Crantock and the Gannel

We're a fifth of a way through our project to walk 100 of the 'I Walk Cornwall' walks in 2025. Yay! People keep telling us how impressed they are, that we've walked so many walks in six weeks. It's not really that impressive! Ann just knows that we're going to be mega busy in the summer, so we have to crack on with the project now.

ATM Ann is working 4 days a weeks, so that only leaves three days when we can go off on an adventure and do a long walk. In the summer, she's also going to be doing some volunteering with the RNLI (and she'll be swimming in the sea again) so that will restrict our 'together time' even more. …....Although the nights will be lighter then, so we might manage a few walks in the evenings after she's finished work. Or maybe not! She gets a bit tired by the time she's done my normal length walks and a five hour shift on her feet at work. She turns into an OAP in March. I'm hoping her pension will pay for extra treats. Lol!

Anyway, today the sun was shining and the sky was blue, so we went to Crantock (near Newquay) for a walk up the Gannel Estuary and back through the fields. It was lovely. (Photos/route are on our FB/Strava page if you're our friends). The tide was out, so instead of walking on the coastal path, I got to run around on the beach and wallow in the water. It was such fun. And then on the return route to Crantock we walked through loads of fields. I got muddy paws but Ann didn't care cos we were on an adventure together and getting muddy, just proves that we've had a good adventure. Lol. Paws can always be washed can't they?

Ann was glad that she'd downloaded the walk and paid £3.39 for proper instructions, because we definitely wouldn't have followed the correct route through the fields, if we were only following the OS map. And all our Cornish OS maps are at least 10 years out of date anyway. However, my human is a bit mean...................... 100 walks @ £3.39per walk works out at £339 so she only downloads the walks, when she thinks the map might be a bit confusing, ...........as it was today.

It sounds a lot (Ann's friend has just paid slightly more than double that, for a week in Teneriffe, including flights) but at the end of the day, it's our project for the year and if you divide £339 by 12 it's only £28.50pm and I bet most people pay more than that for their gym membership (which they probably never use) or their daily coffee (which my human never does).

It's such a good app. It works on a GPS tracking thingy and the minute you go 'off route' it tells you, and it also tells you how to get to the next info point. For example, today the tide was out so we were able to walk along the beach on the Gannel Estuary (instead of the SWCP) before we rejoined the path to go through the fields. The app picked up where we were and then just reconnected us with where we had to go. Amazing!!

Oh, and the other good thing about it................... It has an option to report problems.............. Ie, we've planned to do a couple of walks, but the app has popped up with 'big red warning signs' saying that the walks are waterlogged etc. Today we had to start the walk in the 'Crantock Beach Car Park'. Got there and it was closed, so we parked for free somewhere else. Filled out the 'any problems' form on the 'I Walk Cornwall' app, and within half an hour we'd had a reply saying that the 'National Trust' were resurfacing the car park today and tomorrow. My human has just looked again at the app and there it is................. in a big red warning message, saying that the car park is closed today and tomorrow.

We love the 'I Walk Cornwall' app.

…..............80 more walks to walk before the end of 2025!!!