14th July Leaving Morvah

After 5 nights with two of the best friends you could ever hope to have, we said our farewells and resumed our journey north. Another short ride, starting off we thought that by night fall we would be wild camping near Ashclyst forest about 10 miles North of Exeter, but first on the way to Penzance train station I stopped to show Aaron the Burial chamber Anne-Marie and I had walked to just the day before. It was such a surprise having walked and cycled all over Cornwall to find such a fantastic place for the first time….

Burial chamber near Green barrow engine house

Burial chamber near Green barrow engine house

And it gave me the chance to begin some drawings and take the odd image. When we arrived at Penzance train station with the intention of taking a train up to Exeter we found out that there was no room for our bikes. Oooooops !  Thing is though, Aaron and I had already cycled out of Cornwall during Aaron’s sponsored bike ride to raise funds for his trip to Cambodia the other year and so we had decided to simply pickup the journey from that point, it also gave us a head start for this tour and the chance to explore new places as soon as we could…….

Well one of the best things about cycle touring is being able to adapt to changing situations, not a problem at all…… we simply had to book our train journey for the following day. As it happens Aaron and I a few weeks back had cycled through Marazion and I just happened to spot a likely place for a wild camp, I had intended to have a trial run to check out all the gear to this place, but work and preparations for the tour left me know time, and also oddly I felt like I was not quite ready to get straight onto a train…..it almost felt too sudden. So the chance to wild camp at Marazion jumped instantly into my mind and it just felt like the right thing to do. So just a short ride along the cycle path brought us within site of St. Michaels Mount and a really nice spot to wild camp well out of everyone’s way and with a spectacular view.

relaxing at Marazion

Look…..a thistle

Marazion panorama

One of the first drawings of the artist in residence

Having set up our tents, the sound of the slight breeze and the sea was like therapy this was exactly what we both needed……all the hectic weeks of planning and preparations and work just seemed to disappear. We just sat starring into the sea….. and eventually made some food…..and on the menu tonight was pasta and pesto……

Falling asleep to the sound of the sea

Our first wild camp, the first of many was terrific. Total cost….well a bag of pasta from Lidl 30p and a jar of pesto £1.89. This is the essence of the plan….to wild camp as much as possible. Staying in campsites only when we had to make a base to shelter from the weather and be able to wash our clothes, make any repairs, or simply that we could not find a suitable wild camping pace. Campsites have become ridiculously expensive….almost as much as renting a property, B&B or so called credit card touring is completely out of the question. Also the philosophy behind wild camping is so agreeable, so simple, it can be summed up in this way – to walk the Earth lightly. Whatever we brought with us we took with us when we packed and left the next day. Any jars or plastic packaging was recycled along the way. No mess, no rubbish was left behind. When we packed and left it was as if we had never been there and no trace at all was left…..unlike at the end of the summer when you walk along any beach in Cornwall, you will come across discarded throw away supermarket barbecue sets half buried in the sand along with beer cans, bottles and discarded packaging which I find utterly abhorrent.

Today’s route….. 9.8 miles and 574ft (174.995 meters)

Map