My personal philosophy of walking

Lizard Peninsula walking holiday in Cornwall 2011

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  on Sunday, 25 September 2011 21:06

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The Lizard coastal walk. 60kms or 37.5 miles of coast path from Porthleven to Helford on the Helford River around the Southernmost point of the UK.

It is the beauty of the place, unrivalled even within the county of Cornwall that brings so many people back here year after year and keeps us locals revisiting on a weekly basis. The colours and light forever changing and reinventing the words that describe a beautiful landscape.

This was made for a five-day walk with neat 7.5-mile chunks for five days. Now all we needed was good weather and some friendly faces. With Linda and Stan from Seattle, Yunsuk from Germany, Helen from the UK and Mascha from Holland we had an International troupe tramping the coast path.

We cross a geological fault twice on the trip and this delineates the Lizard peninsula from the rest of Cornwall. It is an area unparalleled in its formation. In short the rocks we walk upon are from where the Earth’s crust and Mantle are that have been metamorphosised to create the Serpentine, Schists and Gneiss of the Lizard. Troctolite, Gabbro, Basalt, Granite and Slate make up the list of rocks that one can see over the course of the walk. With unique rocks come special soils, flowers and everchanging landscape.

Additionally, around every corner there is not only tales of shipwrecks and smuggling but also great tales of maritime prowess of shipbuilding, valour of the many Lizard lifeboat crews and the protection by the Navy of the British Empire. We relate stories of the beginning of International communication through telegraphy and wireless and satellite technology all starting from this peninsula in the backwater of Cornwall.

We ran our first Lizard walking week in September 2011. We are planning two next year to take advantage of the floral display of plants one does not see anywhere else in the UK. From Spring and Autumn squill and Cornish heath to some of the rarities we saw this time around like monkshood whilst we saw the choughs on a couple of occasions.

Check the walkitcornwall facebook page for larger versions of the photos.

Check the walkitcornwall facebook site for larger photos of these and many more