Living the retirement dream

This morning we decide to take a coastal hike on the Trebarwith Strand over the Treligga cliffs to Tintagel Castle which is the alleged birthplace of King Arthur.  The Trebarwith Strand is part of the 630 mile South West Coast Path.  The hike was quite long and strenuous with many steep switchbacks up and down over the cliffs.  We did not have any walking sticks and had to hold on to each other to keep from falling at times.  As you will see from the pictures we had about three hours of majestic scenery.

Heading out on a glorious day.

Just breathtaking.

We have to hike down there

and then back up the other side.

Our destination in the distance.

Halfway point, tiny seaside town.

We had breakfast here.  All they had was cake and coffee.

Herringbone pattern rock wall.

England has thousands of miles of public foot paths which cross private property, a lot of which is farmland.  We have a collection of different ways to cross the fences and walls.

The easiest way is to go through an open gate.  The rule is to leave all gates as you find them.

For most of the hike, we thought this church was the castle in the distance.

St Materiana’s Church.

That is not the castle either.

That is the ruins of Tintagel castle.

Two bridges over to the castle site.

Some pretty views but not much else.

On arrival to the ruins of Tintagel Castle we found it over run with senior citizen tourists and many school children on field trips.  We aborted as soon as able and headed one mile uphill to Tintagel village for something to eat.  We found the village to be much the same crowds as the castle so we had drinks at a bar while waiting for a taxi to return us home.  Next time we will listen to our host who told us that Tintagel was quite tawdry.

Fortunately Sandy did not see this sign while we were walking.