Walking blog: The philosophy of walking

Geology on the Lizard - A french school visit.

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  on Sunday, 10 April 2011 06:41

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If you know your geology of Brittany then the words schist and pink granite will sprinkle the conversation. These are common on the Lizard. Today it was a pleasure to welcome to our peninsula 43 students and three teachers from the Kerichen school from Brest. Having spent overnight on the ferry across from France and then a coach trip from Plymouth to the Lizard, they still managed to remain interested, proactive and continually inquisitive about the landscape. They were a fabulous group and a credit to their school and teachers.

We started at Mullion Cove for the Wow factor on a clear and sunny morning where we talked about how vegetation changes can inform one of the nature of the underlying rocks. Serpentine and schist will produce different vegetation and landscape uses from farming on the schists to unique flora on the serpentine.

We stood astride the fault line on Polurrian cove, the fault crossing the peninsula to Porthallow on the east side. Another Wow at Kynance Cove where we walked down to the beach and looked at the bastite and tremolite serpentine. By then it was about eight hours since they had eaten breakfast so it was off to Anns Pasties for some preordered pasties and some traditional Cornish fayre. Many thanks to Ann and the crew for getting three boxes of pasties together, individually wrapped and tagged on the bag. Not a crumb was left!

Then onto Kennack Sands where we put the jigsaw pieces of the Lizard together with basalt, gabbro, Kennack gneiss, pink granite and serpentine all in the mix, The tide was out (which is why we did it this way round) so that they could also do a seaweed survey. The rock pools were amazing and the tide was very low.

It was wonderful to see so many students interested and investigating what we sometimes take for granted on our own doorstep.The fact that they travelled a distance to come and see it should remind us that we have something special right here.

Go on, make the effort and get out there.