It was a wonderful day, beautiful blue skies and the coastline was at it's impressive best, no wonder it attracts so many visitors to our part of the country, unbelievable walking.

Now after the build up, the first three to four miles of the section we walked is perhaps one of the most strenuous sections of the whole of the 650 miles of the South West Coast path, so it isn't for the fainthearted, or any other heart condition come to that!!!

But if you are fit and want to enjoy a splendid section of coastline then this is the section not to be missed.

Most of our walks our circular, but for once we went for a linear walk, a Cornish coast path walk from Crackington Haven along to Bude, a distance of just over 10 miles and unsurprisingly graded as strenuous.

To manage this we all agreed to meet at Bude Car Park (gr 064206 as I now know) , leave some cars there and drive along to Crackington Haven to walk back to the cars. It sounds so easy, in reality there were a few minor complications.

One of our group only wanted to walk part of the way, the hardest part incidentally, so we had to call into Widemouth Bay to pick her up.

The rest of us duly arrived at Bude by 10.15 AM, to three or four different car parks... oops.

After 20 minutes of driving round Bude to locate each other we all managed to be together at last at the main car park just to the side of Bude Canal. There were a few forced smiles and of course a person at Widemouth Bay wondering if she was a forgotten body!!!

So the start at Crackington Haven was just a little delayed. But we all got there in the end.

For once the route is fairly obvious, just follow the coast path!! For those wishing to relate this to a 1:25000 map of the area the suggested OS map is the OS Explorer map no 111 for Bude, Boscastle and Tintagel. The walk description which follows makes reference to many points not shown on the map above therefore to make complete sense of the write up the 1:25000 will be essential.

As you can also see I've split the map into two segments to avoid the very long picture which would otherwise appear.

It was about 11 AM when the 11 intrepid ramblers gathered together at Crackington Haven for the off. We'd had plenty of time to chat in the car park at Bude so we were soon off on our way, out of the car park, back up the road into Crackington to reach the coast path sign and the first heave up to above Pencarrow Point.

It was only half a mile to the top but a quick 400 feet climb up to reach there so there was little waiting around to get into the rythm of the strenuous walking ahead of us.

The views throughout the walk are quite magnificent and my problem is one of choosing a selection of the 80 + pictures I took to illustrate the sheer beauty of this walk. These small pictures on the web site cannot do it justice so for some of them, I've linked the smaller pictures to much larger ones. If, when you point to a small picture with the mouse, you get an finger pointer, click on the picture and you can see a larger version. The back button will return you to the main write up.

The views here certainly merit the extra download times. I haven't produced large images for every picture here, since if I did so I'd very soon have no space left on the servers which kindly host these pages you are now looking at. I've restricted them to just a few of my favourites on this walk.

From Pencarrow Head we had a steep sharp descent slightly inland to the Cleave and then a good climb up again to walk along a narrow ridge with steep drop offs either side.

Apparently some months ago when Pat and Joan were recceing the area, it had been blowing so hard here that they had to leave the ridge and walk along below it to shelter from the strong wind.

On the day of the walk the winds were light and the stroll along the ridge was very pleasant with the sea below on one side and the Cleave on the other. Across the valley we could see an old church sitting on the high ground above. St Gennys Church by name, it offers a starting point for the walk which avoids the steep climb out of Crackington Haven as well as the car parking charge levied by the local council.

When this walk was reccied the church was where we parked. There is an easy to follow footpath from near the church out to the coastal path.

Just a thought!!

Once we had made our walk along the ridge, east of Castle Point, the coastal path swung north along relatively level going.

It is all a matter of degree, remember on this section of the coastal path, relatively level means not huge ups and downs.

After a couple hundred metres of easy going the next descent came steeply down to cross above a waterfall at Cleave Strand and then the inevitable up section again as the coast path led out of the valley.

Relatively level again for 400 m and then came perhaps the most severe section of the whole walk.

We were heading due north and there was an amazing descent down steps which felt as if we were walking straight into the sea.

It was very steep indeed and on a windy day quite frightening I'd imagine.

Looking across at the up which was on the other side of the valley was quite awe inspiring too, it looked almost vertical.

It wasn't of course, it just felt like that.

