Having rounded Land's End, we were given a huge mental boost. We suspected we'd seen the worst of the hills in North Devon, and there's something tropical about the word 'south' which gave us hope we'd seen the back of the cold, blustery winds hitting us directly off the Atlantic. Every step from this point forward would take us closer to home, and that filled us with a strange joy. It's not that we'd stopped enjoying the trip at this stage. It was still crammed with adventure, new scenery, quaint towns and escape from regular life. It's just we were missing our homely comforts, especially our super king bed, our rain head shower and the ability to spend a week loafing around.
It was pure coincidence that the first day on this section of the trail was very mild. We thought we'd seen the back of the cold winds which hit us most days on the northern section. It soon came back as we dropped further south.
South Cornwall did have a different feel to the previous county sections. Vegetation was more lush, less exposed rocky sections, and a different class of tourist, seemingly seeking sunbathing beaches and pleasant promenade walks versus surfing beaches and rocky harbours found in the north.
Favourite memories from this section included finding special wild camps in a more populated area, rounding the Lizard in one of the worst weather days that we experienced on the SWCP, better selection of real ales versus the northern sections, and looking down on some very special beach coves.
By Darrell Grundy - visited on 19 July 2015