Porthkidney Beach at Sunset

Porthkidney beach in Lelant is Hayle’s quieter, harder-to-get-to twin sister across the river.

If you’ve ever been on a quiet Spring day, you’ll understand how much it looks like a slice of heaven. White fluffy sand and clear blue waters, and much of the time it’ll all be yours – no person in sight!

Well I thought I’d be able to capture a bit of Winter heaven there on a walk yesterday afternoon, but I quickly realised I’d totally muddled up the tide times… alas, it was HIGH tide at 3pm, not low. D’oh.

^ This is usually all sand that you walk across to get to the full beach around the corner…

Despite this, Porthkidney is outlined by a section of coast path which is truly beautiful to walk along, next to the trainline, at sunset. So all was not lost!

^ Hayle/Riviere Towans in the distance

You can in fact walk right along this coast path to Carbis Bay and then St. Ives; a totally beautiful area and definitely on my ‘to walk’ list! But today I was just out for a quick stroll before finishing off some Christmas shopping, with a flask of chai tea and a camera.

I set myself up with a spot in the dunes between bunches of marram grass and sipped away as the clouds overhead thickened and the sun started to set. It wasn’t a spectacular sunset, but beautiful all the same.

The water at Porthkidney (and Hayle beach) is always so blue and inviting, but due to the currents around the river it’s not safe for swimming/surfing sadly. The far ends of the beach are fine though, as Porthkidney transforms into Carbis Bay and Hayle merges into Gwithian…but it was a little too cold this particular afternoon!

It seemed like it was going to get dark rather quickly, so I packed up my things and headed back to the church where I’d parked.

It was quite atmospheric walking back at twilight, with the sky blazing away in different colours behind me, walking alongside the trainline. This always reminds me of taking the train down to St. Ives from Truro or Redruth with my mum in the Summer – a little treat that always ended up with craft shops and Cornish fudge!

Sunset walks are the best… I just wish it wasn’t quite as soon as 4 o’clock!

On another strange and somewhat unrelated note – this may be the last set of photos I shoot with my Canon DSLR.

I’ve been considering selling it for a while since getting my Olympus Pen back in the Summer and I think I probably am going to after Christmas. Whilst it is a hard decision (this camera has been everywhere with me!), I rarely use it anymore, and when I do, I just don’t feel the outcome is as good as that of the Olympus.

I might just be a mirrorless convert now!

Anyway I’m glad I managed to get out in some dry, relatively nice weather this week. The weekend was so miserable (although seeing Alice & Adam in Plymouth cheered it up of course!), and on Sunday when it was nice we ended up not going out as N had just got back from a whirlwind USA trip!

So now I’m ready for a week of work, helping family move house and a special Christmas meal on Saturday ;)

Where’s your favourite place to see the sunset?

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