The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking, trekking, and climbing the world

Cornwall’s Southwest Coast Path (and beyond)

My two week hiking trip to Cornwall in the far southwest of England did not go according to plan. After only two days, an attempt to do a continuous route from The Lizard to Plymouth was derailed by a major flareup of gout. After a few days’ recovery, however, I shifted to Plan C, returning to Penzance to complete three short sections of the Southwest Coast Path (SWCP) in far west Cornwall that I had skipped back in 2020. A few additional walks both in Falmouth and Penzance, as well as a final hike to an island that had been on my bucket list for years round out this blog post.

The Southwest Coast Path

Praa Sands to Porthleven, 8k with 275m elevation gain

An easy start to my intended two week itinerary began with a bus ride from Penzance where I had arrived the afternoon previously by train.

View back at Praa Sands. The café at the far end was great for lunch, but I just couldn’t seem to get into the beach vibe.
Looking back along the western Lizard coast and path

Porthleven to Mullion, 13k with 280m elev. gain

A bit longer today, continuing south along the west side of the Lizard Peninsula

Leaving Porthleven. It was a popular (at least is August!) fishing village.
Crossing the Loe bar. There was no way to avoid this slog.
Gunwalloe Beach. Like the bathers, I did enjoy the warm summer days!
Marconi monument. The Lizard is in an excellent geographic location to test wireless telegraphy.

At this point it all went pear-shaped. Sparing you the details for now, several days later I had procured a last minute room at the Queens Hotel along the Penzance promenade as my hiking base for the final week of my trip. A fantastic choice as it turns out, utilizing the bus service around Cornwall to complete the three remaining SWCP hikes I had between St Ives on the north coast and Penzance on the south coast. Note: These 3 hikes are presented in normal walking order rather than in chronological order.

Zennor to Morvah, 10.7k with 435m elev. gain

It had been a while since I had walked along the north Cornwall coast, and I had forgotten how much more rugged it is compared to the south coast.

A gill descending to Pendour Cove
Wand loosestrife (Lythrum virgatum) bouquet and sea. At least in New England, it is considered an invasive.
Treen Cove cottage. What a location!
The coast path was narrow and a bit vertiginous at times. . .

Botallack to Sennen Cove, 13.2k with 330m elev. gain

I actually had to start inland about 2km, at the Nancherrow bus stop.

Jacob’s Mine. The area around Botallack is known for its many mine ruins.
Wheal Edward, Botallack
Near Boscean the coastal path briefly turned inland to circumvent a ravine
Kenidjack Cliff castle
Cape Cornwall with its iconic mining chimney from 1864. This is considered the only true cape in England, marking the point where the currents of the English Channel and the Celtic Sea meet.
Rocky Atlantic shore. The Brisons Rocks are about 1.5km offshore on the right.
Gwynver Beach. This beach was far more to my liking than the frenetic Sennen Cove beach next door where my day’s walk ended.

Porthcurno to Nanjizal Bay (circular), 10.5k with 340m elev. gain

With limited bus routes available here, circling back inland through farms and a couple villages to complete this hike was necessary.

Porthcurno Beach. An early start (enabled by a 7 AM hotel breakfast) avoided the bus and beach crowds at this popular spot.
Scillonian III. The ferry from Penzance will enter the story later on. . .
Montebretia bouquet and coast
Coastal view with gorse and heather. Most of the heather I saw was “ling.”
Tresillion, Porthcurno. Simply a beautiful house imho.

Walks around Falmouth and Penzance

My intended point-to-point route across all of southern Cornwall to Plymouth was stopped in its tracks (quite literally) by gout after only two days, as I intimated earlier. After bussing to my next two accommodations, I continued on to Falmouth, where I had booked a lovely AirBnb garden flat for three nights, critically including a washing machine. As I was recovering from gout, I did a couple nearby walks. Once back in Penzance, the weather had gotten worse, but I managed a couple more walks along the nearby coast as well as the three SWCP sections detailed above.

