Nanjizal and the Song of the Sea...
The sands shift around our coasts. Shapes on our beaches can change from one tide to the next. The whole outline can be transformed from season to season, and sometimes the sand can escape elsewhere.
There is a tale that the demon of of Cornish legend, Jan Tregeagle, was given the job of sweeping sand from Porthcurno, around the tip of Cornwall and into Nanjizal Bay, which is on the South West Coast Path near Land's End. You can see why the impossible task might be set, because a good part of the beach at Nanjizal can disappear in winter, pulled away for a time by stormy seas.
If you manage to walk the path to Nanjizal on a bright spring day, as we did, you will see the sun make the water shine like a gem, with the light seeming to turn on and off as clouds scud over, and hardly anyone else on the cliffs. You may even get a glimpse of a giant grey seal passing through the blue water far below you. We saw three. But you may also find that the beach is absent, temporarily, and you have to clamber over rocks instead.
Porthgwarra
A good place to start is at the tiny cove of Porthgwarra, which has a car park and a café which serves mouthwatering snacks. Save these to celebrate your return and make your way onto the coast path near the beach which takes you around a spectacular headland and past a look-out station. You're on a walk of about three quarters of an hour going out and a little less coming back. That's if, on the return, you dip down beside some coastguard cottages and don't bother to make the circuit of the headland a second time. But allow longer, because there are so many views to take in and maybe a picnic on the beach.
Looking back to Porthgwarra
A note to myself is to come back one day and take a closer look at some of the climbing routes beyond Porthgwarra, including Hella Point, Porthgwarra Buttress and Chair Ladder. The rock consists of wonderful piles of rounded granite in great globular stacks.
Great globular stacks
Now you dip and climb across a series of bays with deep zawns carved into them. Porth Loe, Pendower and then Nanjizal. The sky is huge. You can spy the lighthouse off Land's End and in the far distance a vague suggestion of the Scillies.
Porth Loe
In early April the gorse is yellow and other flowers are beginning to show. There are a few walls which come down to the cliffs. Whoever built them dragged boulders into a line and piled smaller stones in between.
Spring Squill
The seals were near Pendower Coves. They swam slowly, one huge male and two others tagging along, visible as black forms through the clear water. Later they found a bunch of rocks to bask on.
Pendower with its mighty caverns
You gain a headland and catch sight of the water rippling into Nanjizal, or Mill Bay as it is known as well. How to describe the colour? If the sky is azure on a day like this, the sea adds a slight emerald tinge. See it in the first photo, at the top. It makes you smile and chuckle. It's hard to believe. Make sure you go as far out as you can on the headland to appreciate the full sweep of the bay, then head down. It's an easy walk, with a wooden stair to help you descend to the beach itself.
Then scramble over the jumble of stones to stare at the Song of the Sea, a slit in the cliff presented to you with a shady rock pool in front. People gather here to watch the winter sun setting directly through the narrow opening. Its other name is Zawn Pyg.
Song of the Sea
The sandwiches come out. There is a lot to take in. There is a section of sand left on the north side of the beach and a sand bar out in the bay, but giant pebbles are strewn elsewhere. This is a place where unwary dogs can get stuck in the gaps.
Nanjizal, or Mill Bay
When will the sand return? If you are visiting now or further into the summer, you'll see if it is there again and I wish you the joy of it. I hope it comes back. But, if not, take a little time to appreciate the stones themselves. Spotted, bricky granite, scored with black. No bay around here is quite the same. Sennen has granite pebbles mixed with grey, white-striped ones. Kynance has extraordinary black and red stones. Some there are green.
Every section of coast has a different story to tell in its rocks. And in its sand.
Pebbles on Nanjizal beach
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