Date: 20180609
Time: 9:35 – 16:05
Distance: 22.7 km
Stay: Cape Cornwall Golf & Leisure Club, St Just
Walk
Before I walked from Zennor back to the Coast Path, I first visited the church. There they have the famous mermaid chair. The legend goes as follows:
Long ago a beautiful and well-dressed woman occasionally attended the services in St. Senara’s church in Zennor. The parishioners were impressed by her beauty and her voice, because her singing was the best of all. She appeared infrequently for years, but never seemed to grow older and nobody knew where she came from. After many years, the mysterious woman became interested in a young man named Mathey Trewella, “the best singer in the parish”. One day, he followed her home and disappeared; neither was ever seen again.
The villagers wondered what had become of the two, until one Sunday a ship anchored about a mile from Pendour Cove. Shortly thereafter, a mermaid appeared and asked if the anchor could be lifted as one of its flukes was resting on her door and she could not reach her children. The sailors did as they were asked and then went off like a (water) hare (ok, I know, bad translation but you get the idea), because the mermaid would be a bad omen. When the villagers heard this, they concluded that the mermaid was the same lady who had visited their church for a long time and that she had tempted Mathey Trewella to come and live with her.
The parishioners in St. Senaras commemorated the story by carving one end of a bench in the shape of a mermaid.
As soon as I am back on the path, it continues where I stopped yesterday. Not only as far as the route is concerned, but also as far as the path itself is concerned, very uneven and in the beginning a few climbs over boulders.
In some places the Coast Path is simply not there. It’s more a general idea of a direction and one just has to get there. Not that that is a big problem, there are many ways to get through the rocks or fields with boulders.
Now that I know what to look for, I often see seals in the water, even from larger distances.
I also see ponies today, there is even one in the middle of the path. He does not seem to be willing to move, so I just walk around him.
The theme of today’s walk is clearly mining. I come across many ruins of engine houses. There used to be a lot of tin mining here and that is still clearly visible. Apart from the remains of the buildings, there are also many remnants of that mining below my feet. The mine corridors and shafts are still there. For those shafts I am regularly warned by signs.
I am a little low on water today because I could not replenish my supply in Zennor (only glass bottles, more glass than water). So if I get the opportunity to refill that, I take it. This is after about 13-14 kilometer. Then I make a detour to Pendeen. Here is a supermarket and there I fill my water supply and I also have a break. A bit further is a pub, but I control myself. With this warm weather it is better to postpone the beer drinking until later when I’m done walking.
When I walk back to the Coast Path from Pendeen, I walk straight through a mine area, the Levant mine. Part of the Coast Path goes through this too (that’s where I am heading), but I also walk through the real industrial part when I come from the village. This would never be possible in the Netherlands. An old industrial area where you can just walk through. In the Netherlands it would already have been cleaned up (gone with the heritage) or a large fence would have been placed around it. Imagine that something happened…
Here in England (and in many other places in the world) they leave that more to the responsibility of the people themselves. And rightly so I think.
Without tin from Cornwall, 4000 years ago in Europe there would have been no bronze age, but a copper age (tin and copper together form bronze). So there is already 4000 years of mining in Cornwall. During the beginning of the industrial revolution (around 1820), the Levant mine started participating in the tin and copper mining. The corridors went up to 550 meters below the seabed and 1.6 kilometers from the cliffs into the sea. The miners in this mine under the sea were a kind of tenant, ‘working in tribute’. That explains the name of one of the popular beers of the St Austell brewery, Tribute. Another popular beer from St Austell (a delicious IPA) is called Proper Job …
The ore carts in the mines were pulled by ponies that lived underground day and night and were well cared for. So good, that by the time they retired and came back above the ground, people were eager to buy one, with their good condition they won all the popular horse races.
To get the ore up and for the lift with which the miners were brought down and up, in 1840 a steam engine was put into use. For the miners it was a blessing, before that time it took more than 2 hours to climb up and that was not without danger.
After the mining area, it continues along the Coast Path towards Cape Cornwall. I did see it, but I turned to St Just before reaching it to get to my overnight stay. Tomorrow more about Cape Cornwall.
Weather
Today it was very hot, the sun was shining all day. She always does that, but this time there were no clouds between me and the sun.
Lyric of the day
Today I saw many ruins and walked through an old mining area and because it went up from there, today I have a song from Judas Priest, Rising from Ruins:
Drawn from years of self denying
Lost in chaos before the storm
Our strength goes on prepared for mortal battle
We can settle our old scores
Look to the skies and challenge all of heaven
Resist the devil, dare to dream
By grace of god within our hearts eternal
For our salvation is for everyone
We’re standing as one
We’re carrying on
Rising from ruins
We’re bringing the light
Out from the night
Rising from ruins
We’ll face our foes so they can hear our voices
The land rejoices in empathy
This trial by fire will build from their attrition
It’s ammunition for our enemies
We’re standing as one
We’re carrying on
Rising from ruins
We’re bringing the light
Out from the night
Rising from ruins
Send in the valiant, fight for what you believe
Then we shall overcome, lay victory at our feet
We’re standing as one
We’re carrying on
Rising from ruins
We bring the light
Out from the night
Rising from ruins
We’re standing as one
We’re carrying on
Rising from ruins
We’re bringing the light
Out from the night
Rising from ruins