St Mawes to St Just-in-Roseland Circular, 10.8k with 200m elev. gain

Short ferry rides between the Prince of Wales Pier in Falmouth and St Mawes harbor bookended this lovely and varied loop hike.

View along the Packet Quays from the Prince of Wales Pier
Field of flax and the Carrick Roads near Mylor
A Meadow Brown on a buddleia
St Mawes Castle and a Sunday sailor from the ferry
Breezin’ up

Penzance walks and views

The Queens Hotel, where I stayed for a week
My room 25 view, the Queens Hotel
Morrab gardens. In August 2020 I spent a month at an Airbnb overlooking these lovely and peaceful sub-tropical gardens.
View towards St Michael’s Mount across Mounts Bay from the Penzance Promenade. The tide was out this morning.
The fishing vessel Ocean Pride from Falmouth dry docked at Newlyn Harbor
View back to Penzance from Longrock
St Michael’s Mount. I had actually visited this amazing castle and gardens on my first day in Cornwall, before my Praa Sands to Porthleven hike.
View from St Michael’s Mount to the touristy village of Marazion
The castle from the gardens. The gardens were looking a little anemic after several heat waves hit England this summer.

Isles of Scilly

As I hinted earlier in this blog post, my final hike in Cornwall this year was on the Isles of Scilly. I had wanted to get out to this southernmost part of England for a very long time. Having a couple extra days in Penzance made it a no-brainer for me to take the Scillonian III ferry to Hugh Town on St Mary’s Isle. The nearly 3 hour ferry ride is quite pricey – unless one does it as an out and back day trip, in which case the fare drops 85% (!). I really don’t understand this pricing structure, but it does allow about 4 hours to explore the island at a reasonable price.

St Mary’s Circular from Hugh Town, 12.7k with 175m elev. gain

While a full circumambulation of St Mary’s is about 17km – not comfortable in the allotted time – a large portion of the island can reasonably be covered without too much stress about missing the ferry.

Penzance harbor from South Pier where the Scillonian III departed
Scillonian III, built for rough Atlantic seas, at Hugh Town Quay.
RNLI St Mary’s lifeboat station near the start of my walk
Bay view towards the Isle of Tresco
Bar Point and view towards St Martin’s Isle
Innisidgen upper burial chamber. Along with nearby Bant’s burial chamber, it is an excellent example of a sacred space from the early Bronze age.
North coastal view towards Round Island Light in the distance
Holy Vale path (closed for maintenance). This unique ecosystem is quite rare on the Isles of Scilly, and I wasn’t about to let a barricade stop me. . .

Early evening I was back in Penzance for a final night before returning to Hastings.

Evening view from my room, featuring St Piran’s flags. These flags of Cornwall with a white cross on a black field celebrate the mining heritage of this amazing corner of England.

Tomorrow I once again am travelling. This seven week trip will be predominantly to South Africa, augmented with a 10 day diversion to Mauritius and Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean as well as one other very quick trip (that I’ll share with my readers when I return). In South Africa I will be doing a hiking trip with KE Adventures in the Drakensberg Mountains, an Explore Worldwide trip along the Garden Route from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, finished off with nearly a week in Cape Town at an Airbnb to more fully explore (and hike!) this iconic city.

Enjoy the cooler autumnal weather outdoors wherever you may be,

The Vagabond Hiker

An Abruzzo Hiking Holiday

Abruzzo is an Italian region east of Rome featuring an Adriatic coastline, the rugged Apennine mountains, and hilltop towns dating to the medieval and Renaissance periods. For the avid hiker, national parks and nature reserves cover much of its rugged interior. Following my hiking week in Tuscany (refer to my post from last month), I drove down to Abruzzo, a region I had never visited, with the intention of hiking: taking in as many national parks, coastal walks, and countryside strolls as I could.

