I love the coast of the UK, in particular the SW peninsular. Many years ago as a student, in the early 1980s, I walked the coastal path from Plymouth to Penzance in two stages. More recently, in middle age, I have walked numerous fragments of the N Cornwall path and the path between Lands End and Penzance.

Walking the coast path on a day or half day has the disadvantage that you sometimes need to retrace your steps. Mrs O and I wanted to do a section near Porthleven but found that we could complement the coast path with an inland stretch to make a round trip. We decided to start the walk at the National Trust car park near Rinsey (grid reference SW 592 271)

 Coast path in mist

Although there was sunshine inland, the coast path was engulfed in a sea mist. We duly decided to start with the inland leg. We headed along public footpaths WNW towards Breage.

 old barn

We passed this run down cottage/barn near Calvorry farm. At Breage we took the footpath next to the junior school and headed across more fields SW towards Porthleven.

 Porthleven 2

There was a good, but hazy view towards the Lizard. The footpath crossed some barley fields with the ears swaying gently in the breeze. Further down the hill we passed a gate and saw that there were horses in the field. We stopped at the gate and the horses approached us. Bizarrely they were also followed by a deer. I assume it belonged to the farm and I do not know what variety it was; it had no antlers but seemed larger than a roe deer.

In Porthleven we stopped for a refreshing drink at a pub overlooking the harbour then started on the Coast Path. The path was fairly up and down and even at this stage of the day there was still some mist that had not quite cleared.

 coastal path

In my early 20s, I walked the entire South Cornish Coast path from Plymouth to Penzance. This section was walked in incessant rain and I do not recall any of the sights. I had not appreciated that there were tin mines built into the cliff much like those near St Just. At a small bay we saw firstly kestrels hunting along the cliff edge, then a pair of peregrine falcons that were doing spectacular v-shaped dives chasing gulls then later each other.

 bees on thistle

The insect lif was rich too. There were plenty of scimitar moths and bumble bees. We finally made it back to the car park after a switchback walk in what was turning out to be a hot day.