The ocean roared against the shore

The ocean roared against the shore, in the dark before the day. I pulled my coat around my throat and I turned my face away. So sung Robin Williamson in his song By Weary Well, in a set of lyrics so fine that I was tempted to just put his song up here instead of my own blathering, but blather I must I suppose.

Cornwall is a rocky place and has a fine reputation for its often lethal and unpredictable waters. The number of ships wrecked around the south Cornish coast has been estimated to be as many as three thousand, though full information seems to be difficult to find.

I had a few run-in's with the sea around here as a child, firstly mistiming my passage through a large atlantic wave at Sennen Cove so that it landed on my head, and after much tumbling and banging about I ended up about a hundred feet inshore in around six inches of water with a nicely dazed bonce. Another time on a very calm afternoon sitting on the harbour wall at Mullion (see picture above) with many others, a freak wave suddenly came over the top, drenching us all, though luckily not sending us all into the harbour.

The name of this area, The Lizard, has nothing to do with the animal but seems to be named after the cornish word, lezou, meaning headland. The Cornish have their own language, known as kernewek which is a recognised minority language of the UK and is similar to the Welsh and Breton languages, brought here by the early settlers who moved up around the western coasts a few thousand years ago.

There's not a lot of shelter around here apart from the occasional rock and a few hollows for sheep or cattle to get out of the wind. I choose a large overhanging rock to shelter under for a quick smoke and a sarnie, as stopping when wet will soon make you cold, so it is best to keep moving if possible.

Well onward and into the weather we go friends, as there's a good few miles to walk yet and then tomorrow there's the most southerly point to do and with it the walk back up to Kynance Cove. (Moves forward humming excerpts from Vaughan Williams English Folk Song Suite which is soon lost to the sound of wind and rain).

Ogu-dour Cove to Mullion

In Cornwall, between the roads the A3083 and the B3296 near Mullion is a small bridleway leading off towards Predannack Airfield. Walk along this bridleway for a couple of miles and you meet a lane, go left down the lane and eventually you come out above Ogu- dour Cove. From here you can either turn left southwards along the coast to Soapy Cove or you can turn northwards and walk along to Mullion Harbour. The descent into Mullion Harbour is steep and can get slippery, the rest of the walk isn't too difficult, depending on the weather.

All the rock along here is Serpentine which is good to see wet as it brings out the various shades of red, green white and black. The rock changes to Hornblende Schistes and Slate just further north.

It is said that you can walk all the way from Mullion down to the The Lizard in about three hours or so, but you will not see much on the way at that speed. This stretch of coast would be better done in three days rather than three hours, to take some time to have a good look around. Between Ogu-dour and Kynance Cove is the most solitary part, as it is well away from any lanes or carparks.

The coast between Mullion and the Lizard faces west. The Lizard is the most southerly tip of the UK and sticks out into the Atlantic, ensuring windy weather and high seas. Not many trees will grow on The Lizard due to the strength of the prevailing winds and the ones that do are bent over and will not get any higher than about eight to ten feet. The trees growing closest to the water were Tamarisk, but we also saw Blackthorn and brambles and a bit of Willow.

The weather was very wet and windy in late March which makes it a bit rough along the coast. Above the cliffs and inland it is partly moorlike and can be boggy. There a few houses and farms and small hamlets and villages. The coastline is crinkly-edged to the point that if you were mocking up a rocky coast most of this could be rejected as being a bit fanciful or unlikely, but there it is.

The first part of this walk takes us past Ogu-dour Cove and then around the coast to the north, where we get our first glimpse of Mullion Island and receive a good healthy facefull of rain.