Nothing, however, went according to plan. I immediately realized that the Airbnb and town itself I had picked for my base in western Abruzzo were both terrible choices. After a poor night’s sleep, I made a same-day booking and relocated to the historic center of Atessa, in the Val di Sangro (province of Chieti) in southeastern Abruzzo. While this decision cost me several hundred dollars, it absolutely saved my holiday. Then the twin scourges of a ferocious June heatwave and my recurring foot problems managed to derail much of my newly-made plans. Nonetheless, a sufficient number of good hikes (and photos!) still remained to cobble together this blog post, to give the reader at least an idea of the Province of Chieti within the larger region of Abruzzo.

Atessa

Situated on a ridge at about 420m elevation and perhaps 20km from the Adriatic as the crow flies, Atessa turned out to be a great choice as a base. Using Booking.com, I found an air-conditioned apartment on Piazza Garibaldi in the historic center, with balcony and views over the surrounding countryside. While a long drive from two of the three national parks in Abruzzo, Atessa is a lovely, walkable town with many restaurants, public spaces, and some interesting buildings. Moreover, the local people were very friendly, something one won’t experience in a larger city. With free covered parking nearby and a supermercato within two minutes’ walk, it proved an inspired choice.

Morning view from my balcony
Octopus statue. I’m not quite sure what this memorializes.
Fontana di Giò Pomodoro and Duomo di San Leucio with its clock tower
Evening balcony view with the Chiesa di San Rocco bell tower left. Fortunately, the bells only rang between 6 AM and 10 PM each day!
i gatti che vivano liberi sono protetti. The cat-lover in me enjoyed encountering some of these feral felines.
A view of Atessa from the provincial road below town. The bell tower of Chiesa di San Rocco is seen far right.
Full moon from my balcony

Local Hikes

Although I spent many mornings simply walking around town, the countryside also beckoned. The wildly overgrown nearby trails were somewhat problematic, however. Even the official CAI trails could be difficult to manage.

Countryside a few minutes’ walk from Atessa
French Honeysuckle
View back towards Atessa. Much of the hay had already been baled by mid-June, and the ground was parched.
A zoom view towards Majella National Park, the only national park in reasonable driving distance and an obvious choice for a couple of hikes
A forest path near Gissi, in the next valley over from Val di Sangro. I did a nice forest and country loop hike here one morning.
Common Centuary. I know I’ve shown this before, but this late in spring wildflowers were mostly distant memories.
Countryside view back to Gissi
A zoom view of Gissi. Many homes in the town are coated with gesso, obtained from nearby caves and hills, hence its name.
Boardwalk view on my Monte Pallano & Archeology Park hike
A Samnite wall on Monte Pallano. These ancient Italic peoples inhabited Samnium, a region located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy.
A nine spotted moth. Until the sun warmed these guys up, they were stationary and thus easy to photograph.
A hut in a wall on Monte Pallano, either for fortification or agriculture I wasn’t sure

A Coastal Walk

Of course being so near the Adriatic made it obligatory to do at least one coastal hike. So despite the heat, I made an early start to the Regional Natural Reserve Punta Aderci.

Wheat fields, vineyards, and the Adriatic coast
Punta Aderce’s pebble beach (left) and a traditional wooden fishing pier, known as a trabocco. Indeed, the Adriatic coast in the province of Chieti is sometimes referred to as Costa dei Trabocchi.
Harvested wheat fields, cedars, and oleanders, with the Adriatic as a backdrop. Although the light wasn’t perfect, I like this panorama nonetheless.

Majella National Park

I finally gave up waiting for cooler weather, so as my time was running out and my feet were fully recovered, I made back-to-back alpine starts to enjoy two hikes in Majella before the heat of the day. They were the twin highlights of my sojourn. A brief synopsis of the park may be found in Wiki.

