Today I got to experience the raw beauty of an English weather system. Today Storm Doris, Lands End and myself met in spectacular style at the bottom of this island nation. And the meeting was intense.

After prioritising the purchase of food upon my arrival yesterday, today was my first real chance to explore the area.
Being based just outside of St Ives has allowed me to be able to travel around the majority of the Cornish coast with relative ease.  So today, I thought I’d tackle one of the major attractions: Lands End.

Everything packed, my camera charged and ready to go, I jumped straight in the hire car and drove straight through the centre of Cornwall to the end of Old Blighty. The drive down provided a false truth as to the strength of the wind. Upon parking the car, gusts I can only describe as gale strength hit me with a force that made me stagger backwards a few feet. Geared up I headed towards the entrance. A miniature theme park closed for the winter season, was eerily silent as the huge gusts of wind coming off the Atlantic Sea rattled the storefronts of cafes, information offices and gift shops.

Edging past the rides, end of the land mass came into view and I was met with the full force of the weather front that was Storm Doris. If it hadn’t been for the middle-aged man taking for his dog for walk along the cliffs I would have presumed the nature park closed. There was barely a living soul about. I turned down the coastal path and saw the wooden sign “Coastal Walk – Sennen 1m”, and thought, “How hard can it be?”

Technically, the walking trail is a ‘green route’ suitable for even the elderly. But not today. The degree of difficulty shot up dramatically thanks to Doris, and keeping one’s feet even on well-kept trail was tricky. The wind flying up off the sea up the cliffs and over was so intense I felt that if I didn’t keep my feet I’d be blown sideways inland back to the carpark.

The second battle was that in between the ears. The rational tourist and the adventure traveller. I would have felt ok if I could discern another human meandering their way on the trail through the rocky outcrops. I stopped for a moment, took shelter behind a boulder whilst I changed lenses, and there from behind the boulder further inland was the guy from the carpark, making his way down the grassy direct trail, which I had missed after parking the car.

After putting a sock in the mouth of the rational tourist, my adventure traveller side took over and followed my new trail master and his dog, albeit at a distance so as not to look pathetic or by any means dependent on him being there…

After 40 minutes of trudging through the grasses and rocks, I felt that every single pore on my face had retightened. The wind began to pick up even more, and I didn’t like the prospect of making my way down to the beach just beyond the quay below.
I returned to the car rather exhausted having just been put through the newest trend in fitness ‘wind resistance’. I’ll write about the rest of the day tomorrow, but for now, I’m going to recoup from my new training regime.

Much Love