July 3, 2006

Kind of a lonely walk, this one. Faced with another "13 mile" day (the book said 13.5 miles, I have to admit my heart wasn't fully in it. And having no real sun to speak of put a gloomy cast on the day. That said, the flip side of gloomy can be romantic, and some of the empty stretches of beach and field were precisely that.

The top picture is Porthleven, left in the distance and the Porthleven sands in the foreground. They stretch for quite a bit, but are largely inacessible except for a few entry points at the start (or so it seemed; soon I was so high on the cliffs that I can't imagine how anyone could get down there, but I did see some people strolling and a dog or two). 

The coast has a history of being well-defended for centuries; I couldn't get to this small outcropping, but it looks like a gun turret that's long been abandoned. 
 
 
Porthleven sands gives way to The Loe Pool, which sounds a bit like an old Dirty Harry film but is actually a section of the ocean that's been cut off by the sand bar. The whole thing once went much further inland, but now the tides don't quite reach it, as I understand.
There's some kind of guest house on the left of the picture above, and the gate is open and accessible if you want to wander the Loe Pool grounds, but as you can see, the sign indicates you should keep away from the water itself. Not sure why the pool is so dangerous, but I'll take their word for it. I cut down towards the beach and walked across (and got another sand sample).
Some random happenings: I came acros what looked like a little shrine of shells placed in an open part of a rock wall. It was too high for a child to have just put it there while playing, which makes it oddly adult and deliberate. And on the right, one of those reckless caterpillars. I don't know what kind they are -- I sure hope not gypsy moth, in which case I should have squashed them all) but they were very determined to be out in the middle of the path. Either that, or suicidal.
Yon Loe Pool, in all of its dangerous glory. According to the Interweb, it's the largest freshwater lake in Cornwall, and legend has it that this is where King Arthur's sword, Excalibur, was tossed by Sir. Bedivire. No sign of watery tarts, however.