Kitchen Cove

Might be a close blipsnap to freespiral’s blip, we shall see!

I was always a bit anxious about day 1 of our trek — 16 km seemed rather ambitious for me. But by yesterday afternoon I was more worried about S. “What do I do if you keel over in the middle of nowhere?” I asked him. “Deal with it,” he replied. But while we were having a drink in the pub last night he reflected on it and decided that if he were advising someone else in his condition he would tell them not to do it.

So by the time we went to bed we had a plan B, which included having a lie-in and not eating breakfast till 9:30. We felt thoroughly rested, and S looked and sounded a lot better than he did yesterday. Then our host Kevin very kindly drove us up to a car park halfway along the route, thus enabling us to skip a lot of the climbing and almost all of the walking on roads.

Extra: S, ready to go. It was great walking weather, overcast, breezy, not too hot. The sun came out later and the views over the peninsula were spectacular. With the shortened route we could afford not to hurry, and have as many rests as we wanted — even forty winks after lunch.

Coming down was a bit awkward owing to lack of signposting and a multitude of sheep tracks littered with trip hazards, but we made it to Seamount Farm by 4:30, to be greeted by Julia with a very welcome cup of tea and a home-made scone, which really hit the spot.

And later, after a shower and freshen up, freespiral kindly came to pick us up and drive us over to their little corner of paradise for a fantastic Mexican supper. Included a tour of the garden and a visit to Kitchen Cove, where I dabbled my feet in the very tempting water. Now back at the B&B for an early night and a harder day tomorrow.

Stats: 9 km, 150 m climbing, 280 m descending, nearly 6 hours including lengthy stops!