We crossed above a small stream which turned into a waterfall as it tumbled down into the sea below and then ahead of us was a climb up to the top of 500 ft high cliffs.

It looks severe on the map and in the picture to the right.

Believe me, it was as bad as it looks and it was with a great sense of satisfaction and dizziness from the exertions when we reached the top of Chipman Point.

For a while the going was easy again for a short while before the next little down and up high up above Dizzard Point.

We came to a trig point, shown on the map as a height of over 160 m, in old money approaching 600 ft above msl. There can't be too many places on the South West Coastal Path where you are 600 ft above the sea.

Not far north of the trig point the coast path swung inland up a narrow wooded valley, over a bridge and then back again the other side to the coast again.

The cliffs extend quite a way inland here and hence the reason for the detour.

The going was quite easy once we were out of the wooded valley for getting on for a kilometre until we approached Millook and Millook Haven, the stony and sandy beach below.

The coastal path met the narrow road above Millook and we followed the steeply descending country lane as it zig zagged it's way down to the beach below.

Just to compound the zig zag effect the rocks formations on the north side of the haven were themselves distorted into zig zag formations, a most unusual rock formation indeed.

We stopped at Millook haven to enjoy a break and a morning coffee before the next, and the last really steep climb up from the beach to the top of the high cliffs to the north.

That climb out was also severe although not as bad as the one we had experienced getting up to Chipman Point.

All the coastal path books describe the section north from Crackington Haven as one of the hardest sections of the south west coastal path. Having walked it twice, I can only agree with the books wholeheartedly.

We all had a sense of weird satisfaction at walking it though!!!

From the high ground at Bridwill Point the wide sandy surfing beach of Widewell Beach could be seen just a couple of kilometres to the north.

Progress was fairly quick along the coast path which skirted the road at Penhait Cliff and it was easy walking.

Just before we reached Widemouth Bay we had a little ascent up through gorse and bushes before we descended to the southerly end of the wide expanse of sand and the many surfers at Widemouth Bay.

This bay faces due west and sometimes the huge Atlantic Swell brings in near perfect surfing conditions.

We walked along the sand for a while, pure bliss and said farewell to the one walker who had decided that her linear walk would end here.

After a lunch break by the beach and the use of the facilities we were off again, heading due north for the 5 kilometres of low coast path ahead of us to lead us to Bude.

We skirted round the sandy path and low dunes at the north of the Widemouth Bay and after the incredibly strenuous section we had walked the going was almost benign in comparison.

The coast path ran along near the coast road which links Bude to Widemouth Bay, the cliffs were very low and the foreshore was very different indeed as we covered the ground at a good pace.

Low flat rocky outcrops really sticks in my mind for this section, nowhere near as inspiring as the earlier section.

There were houses from time to time, plenty of them too.

When we reached Upton, the coastal road swung inland and the coast path tooks us along over wide grassy downs.

It is amazing how in just a few kilometres the coast line can change so much.

In this section heading across to Compass Point across Efford Down it was like walking across beautifully manicured wide lawns.

Ahead of us was The Tower on Compass Point and some made their way up to the Tower whilst other swung east and followed the coast path as it turned towards Bude.

Bude has some lovely beaches and some really large and grand Victorian Hotels. I recalled camping at upper Lynstone Farm in 1970, or was it earlier.........

We followed the coast path down to a road which led us by an old church at Bude Haven and then on down to the waterway with boats on it sheltered from the sea way out.

We crossed over a bridge with the waters above the bridge held there by a lock.

There were canoeists on Bude Canal and just north of the Canal was the car park which we had so much difficulty in locating when we arrived into Bude some 5 hours before.

Our linear walk was over, it was an excellent one too, after the delayed departure from Bude we had recovered well.

We clambered into the cars and followed the coastal drive back to Widemouth Bay and then out to the A39 for a mile or two before the meandering route down into Crackington Haven again.

I thoroughly enjoyed the walk, the first time I'd walked out of Crackington Haven and another 10 mile section of the SWCP had been ticked off my todo list.

We all passed on our thanks to the joint lead team of Pat Milton and Joan Jewell and reflected on the joys of coastal walking on the 45 mile drive back to Plymouth.

I look forward to walking the section south of Crackington Haven, one of these days!!!! but I wonder when??