Dawn light on a hill town seen driving to the trailhead
WWI memorial at the trailhead of the Cascata San Giovanni loop hike
Bocca di Valle, near the start of the hike up the gorge
Fiume Vesola in the gorge
The objective: Cascata San Giovanni. At 7:30 in the morning, I had it all to myself.
Thistle macro
Limestone grottos. I completed an 8km loop by traversing along the mountainsides and ridge-lines.
Pennapiedimonte village trailhead view EARLY morning on the 12 km Vallone delle Tre Grotte (Valley of the Three Caves) hike
Cimirocco, an interesting formation and construction near the trailhead
Dawn view up the gorge. Note the path on the right that traverses along the slope above the valley.
Southern globe-thistle (Echinops ritro)
Early morning along the path. I only encountered one other hiker on this popular route, who in fact ran the trail to and from the sorgenti (springs) twice in about the time I managed it once.
Madonna delle Sorgenti. Having a secure source of water is crucial to the local inhabitants, hence this shrine.
Looking down on the Fiume Avella, with a small cascade and pool
Cascata Macarone della Pila. Though not as impressive as the prior day’s cascata, it was cool (literally) nonetheless.
Nearly back and not yet 9 AM! The first part of the path is accessible.

So, would I return to Abruzzo? The short answer is, YES. However, I would come either earlier in the spring, say April, or in October. I would absolutely love to do some iconic hikes and peaks in both Grand Sasso and Abruzzo national parks, as well as other areas of Majella. Realistically, staying at three different bases for one week each, and incorporating some cultural days in towns and cities would be ideal. There are reasonably priced hotels and mountain resorts, whose high season is winter for skiing. (I seriously considered the three base option, but the higher cost and more constant traveling dissuaded me – this time).

I depart Hastings tomorrow morning for Penzance in far west Cornwall for two weeks hiking along the Southwest Coast Path, in my continuing (never-ending?) saga to complete that more than 1000km route.

The Vagabond Hiker

Madagascar Nature Hikes: North to South

Six years since Covid derailed my planned visit to Madagascar, I finally made it to the world’s 4th largest island! Madagascar is one of the most ecologically diverse locations on Earth, with a vast majority of its plants and animals found only on the island. This unique ecology was the focus and attraction for our two-week group tour, which was not a hiking trip per se. Perhaps because of this focus, these photos are quite a departure from my usual blog posts. Join me on this journey and let me know what you think!

A physical map of Madagascar, located off the east coast of southern Africa
Our Explore Worldwide route. After some long, tough days driving we were all happy to fly back to Antananarivo at the end!

Andasibe and Analamazaotra NP

Any trip to Madagascar (other than a cruise) will of necessity start and end at the capital, Antananarivo (Tana). Our 1/2 day drive northeast to Andasibe the following morning kicked off the two week trip for 11 Brits, myself, and our wonderful leader, Naina. Our nature walks (most were in reality hikes, carrying a full day pack through rough terrain) started in the rain-forest, in a community nature reserve and in Analamazaotra National Park.

Our local guide, Daisy, at Analamazaotra National Park
My attempt at a photo of a Common brown lemur
Common brown lemur. (Photo courtesy of Andrew)
In this post I include 5 photos of lemurs taken by Andrew, a client who had a proper camera with telephoto, frankly necessary in the dense jungle environment.
Can you make out the Mossy leaf-tailed gecko, spotted by our guide at the VOI MMA Community Reserve?
Another Mossy leaf-tailed gecko, blending right in! These geckos are strictly nocturnal, so spotting these kings of camouflage during the day is not at all easy.
Landscape with fish ponds, Analamazaotra NP. Farmed fish, including tilapia, seemed a staple of the diet in this region.
Critically endangered Diademed Sifaka lemurs, 2nd largest of all lemur species. They were warming up in the morning sun.
The gorgeous Daidemed Sifaka deserves another photo (photo courtesy of Andrew)
An Indri, also critically endangered and the largest of all lemurs
Another Indri lemur (Photo courtesy of Andrew)
A river view at Analamazaotra
Bulbophyllum analamazoatrae (no English common name). As it was winter in July, not many flowers were in bloom, though I did spot this diminutive orchid.
A tree fern
A Green day gecko. My macro worked ok for this little fellow.
A pond view at Analamazaotra. We saw numerous species of birds, but none of us really tried to get photos; scoping them with binoculars was far more enjoyable.

