Mullion and Poldhu Cove

Tuesday 11th October 2016

We walked 5.5 miles today on two short walks.  The first one this morning was along the cliff path to Mullion where we had a look around the village and the lovely little church and the second this afternoon was to Poldhu Cove.  The weather was still dry but the wind was cooler so today the gloves and scarf got their first airing!!  - yesterday was t shirt weather, what a difference a day makes!

There are some fantastic old graves in the church yard, big old slate ones, dating back to the 1700's  that are still easily read.

Inside the church there are even older things, including this amazing carved screen and

medieval pews.

This door was absolutely massive with an equally massive keyhole, I can only guess at the size of the key!

Who lives in a hole like this?  We initially thought it was a fox but on the other side of the wall there's a large rabbit warren so we now think it's rabbit holes that are this big because the wall has collapsed into the hole.

Hot choccie for two at Podhu beach cafe. 

Then a walk along the beach.

Poldhu Cove from above on the walk back.

The footpath crosses a field of cows, this one however had ideas of escape it would seem....

...... once we came through the kissing gate, the cow thought it a good idea to follow.....

it certainly knew what it had to do, push the gate and walk in but .....

cows cannot fit throught a kissing gate!!!!!   10/10 for trying though!!

And so ends another day of walking in Cornwall.

Gunwalloe Fishing Cove via Poldhu Cove and Church Cove

Monday 10th October 2016

We had a fantastic 8 mile walk today along the South West coast path in glorious warm sunshine.  We have been visiting Cornwall in April over the last few years but this year we decided to see what it was like in autumn.  There seemed to be far fewer people walking along the coast but those that we did meet were very friendly and a few stopped for a chat, walkers are on the whole a friendly bunch! 

Poldhu Cove.

Church Cove.

Beautiful clear blue sea.

Signs of autumn are everywhere.

Porthleven Sands.  

We had a bit of trouble today finding a couple of geocaches along this stretch of the footpath, eventually though, the more persistent one of us succeeded!!  (and it wasn't me.... I had drifted and lost interest!!!)  The footpath in one place was very narrow and scarily close to the edge of the cliff with a sheer drop down to the beach, it wasn't great.  On the way back along this footpath we were overtaken by a cyclist on his mountain bike, who had ridden along the scary bit, he was either very epic or very stupid I can't decide which, but he seemed unperturbed by it when we had a quick chat.

A far more pleasant stretch of the path.

Portleven Sands, a vast stretch of sand with hardly a sole on it.

An old building that was used as a pilchard cellar, and just along the footpath were old winches used to bring the haul of pilchards up off of the beach.

Porthleven sands and Gunwalloe Cove.

Over the last couple of days we have seen  quite a few kestrels and today this one hovered directly over us,keeping his beady eye on something.   I didn't take this photo, my husband did with his fancy camera and I'm really pleased with it.

In the distance we could see a wind farm on the horizon, the turbines were rotating but slowly, there wasn't much wind at all today.

Back at Church Cove, this female kestrel was sitting on a post, fairly close, this time I took this photo!

Low tide in Church Cove.

We then walked back to Poldhu Cove and up the hill to our holiday cottage, a good 8 mile  walk done and dusted.

Polurrian Cove, Mullion

Sunday 9th October 2016

This afternoon we took to the South West Coast path for a short stroll to Polurrian Cove, a lovely small sheltered beach at Mullion.  We were extremely lucky with the weather again, blue sky and sunshine, the sea looked inviting so I had to have a paddle, well it would have been rude not to!

Looking towards Mullion Island.

I should have put something near this caterpillar to show it's size, it was quite a chunky number,and it was wriggling around in the middle of the footpath so we rescued it and moved it somewhere safer - I hope it didn't mind being diverted!

NB - Edited note!  I have looked this caterpillar up and it's a fox moth caterpillar. Apparently it overwinters under leaves and loose soil (it also said they are often seen basking in the sun on paths, well, they certainly are, I have nearly trodden on quite a few this week!)

The South West coast path.

Polurrian Cove.

Looks inviting, time for a paddle.

One of the nicest things about having a paddle is putting warm cosy socks back on, it's just a shame the sand has to be removed first, that was quite a game!

Mullion Island in the distance.

Boots back on we headed inland back to our holiday cottage for a welcome cup of tea.

There are still plenty of blackberries in the hedgerows, as well as

honeysuckle flowers and berries out at the same time, and

lots of wild fuchsias.

The weather forecast for tomorrow looks good, so fingers crossed we can have a day out walking along this beautiful coast.

Mullion, Cornwall

Saturday 8th October 2016

We arrived at our holiday cottage in Mullion, Cornwall late this afternoon in brilliant warm sunshine.  We made the most of the amazing view along the coast and the sunshine and sat outside, watching flocks of starlings and as yet unidentified little birds (we're on to it though) on the telegraph wires above us.  

NB The little birds are mainly linnets with a few meadow pipits in amongst them.

From this spot we watched....

......a kestrel (a female - with brown head)

with some very brave souls sitting above her!

It all suddenly got much louder when a kestrel turned up but funnily enough the little birds appeared to take very little notice of it.  Over the next hour the kestrel came and went a few times until the sun set but hopefully we'll see more of it over the next week.

NB - edited - I have read up on kestrels and they mainly eat mammals and only occasionally take small birds.

Starlings.

Many starlings with a kestrel sitting above them (top centre).

As it was getting dusky and we were moving back indoors a fox wandered by in the field in front of the garden, the photo isn't great but it was actually getting quite dark so the shutter stayed open for a while and things got a bit blurry!  

Then in front of us walked..........

..........this bundle of loveliness!

I'm really hoping we'll see even more epic wildlife over the next week but for now, so far so good, can't complain!