Alas, the 10 days of meticulously planned walking on the Cornish coast did not happen – rain stopped play. Here is the one and only photo of our 3 mile walk in torrential rain and howling winds – this was taken the day before.

Our taxi drops us at Hemmick Beach which is unrecognisable. This is where I stopped last September on a soft balmy evening, rescued from a no phone signal dilemma and offered a lift by a lovely family to The Lost Gardens of Heligan.  Today a whirlwind of spume covers the beach and sea wall as we struggle to keep our balance in the howling wind and lashing rain. “Are you sure about this?” Damian shouts, as head down, we lean into the wind and crawl up onto the cliff – I can’t shout back, the wind whips away my words.

After a while the path dips down behind some bushes and a relative calm descends but it is still raining – heavily. We reach the shuttered castle at Caerhays, its carpark deserted and later the crossing from East to West Portholland and its cluster of holiday cottages. On a good day this would be lovely, today the sky is a leaden grey and the sea is angry.

At this point I make an executive decision not to walk back up onto the cliffs, but take the road back to Portloe. Sheltered by the hedges the wind is bearable, but it is still raining – heavily.

Eventually, soaked to the skin and more than a little worried about the weather report for the next 10 days, we arrive back at the car and drive off towards Falmouth. If there is to be no walking then we will visit the Eden Project and the Hepworth Sculpture Garden in St. Ives – I’ll come back in the Spring.

Distance: 3 miles!