I think it’s time I came clean about one of Eddie’s misadventures. As regular readers know by now, Eddie’s enthusiasm for life is fairly dynamic, especially when it comes to public transport. When we stayed at Marazion for a few days in April, I had a really nice walk planned which involved catching the bus at Marazion into Penzance and then changing to another bus to go to Madron. My map showed some good inland footpaths that would eventually bring me back to Marazion. We walked to the bus stop and had a little while to wait. Given the time of the morning there were several dog walkers taking their regular morning exercise and Eddie had to sit and watch them walk past, which started to test his patience. By the time the bus arrived Eddie was calm but once the bus slowed down and pulled in he knew he was in for an exciting day out. He loves to ride on public transport, buses, trains, taxis, and he’s always gone down on the floor or under the seat.
As soon as the door opened he was on there like a rocket and pulling to go to a seat. Unfortunately there was a woman sat right behind the female bus driver with a small dog on her lap, which wasn’t a problem to anyone but the driver who said she wasn’t having a badly behaved dog on her bus. Eddie might be a lot of things but badly behaved isn’t one of them. I offered to go to the back of the bus or even upstairs, away from the passenger with the small dog, but the driver wasn’t having any of it so we were made to do the walk of shame back to the pavement. I was furious and I had a dog with a now tarnished reputation.
Not to be beaten we walked along the road before crossing over into Marazion Marshes, which were busy with plenty of ducks, geese and numerous songbirds, but it still took a mile or so for my temper to calm down. I was now walking back up the St Michael’s Way and away from Marazion and came eventually to the main Penzance-Helston road. Crossing over, the path went through a further three fields before reaching and then crossing the A30 which goes on to Hayle. Ludgvan church was now up on the hill in front of us and it was slightly obscured when a tractor working in the fields raised a huge cloud of dust that rose from the very dry soil every time he drove past.
We walked up through the village by which time our happiness was fully restored in the spring sunshine, with lovely gardens full of flowers and birds singing their hearts out. What a joyous season spring is. I eventually came to a granite stile giving access to a shady lane between very old stone hedges which came out into fields of banked up potatoes which could have been a problem but it must have been a popular footpath as there was a well-trodden path right across to the next field. There were a number of people working in the fields to remove the fleece that is used to to warm the ground and protect any early shoots from late frosts. Crossing several more fields of potatoes we eventually came out onto a Tarmac road before turning in to a lane and going downhill in the shade of lots of elm trees. The lane opened out and the sun was strong which seemed to make all the colours exaggerated, with the bright green alexanders, the brilliant white blackthorn blossom and the cloudless blue sky: what a day to be walking!
The path took us into Gulval with a most beautiful church, above, set in the centre of the village and I was imagining various newlyweds over the years and centuries standing outside under the trees with wellwishers showering them with confetti and flower petals. Leaving Gulval behind, we followed the road downhill again before taking a path through woods and coming out at the Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, which seemed to be quite busy. After a short time we were walking on pavements again and on a footbridge over the busy main roads before coming out onto the promenade which hugs the beach all the way around to Marazion from Penzance. At the far end and just up from the beach I tied Eddie to the leg of a picnic table and asked some women to just keep an eye on him while I went in the cafe to get an ice cream for us. When I got back outside Eddie was perched on top of the table chatting up the women who were supposed to be keeping an eye on him!
From an awful start it turned out to be a lovely walk on a glorious spring day.
Erica