Antsirabe and Lake Tritriva

This French colonial highland city (elevation 1400m) provided a lovely one night layover on our way south, and was a superb base for a short hike around Lake Tritriva.

A monument in Antsirabe, showing all 18 Madagascan tribes, which arrived from diverse countries over the centuries.
The highland landscape near Tritriva Lake
View down towards Tritriva Lake from our path. At about 1750m, this was our highest elevation for the entire trip.
Another Tritriva Lake view, a caldera from an extinct volcano
The Vagabond Hiekr at Tritriva Lake

Ranomafana National Park

Three walks in Ranomafana National Park, our second rain-forest (elevation about 1100m), introduced us to some more species of lemur as well as some other amazing animals, and even some wildflowers in bloom in winter (we were at a latitude near the Tropic of Capricorn).

Namorona River in Ranomafana NP
A colorful bridge, Ranomafana
Streptocarpus hilsenbergii, another flower without an English common name
A rare Clerodendrum arenarium, endemic to eastern Madagascar and also lacking an English common name
A critically endangered Greater bamboo lemur, the only individual in the park, although some do live at lower elevations outside the park
Some tribal gravestones at Ranomafana. One challenge with these nature hikes was that we frequently needed to leave the trails when the spotter saw lemurs or other wildlife.
Can you spot the Satanic leaf-tailed gecko?
A macro of the Satanic leaf-tailed gecko. This master of disguise is holding its tail over its head.
A boardwalk path on our short Sahamalaotra loop hike at Ranomafana. Only one other client joined me this afternoon.
Pandanus frog macro, Sahamalaotra loop hike. This guy was tiny!

Ambalalova Community Reserve

While this nature walk was just a short stop-over during a long day of driving South, it was our first opportunity to see Ring-tailed lemurs, and an introduction to the drier savanna ecosystem more characteristic of Southern Madagascar.

View of Ambalalova Community reserve
A wetland pano at Ambalalova Community reserve
Ring-tailed lemur at Ambalalova Community reserve
A male Oustalet’s chameleon (aka Malagasy giant chameleon)
A female Oustalet’s chameleon
A Ring-tailed lemur enjoying a meal (photo courtesy of Andrew)

Ranohira and Isola National Park

We stayed two nights at one of the very best hotels in the country, an excellent base to explore Isola National Park, which reminded me of southern Utah, but with more grass.

Cliffs at Isola National Park
A Ring-tailed lemur on a rock face. In this ecosystem they stay on the cliffs overnight for safety from fossas (the largest mammalian carnivore on Madagascar, often compared to a small cougar), one of their main predators. . .
. . . and then come down to the forest to feed during the day when fossas sleep.
Landscape at Isola. This was not what I expected Madagascar to look like!
A natural pool at Isola where many of us enjoyed a dip

Ifaty and Reniala Community Reserve

Our final three nights before returning to Tana were spent at a resort outside of this southwest coastal town, in private bungalows, most of which had views of the Mozambique Channel. It was also our base for visiting our final community reserve, in the Spiny Forest, which featured some of the most interesting fauna on the entire trip.

Pool at our Ifaty resort with the Mozambique Channel
Our local guide explaining the Reniala Reserve
A warty chameleon at the reserve
A rather large Tree-hole spider
An Octopus tree, favorite nesting tree of the endangered Petter’s sportive lemur
Iconic Baobabs at Reniala
A Black scorpion
A Madagascar ground boa. This reserve in the spiny forest had an amazing variety of fauna!
A Lesser hedgehog tenrec. Getting a good photo of this fast-moving guy was not easy! Although they superficially resemble a small hedgehog, they are in fact the only species in their genus.
An amazingly cute Petter’s sportive lemur in an Octopus tree (photo courtesy of Andrew)

I’m now back in Hastings, England, enjoying the sea and some summer sun. In two weeks I head to Penzance in Cornwall to continue my Southwest Coast Path Odyssey. Before that I plan on publishing a short blog from my 3-week June stay in Abruzzo, one of many regions in southern Italy I had never visited.

Happy trails,

The Vagabond Hiker

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