Still in St Ives, chez Jon and Lesley. Here’s my room for the past two nights. Spot the selfie.
I didn’t.
The plan is to stay here tonight, then in the morning walk out to Zennor (think D.H. Lawrence) and beyond. I’ve been on this stretch – some say the most beautiful and wild of all – before but not for many years and only for fleeting visits. Am excited by the prospect of walking it, alone, for as many miles as it pleases me.
Short of being driven back by vile weather – not forecast, though there’s some uncertainty – I’ll be out two or three nights then back for a final night with J & L. Am hoping then to catch up with two old and dear friends, Cath and Roger, a few miles away, close to the south coast and east of Penzance.
And today? More of the flaneur. Can you have too many pictures of this place? I doubt it. So here is St Ives today.
So you’re back on that superb wild-camping trail and sleeping under, hopefully, clear night skies. You’ll not lose your way back from the pub if you look up and fix on the North polestar aka Polaris. (Google ‘How to find Polaris’) This was the north which guided ancient navigators. It hardly moves all year round and the entire northern sky, including the nearby Plough, revolves around it anticlockwise. It can be seen every night in the northern hemisphere. As you face Polaris and stretch your arms sideways, your right hand points east, your left hand west. Low tech, but sort of compelling for some reason.
Best wishes to Cath from me. I did visit her at Balwest Farm c.2002 when I’d been camping on the verdant lawns of Penzance YHA.
See you later, Rodman and keep posting. ps are there any decent pasties left after the bank holiday surge?
Sure thing, bro.
Did I mention – and listen up, there’s a test at the end – that while walking into St Ives, I met a man with forty wives? No? But get this: every wife had forty sons. So answer me this, bro. How many were walking to St Ives?
What, cat got your tongue?