Introduction


When we started walking the coast of England we had no intention that this would become a major lifetime project. Having to make a last-minute arrangement for our summer holiday in 1987, we said "Let's go to the nearest piece of coast and see how far we can walk along it." It turned out well and we started adding further stretches of coast, initially once every two years, but soon annually, or even twice a year.

We had always enjoyed the coast - there is something refreshingly "edgy" about having the sea always at our side, and one of us was into marine molluscs. We also enjoyed long-distance walking and had long been involved in general natural history recording. This project enabled us to combine all three interests.

You soon discover when embarking on a project like this that you need a few rules, which evolve from the first experiences. Our main rule was that we should walk as close to the coast as possible, which meant beach-walking whenever we could (unlike the official coast paths that largely remain above shore, recognising that at high tides the beach may be inaccessible). The route should also be capable of being a continuous walk, so that when we came to an unfordable river we walked inland along its banks to the first place at which we could cross, whether a bridge or a ferry.

We only carried light packs, so that at the end of each day's walk we had the problem of getting back to our car where we started. Initially we walked back, but soon realised we would be walking the coast twice this way! We used public transport whenever this was available - buses or trains, sometimes adjusting our start and finish points to make this easier. Failing this - and it was often not possible - we would phone for a taxi (an increasingly costly option over the years). Having our car with us gave us more freedom as to where we could stay at night - and after a day walking and only light food we were usually ready for being spoiled by a good meal and a comfortable bed! Even so, we stayed on the coast itself whenever there was a decent option.

Each walk was made for enjoyment, it was not a route-march to see how quickly we could get it finished. We therefore took it gently at times when passing through pleasant scenery or where there were many plants or creatures to record.

In terms of biological recording, we systematically noted every bird, butterfly, creature or sea-shell that we came across, sometimes spending time searching for the shells. We could not record every plant in the same way - there are too many common ones - so we were more selective, noting all coastal plants and any others that were not run-of-the-mill.

In our daily posts, edited from our original diaries, we include a star-rating from no star to **** according to our subjective estimate as to how special that day was from the point of view of natural history. This score (and our daily records) will, however, have been affected by the weather - it is difficult to appreciate the environment fully, for instance, in torrential rain, and there are many more butterflies and other insects to be seen in warm sunshine!

A summary of all our natural history records on the walk can be found using this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1LLGD55lKRHYXd1SGU1QndrcUU/edit?usp=sharing





Friday, 17 January 2014

Cornwall: Coverack to Kennack Sands 21/8/1998***


 

Old steps at Coverack
 
Greater broomrape
The path goes out to Chynhalls Point before almost doubling back to Coverack to pass around a hotel on the front.  The beach below the hotel was pebbly above beautiful clean sand, where a man was digging for lugworms as fishing bait.  The path passes behind a foul-smelling pig farm, where an invisible battle between man and beast was apparently taking place, with much swearing on one side and squealing on the other.  After this the path continued along the coast for the rest of the day.  The main underlying rock was serpentine and the flowers reflected this, with dropwort and autumn squill for the first time.  Cornish heath recurred along with greater burnet in the damper areas.  Fertilised fields, however, encouraged coarse grass and bracken.   
      At Black Head the rocks and exposure combine to produce a special flora including fringed rupturewort, dyer’s greenweed, petty whin and prostrate broom.  There was greater broomrape on the gorse, plus thyme and ivy broomrapes.  We had lunch on the next headland of Pedn Boar, sheltered from the wind, among squill and butterflies, watching gulls and kittiwakes flying past.  The serpentine was evident in rocks in the path, which were shiny and slippery where wet.  The more trodden rocky steps were just like the polished marble staircase of some old church and a beautiful dark red.  A paint-testing station above Beagles Point was derelict and an eyesore, but the path continued very flowery to Carrick Luz.  There the special flowers like Cornish heath are conspicuously absent because of an intrusion of acid gabbro at this point, although rupturewort persisted, so characteristic of the Lizard. 
      Waves thundered as they dashed against the foot of the steep cliff and produced good surf for the holidaymakers on the beach at Kennack Sands.  These sands are fine and soft with a good mix of red and black (really very dark green) serpentine pebbles as well as contrasting pebbles of other formations like banded gneiss, granite-gneiss, epidiorite dykes and white flints derived from recent deposits.  Many people were surf-boarding with varying degrees of success, or simply chasing waves out only to be chased back by a fast foaming tide.  Those watching on the sands were forced regularly to shuffle clothes and seats back to a narrowing section of dry sand.  The dunes are the largest in the Lizard but seemed botanically poor.  After ritual ice-creams from the beach café we walked up to the caravan site to phone for a taxi.
      Uncommon insects seen today included the bee Epeolus cruciger and the rove beetle Platydracus stercorarius.
 
The geology of the Lizard is of special interest and may be explored in more detail at
Black Head
 
Serpentine & other pebbles
 
Kennack Sands


Kennack Sands

 


Picnic at Kennack Sands, beginning of C20th
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