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Day 11-15: Before Beeny to Gwithian. 🦶 133.5-223 miles - Walking the South West Coast Path 🥾🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, UK National Trail 🇬🇧 📍 630 miles in 40 Days!



Day 11 🥾South West Coast Path 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, UK National Trail 🇬🇧 📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo


ℹ️Stats: Wednesday 7th August

Weather: dry and windy 🌬️ with a little rain in the am

From: Before Beeny

Start time: 8.25am

To: before Dannonchapel on the coast

End time: 8pm

Accommodation: wild camped ⛺️

Terrain: coastal tracks, fields, gravel


🥾Km:15.3

🥾Miles: 9.5

🦶Steps: 19,694


Total: 152/630 24% done ✅


💰Costs: £14.50 breakfast & raspberry heaven smoothie @ Boscastle Farm shop

£16 Spanish chicken dish for dinner

£1.60 blackcurrant & water


Subjective feeling out of 10 on:


Enjoyment: 7/10

Fatigue: 4/10

Ease of terrain: 5/10



⭐️Highlights: bumped into Alex @longtrailsandtalltales another keen hiker who wears @inov_8 and was out in NZ last year on the TA. He’s doing LEJOG.


🏔️Challenges: motivation was a bit up and down today. Not helped by the weather which wasn’t the best!


💭Thoughts: I think I’m getting into my routines now and having a good sleep last night and good food today is helping.


 


Day 12 🥾South West Coast Path 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, UK National Trail 🇬🇧 📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo


ℹ️Stats: Thursday 8th August

Weather: rainy, windy and cold 🥶

From: before Dannonchapel on the coast

Start time: 6.48am

To: Polzeath

End time: 4pm

Accommodation: campsite ⛺️

Terrain: steps, more steps, wooden bridges, tiny coastal paths, windy exposed ridges.


🥾Km:17.8

🥾Miles: 11

🦶Steps: 22,807


Total: 164/630 = 26% done ✅


💰Costs: £7 breakfast - scrambled eggs & bacon on gf toast

£1.50 hot chocolate

£10 campsite #gifted 🙏

£40 SPAR food resupply - yogurt, blueberries, gf cake, basil leaves, oat biscuits x2, snickers x2, jelly sweet x2, chocolate bar x2 (started my period 🩸give me all the chocolate), cheese, chicken, crisps, basil leaves gf wraps.


Subjective feeling out of 10 on:


Enjoyment: 6/10

Fatigue: 4/10

Ease of terrain: 5/10



⭐️Highlights: Meeting Gigi @gigi_plays_music a fellow hiker on the SWCP & listener of the TGP!

Meeting Cat who reached out and offered me a place to stay at Lundy Nant Caravan Park. 🙏


🏔️Challenges: the wind, the rain. I didn’t think my tent would be able to stand it. Though it was going to break. Was awake super early and in the end decided to get up and get moving as was scared about the tent in the wind.


💭Thoughts: it was so hard getting moving again after breakfast. Especially when it was still raining and it was cold outside. They are the hardest moments. It’s fine once you get going. But starting is always hard. A lot of positive self talk was needed.


 


Day 13 🥾South West Coast Path 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, UK National Trail 🇬🇧 📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo


ℹ️Stats: Friday 9th August

Weather: Sunny ☀️

From: Polzeath

Start time: 10am

To: Porth Mear Cove

End time: 7pm

Accommodation: wild camped ⛺️

Terrain: relatively flat ish walking a, a few beach crossing and narrow coastal paths


🥾Km:21.6

🥾Miles: 13.5

🦶Steps: 27,646


Total: 181/630 29% done ✅


💰Costs: £3 ferry ⛴️


Subjective feeling out of 10 on:


Enjoyment: 7/10 super chilled day.

Fatigue: 3/10 had such a great night sleep and easy morning. It made a difference

Ease of terrain: 3/10 one of the easiest days so far



⭐️Highlights: a very leisurely morning! Walking with GiGi to the ferry over to Padstow.


🏔️Challenges: i’m not sure how well my tent to go stand up to wind. Last night even though it was sheltered, I was very scared the tent pole was going to break. I’m having to be really selective over where I can camp to make sure that it is super sheltered and the wind can’t get to me.


💭Thoughts: nice to be able to put the shorts back on to enjoy the gorgeous sunshine again. It really does make a difference. 🥳


 


Day 14🥾South West Coast Path 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, UK National Trail 🇬🇧 📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo


ℹ️Stats: Saturday 10th August

Weather: wet 💦

From: Porth Mear Cove

Start time: 7am

To: Perranporth

End time: 5pm

Accommodation: bed - private room #gifted 🙏 @theresa.frost

Terrain: grassy rolling hills, beach walking, narrow coastal paths.


🥾Km:27

🥾Miles: 16.8

🦶Steps: 35,641


Total: 203/630 32% done ✅


💰Costs: £20 Aldi food shop!


Subjective feeling out of 10 on:


Enjoyment: 6/10 the weather put a damper on things

Fatigue: 4/10 apart from two rest breaks felt pretty good

Ease of terrain:5 /10



⭐️Highlights: I walked so much further than I thought I was going to. I was in flow which was great. Catching up with Theresa and her husband Peter was great 😊. Theresa has an episode on the Tough Girl podcast coming out this month🥳


🏔️Challenges: the weather. Being damp and cold is really not my thing. Bring on the sunshine. Didn’t take a huge amount of photos because of the weather. 🤷‍♀️


💭Thoughts: so nice to be collected at the end of the day to head home to a hot shower 🚿 electricity ⚡️ and a lovely bed 🛏️ plus Home 🏡 cooked food 🍽️


 


Day 15🥾South West Coast Path 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, UK National Trail 🇬🇧 📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo


ℹ️Stats: Sunday 11th August

Weather: Sunny ☀️ but very windy 🌬️

From: Portreath

Start time: 10.40am

To: Gwithian

End time: 9.30pm

Accommodation: campsite ⛺️

Terrain: a few steps, flat concrete/gravel paths.


🥾Km: 23.2

🥾Miles: 14.5

🦶Steps:29,831


Total: 223/630 35% done ✅


💰Costs: £2.70 2x chocolate caramel bars 😋


Subjective feeling out of 10 on:


Enjoyment: 8/10 some incredible scenery today and the weather was glorious. ☀️

Fatigue: 4/10 although I walked late into the night. It was a very leisurely start in the morning and an afternoon chill session made it a very relaxing day.

Ease of terrain: 4/10 - very easy-going, especially the last few miles.



⭐️Highlights: started the day with an amazing breakfast, banana pancakes with fruit, chia seeds, walnuts, yogurt & honey. Amazing. 🤩 (thanks 🙏 Theresa)

I had a wonderful two hour relaxing session in the Sun where I just chilled out and enjoyed the view and watched the waves 🌊.


🏔️Challenges: as it was getting later and later. There was no option for me to wild camp anywhere. The wind was really picking up on the coast. And my tent can’t deal with big winds. Everywhere was very exposed. So I kept on walking till eventually I walked into a campsite. I called the warden - but there was no answer so I just found some flat ground and set my tent up. It’s still pretty windy here. But at least the ground is flat.


💭Thoughts: feel pretty bad about setting up my tent in the campsite - but it was my last resort.



Read more of my journey here: Day 16-20: Walking the South West Coast Path


 

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