gallery in London so he's probably well known to you aesthetes but not to this philistine.

He learned sculpture at Stourbridge Art school under Keith Leonard, one of Barbara Hepworth's studio assistants. Doesn't sound the closest of links to greatness but then the assistants probably do most of the work.

I like to think of this one as the chough, Cornwall's adopted mascot, though it should really have red legs and beak so it's probably a crow, really.

On to Black Head (Pustule Point, perhaps?) where there's a National Trust lookout with interesting information and a pair of binoculars. It would make a good refuge in a storm.

From there down to Kennack Sands. First visit to a beach for quite a while, and surprisingly hard walking on it! I had forgotten to bring my water bottle (doh) so the cafe here was a welcome pit stop.

Just beyond Kennack is Poltesco, an old serpentine mine and the start of our regular Xmas walks when my mother used to live near here. The Lizard Serpentine Company built a factory here in 1855 following considerable interest after Prince Albert's tour in 1846 (and subsequent orders for mantelpieces etc for Osborne House) and the great exhibition of 1851. As fashions changed it relaunched as the Poltesco Marble Company in 1870 but finally folded in 1893. Serpentine is actually a family of rocks with various colours and there is a shop in Lizard village where small carvings are sold.

On those Xmas walks we always went to Cadgwith, absolutely the favourite place of mine and Karen's. If you get the right night you'll find the Cadgwith Singers who will happily let you join in the singing in the Cadwith Cove pub, usually well known songs to lesser-known Cornish tunes. There's a promontory rock there called the Todden from where this photo was taken

and as it exactly matches an original painting that we were given as a wedding present, I imagine it's where the artist sat.

Cadgwith has always been a fishing village and still is. It was the subject of a BBC2 series The Fisherman's Apprentice, when the naturalist Monty Halls showcased the fishing industry and its travails. All the spider crab they catch is eaten by the French as the Brits don't like it, until the programme ran a blind tasting when they did. If you buy some you'll do them a favour.

From there past the Devil's Frying Pan, a collapsed cave, another landslip diversion and on to Church Cove. The lifeboat station here is in a truly epic position. As you can see, there's a vertiginous slope just to get down to the station itself and the actual launch ramp further down is one of those spectacular old fashioned ones

Rounding the next headland I'd thought I had the Lizard in sight but the path saves these tricks for the unwary. In fact it was Bass Point which has an interesting recent history. Despite local misgivings many coastguard stations were closed in 1992 to concentrate resources on regional centres. In 1994 a Cadgwith boat was lost with no witnesses, because the lookout here had closed, and following the outcry locals raised funds to re-open it. That was the start of the National Coastwatch Institution (watchword: eyes along the coast) of which I was briefly a watchman at the Lyme Bay hut. You can read more about their excellent work here.

Bass Point also has the Lloyd's Signal Station (a private home now) which was established in 1872 by shipping agents to communicate by semaphore (remember semaphore?) with ships, to tell them market conditions and where their owners wanted them to dock. Something like this is still used in Japan to mark traffic conditions and one-way flows.

Finally then, to the Lizard (Lys Ardh – high court).

The most southerly point in Britain, vying for bragging rights with Land’s End (most westerly) and Cape Cornwall (where the tidal streams meet) and famous for the local colourful serpentine stone. It’s one of my favourite places in Cornwall with dramatic views and an ever-open café. This used to be run, inevitably perhaps, by Liz, now retired.

There has been a lighthouse here since 1751 but there have still been significant wrecks. The biggest rescue in the RNLI’s history occurred in 1907 when crews from Cadgwith, Coverack, and Porthleven rowed (yes, rowed) out for 16 hours in fog and a strong gale to rescue 456 passengers off the SS Suevic which had hit the nearby Maenheere reef. Muy hombres.

The Cornish rebellion started near here at St Keverne in 1497, led by the village blacksmith, Michael Joseph. It didn’t end well. In 1791 titanium was discovered here and in 1870 one of the first undersea telegraph cables came ashore near here, at Porthcurno. Marconi had his wireless station at Poldhu cove and received the first transatlantic radio communication from St John’s Newfoundland in 1901. RAF drytree (a joke, surely) from WWII was chosen for the Telstar project in 1962 and became the Goonhilly Earth Satellite Station.

6.5 sq miles of the Lizard is a nature reserve and there are three SSSIs here. It is also home to the Chough, Cornwall’s emblematic bird – a corvid with red legs and beak.

The Jennifer McQuiston novel The Spinster's Guide to Scandalous Behavior is set in the fictional nineteenth century village Lizard Bay.

As you can (just about) see, there is some competition to be the most southerly cafe in Britain:

From here I pressed on to Kynance but only as far as the car park, for my taxi pick up, so photos of the Cove await tomorrow's blog. However it was such a perfect day that I couldn't resist taking a few more of this section. Note the old lifeboat station below the Lizard (in the last photo), moved to the more sheltered position you saw in Church Cove earlier.

Tomorrow hopefully I'll make Porthleven and the end of this leg of the trip, before coming back on the 15th with Nic. (Wonder if he's in training - usually not). 

If the day's half as good as today I'll be a very happy camper.

Peter