Day 3 Dizzard to Boscastle

When we called a halt at Dizzard last week, we knew that the 2.5 mile stretch on to Crackington Haven was going to be tough. Indeed the same farmer, as we started out, anticipated that it would take us 2 – 2.5 hours.

So on Saturday 11 July we made good time to our start point at Dizzard and set off just before 10.30. We saw some beautiful heather in flower. and the photos don’t really do it justice.

Beautiful banks of purple heather….

….interspersed with yellow flowers.

Mike made his way to  Crackington expecting us at about 1pm. In fact we made it by 12.15 so did really well and although it was tough going, we were in our stride and made a good fist of it.

What I hadn’t realised was how hard Danny was finding it. Once again the weather was brilliant, and maybe the accumulation of the previous weeks was starting to take its toll. However I did not pick up on this and as we continued on our way, after a lovely break at Crackington I started to realise that Danny was seriously slowing down. unfortunately there wasn’t a logical stop between here and Boscastle so we had no choice but to press on.

A couple of times we lost Danny as he wandered off looking to cool himself down in any water he could find. I was really concerned that he was looking to throw himself off the cliff edge trying to get to the sea! He knew that there he would find the cool. So as we continued on I went ahead with Danny trailing behind on the lead. Hilary’s dogs were running around quite happily amongst our legs, apparently not slowing down at all.

Millie and Zimba still full of energy…..

…Danny’s had enough!

At Rosey Cliff, Hilary counted a 192 step climb, which just about finished Danny off! However once we got to the top, along Beeny Cliff we could make good progress with Danny plodding along. We started to see signs of Boscastle in the distance and could gauge how much left we had to go.

We caught sight of the beautiful waterfall at Pentargon, and while the dogs were enjoying a freshen up in the stream above it, we spotted a beautiful butterfly (or moth). Hilary has since identified it as a cream spot Tiger Moth.

Cream Spot Tiger Moth

Pressing on to Boscastle we managed to alert Mike to our imminent arrival, via the hand held radios. The radios came in to their own as we know from past experience that mobile phone reception there is rubbish for us.

As we got closer to the picturesque village of Boscastle, Danny was trying to throw himself off the side again to get to the water. Fortunately my screams of panic were enough to deter him!

We eventually arrive in beautiful Boscastle

We’re not sure when we will be doing our next leg of the walk, but for now I think Danny is quite relieved to have a bit of a break.

In 5.5 hrs, distance covered 9.6 miles (15.5 k). (We thought we had gone much further!) Max height reached above sea level 208m. Once again, weather beautiful. We have been so lucky.