New Year Walk - Camel Trail

A nice long walk on New Year's Day is getting to be a bit of a tradition, but I can't remember ever having better weather for it. Last night, New Year's Eve, was a full moon in a clear sky and the first morning of the new decade dawned clear and cold. Serious car windscreen defrosting was required - there was even ice on the inside, something I've never had before - even at 10 o'clock when I was getting ready to leave. And lots of layers of clothes, of course. There had been talk of a packed lunch, but at 9am an executive decision was taken that it was probably too cold for a picnic.

Wadebridge to Padstow along the Camel Trail - former railway now cycle track - is five and a half miles, flat but not boring. On the way there the tide was out, and we saw lots of different birds. We met a man who was properly watching the birdlife with a telescope on a tripod. When we expressed an interest he let us have a look - I have never seen an egret in so much detail. There were curlews, lapwings, oystercatchers, gulls of all descriptions, egrets and herons, sandpipers, greenshanks, and many smaller waders I was unable to identify with the naked eye and my incomplete knowledge. The trail itself was much busier than I expected, thanks to the good weather. All three collies are pretty well cycle track trained now, but the new cocker spaniel hadn't quite got the hang of stopping and waiting for the bikes to start with. By the end of the day he was fine, though.

Padstow was manic, with queues outside all the pubs, cafes and restaurants. We really should have taken a packed lunch, but in the end we got fish and chips (very nice) and ate them sitting on a bench on the quay in the sunshine, with dunlins pretending to big sparrows and nicking what crumbs they could. Not to mention dogs pretending to be gannets...

New Year's Day is a traditional 'Darkie Day' in Padstow, when the locals have always blacked their faces, put tinsel round their hats and made music through the town. I'd heard that it had been banned for political correctness, but apparently not. Or not quite. The repertoire now seems to consist of instrumental versions of 'Scotland the Brave' and 'My Grandfather's Clock' rather than the more controversial traditional songs. And I overheard a lady with a north country accent telling her friends that the black faces 'were something to do with the miners'. No, love, it's tin we mine (or used to) round here, not coal.

Then it was that long haul back to Wadebridge through the increasingly cooler afternoon. The tide was rushing in and many of the waders had moved along a bit, flocking here and there on a mudspit or the shore. Having been so pleased to spot a couple of individual lapwings earlier, I was really happy to see a big flock of them flying round before presumably settling down for the night. As we got nearly back to Wadebridge Ty did finally manage to sneak off for one quick swim and was quite unhappy that I wouldn't let him stay longer. The truth was, however, that on leaving Padstow for the return trip I had detected a certain unhappiness in my feet, and it got worse as we went along. I didn't dare stop for too long, for fear I'd be unable to carry on...

We got back to Wadebridge just as the sun was setting, 4.30ish. It had been a beautiful day and a wonderful way to start this new year, but I must confess that I was quite glad to stop. By the time I got home after an hour's driving my feet did not want to put themselves down, and when I took my boots off I found out why - my socks had worn completely through. They were only cheap kiddies' socks from the pound shop with pictures of huggy bears or something on, and I've probably been using them a couple of years, so I deserved to suffer. New socks tomorrow!