A challenging 1/2 stage

This was a 1/2 stage (8 miles) because the young, the hale, the hearty, the fools walk all the way to Bude up and down and up and down and up and down such steep, paths, I cannot tell you. Some have more than 150 stairs, and that is not counting the sections that are stairless. Es mucho trabajo. And the "easy" section today, at the start, was so heavily overgrown with grasses and such, that when I emerged, so covered with seeds or whatever was I, that I thought I would sprout Queen Anne's Lace any minute. And it was raining and misty. Boots are sopping. So much for the waterproofing. It was a great walk, though!

I could not resist a last photo, as the tide was beginning to go out, at Hartland Quay



So many ways to punctuate that!




Maaaamaaaa and her Wilbur who did, eventually, move, at which moment it was clearly nursing time, which made the lambie's tail go a mile a minute!




Here, at this very spot, SS 21577 20234 on the British grid, were consumed a carefully tended nectarine purchased at that wonderful little shop in Instow, the one that sold the walnuts from China, and three cherries ('cause that is all that were left):




A sample of today's terrain:



Drops of water:



Morwenstow, the half way point between Hartland Quay and Bude supports a tearoom of renown and a pub that lets three rooms. The tearoom does serve gorgeous teas, but to a minimum of two, so a bowl of soup and a scone had to do. The pub is old and adorable, but room over the bar, very noisy and the plumbing in the shower and the sink is falling apart. Chootz mizeh, everything is fine!

Oh, a woman at the bar asked if they served dinner to dogs! (They don't.)

In these parts, the historical person of note is Robert Stephen Hawker, a 19th C vicar. While he may be famous for many things, what I find intriguing about him is that at 19 he was married to his godmother, 41 (she came with some money to finance his education), and after she died, some 40 years later, Hawker, then aged 60 married a woman, aged 20. He did not get to enjoy his second wife as long as he did his first, because he died twelve years after that marriage. ¡Qué triste!

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Location:Morwenstow