Porthkidney

Another local secret, Porthkidney is not on all the maps and there are no signposts to it. You negotiate your way through a golf course and train track to reach it. This cold and dark afternoon, it is just a sliver of sand edging into sand dunes and the sea feels unsettled. A pair of looney dogs adopt me for a few minutes, and we gallop crazily along the shore while we can...

St Ives Harbour

A brief interlude back in Cornwall - and St Ives here gets perhaps the only sunshine in Cornwall, as if to reward me for my long journey to get here from England's other side. This is an easily overlooked beach, except by the sunbathing gulls; what few holidaymakeers there are linger inside the harbour by the shops and cafes, and the only other access is by clambering over some boulders on this side of the harbour when the tide is out.