Surf, Sun and more Wind

The train from Windermere to Penzance was a little on the long side (didn't realize we were travelling almost the entire length of the country). We arrived at 9pm, just in time for the last bus into Land's End. We heard it was touristy though so we found a place in The Lonely Planet called Whitesands Lodge just outside called in a town called Sennen (it had also been suggested that we check out Sennen crag). Its said you could camp their for £6/night, but when we turned up this was not the case and everything they had roomwise was full. So it was 11pm and we were on some rural road in the dark walking in the direction the guy at the lodge told us there was a camping farm. We showed up to a sign saying site full, but reception was closed so we pitched anyways and packed up early. We figured there had to be more in Land's End, so we walked back out and waited for the bus. When we arrived in Land's End we were very disappointed. There was nothing but a couple shops saying "First and Last this/that" and an information counter that had no information except about the 3 or so tourist shows you could see there. There was however a map, which upon viewing made us realize the campsite we were in this morning was exactly where we wanted to be... DOH! So we walked the 1.5miles back into Sennen so we could take in the rugged and beautiful coastline and figure out what there was in the way of a town. Along the way we saw some climbers topping out on the cliff we never would have seen otherwise. We arrived back at the campsite and they found some room for us, and finally after a little stress and some sweating we were somewhat established. All I could think was that it was good we stopped for groceries along our train ride the day before. After the exertions for the day we just wanted to collapse, so we went down to the beach for some swimming, sleeping and sunning.

The next morning was a little drizzly so we got a late start, and headed to the cliff we discovered yesterday. It was full of awesome sea cliff climbing on really steep and pebbly granite. From the top it was hard to tell, but it was absolutely full of great, fun routes. It was also cool to have the waves crashing in below. The entire day was full of little drizzles that weren't enough to effect the climbing... until the afternoon. We decided to call it our last route and David had made it up in the rain and was setting up a belay when all of a sudden I was standing under a waterfull. The groove he went up turned out to be a main path or water that finally started flowing. So David hauled up the pack and I commenced climbing through the running river. Needless to say it was a struggle and I was soaked when I reached the top. It ran up my sleeves when I would reach up and in my shoes and my shorts looked like I sat in a puddle... or wet myself :P We called it a day and went back to the campsite, where we did some much needed laundry.

The next days forecast was similiar to the previous, so we decided to stay on the beach where we'd be wet anyways and rent some surf boards. It was really good surf in the morning, but became a little crowded. We were headed up the beach when gale force winds came in and were driving the rain so hard you had to turn away from it; I hid behind my surfboard. We decided to take a break at this point and chow down on the Cornish pasties we bought earlier. We stayed out of the water for awhile as the weather continued to suck and the high tide was bad for the surf. A couple hours later we jumped back in and the waves were awesome, but a little huge for our inexperienced selves. We had several good wipeouts. David was amused to watch me atop a big one and then see the look on my face when I realized the board was going to nose in and I would end up head over heels. At the end of the day we returned our stuff cleaned up and went out for dinner. I had locally caught fish (mmm mmm) and chips, and David steak and kidney pie. If we thought the weather was bad in the day, it had nothing on what came through in the night. It got so windy I was worried the tent was going to blow away around us. It did however rip out one of the stakes which I didn't realize till there was running water in the tent. I fixed it however and we survived till morning.

Today we packed up our soaked tent and bused back to Penzance where we caught a train to London. Unfortunately this did not go as smoothly as most of our other train travels. About half way through a few miles from a stop someone committed suicide by throwing themselves in front of our train. Needless to say this caused some delay. We got to the next station where after some waiting the next train caught up and they moved us to that one. I'd say this was a good decision as I saw the looks on the faces of the people facing our train as we pulled away. Unfortunately it meant it was over-crowded and people were bitchy. The rest of the journey was spent getting bumped into stepped on and stopping bags from falling everywhere. We made it to London though and are all checked into our hostel now, and with full bellies we feel much better. Only 3 more days... can't wait to see all of you then.

Ta ta for now