Walking blog: The philosophy of walking

The solitude of walking. Walking as a small group.

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  on Saturday, 21 May 2011 09:56

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You can fall in love with the Cornwall landscape over and over again. As much as group dynamics and interaction might be important for some the solitude of being immersed in this unique county alone brings its own rich rewards. Whether we go walking with 14 people like a few weeks ago (see the blog above) or with one person like it was this week the effect on ones wellbeing is immeasurable.

Helen and I enjoyed some long walks this week as we both enjoy a good yomp. Up to 12 miles a day, we also checked out various paths that I didn’t know too well and made a few discoveries. I have written recently in my monthly column in Here and Now magazine that part of the joy of walking is experimenting with direction, exploring paths and not having a full itinerary of where you are going. We practiced what I preached and to our delight found a few new paths, lunch stops and views that had not been in my armoury of walks. All the better for the future then. Special call out to the Peppercorn Kitchen Café at Perranuthnoe.

We walked around Porthleven, Loe Bar and Gunwalloe in circles of eight, walked the coast path from Helford Passage to Falmouth, the creeks of the Fal around Cowlands Creek, Kea, Combe and Trelissick, a circular through Veryan, Portloe and the Coast Path over Nare Head and finally Prussia cove, Perranuthnoe, St Michaels Mount and the coast path past Cudden Point to Hoe Point overlooking Praa Sands. A fantastic week of walking.

The butterflies are also out in force especially Speckled wood, Large white, Orange tip, Common blue, Small tortoiseshell and Red admirals. And for the fourth week in a row we had maybe a half hour of rain throughout the week.

One highlight of the week was the sighting of four basking sharks at the mouth of the Helford River.