St. Ives to Pendeen Watch

Today was a lower mileage but longer day. This morning we left our hostel in St. Ives and walked along the harbour. We were very surprised to see people swimming in the harbour at 08:30 (one without a wetsuit) but we're even more surprised to see two seals bobbing around near the swimmers. My life goal is now to live somewhere where you can swim with seals on a casual Sunday morning.

We continued out of the town, today's section is listed as "rugged" on the South West Coast Path website. It felt like we did more clamouring over boulders than actual walking today and it was very tiresome by the end. This path also has many steep ascents and descents, and boggy patches with big granite stepping stones. However, the view is lovely when you stop to look. It took us a full 8.5 hours to reach Pendeen Watch but we decided to carry on an extra hour before finding a suitable place to wild-camp. We are now in tin mining country, passing the workings of Geevor, Levant and camping behind one of the walls containing one of the of Botallack Mine shafts. 

Geevor Mine was working until the 1980s but closed after cheap tin from Malaysia became more prevalent. Levant Mine had workings nearly 600m deep which extended over a mile under the sea. I would thoroughly recommend a visit to Geevor Mine (now a museum) if you are in the area. 

As a side note I know this area pretty well as many ore samples I analysed during my PhD came from these mines.

The caterpillar above can grow to 7cm and hibernates through the winter before pupating in spring. We see 10+ of these on the path a day and are careful not to tread on any!