Day 2 - Other thoughts

With the sun sinking last night and with great tiredness upon me there were a few things I didn't mention in last night's post (actually there was lots that I didn't mention but I have to be a little restrained!), so I'm just going to jot down a few details piecemeal:

We woke up yesterday morning to a frost. It had certainly felt a bit nippy in the night, but I'm pleased to say that the phd Minimus 300 sleeping bag did its job admirably.

The blue skies may have looked the same as the day before, but the difference on this day was the easterly wind. Rather than Tuesday's walk in shirtsleeves and a sunhat, this was weather for a beanie, gloves and windproof - although it was jolly warm on the three occasions that we got out of the wind.

On the stunning coast path (if the whole walk is to be like this I will run out of superlatives) not only did we have the natural scenery to enjoy but also the remains of three old tin mines, which are fantastic, interesting structures. I certainly wouldn't have fancied working on the construction of the chimenys being, as they were, so close to the cliffs.

Later a cliff was adorned with long-ago rusted up winches. What purpose they had formerly served was not evident.

At a couple of places the path crossed sandy beaches. Good for shaping the ankles but hard going with the weight of the pack.

When finally we got to our campsite after more miles than intended we got to talk gear, Scotland, TGO Challenge and a host of other subjects with the warden before he told us that we were welcome to help ourselves to water then go and wild camp up on the cliffs. Given the strong winds and the distance we had already covered we opted to stay put.

All was well until about 9.30pm just as we were retiring, at which point a helicopter started circling around us. We bemoaned its noise at length, but then both managed to fall asleep regardless.