On Easter Sunday, 1995, myself, my wife Helen and our friends John and Dot ate a hearty breakfast then drove to Lands End via Cape Cornwall to begin the pursuit of our cherished dream; to walk The Cornish Coastal Footpath from Welcombe in the north, to Cremyll in the east.

We had all walked short stretches of the path, but both partnerships independently of the other; consequently, none of us had done justice to our potential or gone any further than the casual summer visitor. Now, we were determined to change that, and discover the hidden beauty of this glorious coastline: To walk all (depending on your source) 365, 450 or whatever miles from beginning to end.

We agreed that the best method would be to use two cars and leave one at the end of a stretch of Coast Path and all travel in the other car to the beginning, then walk to the first car and drive back again. To this end, Helen pored long and hard over our cherished Ordnance Survey maps of Cornwall and, using a now-famous length of string cut to evaluate to six miles, segregated the long and rugged coastline into 48 handy sections with somewhere to park a car at each end of each section..

To say that we started with trepidation would be an understatement: Now, after completing our personal quest, I would say that it has been one of the most enjoyable and rewarding periods of my life. To stand at The Rumps looking towards Bude and to know that I have walked every inch of that coastline fills me with a sense of achievement. We have seen Dolphins and Porpoises; Basking Sharks and Seals; Peregrine Falcons and all manner of Flora and Fauna, all with the majestic beauty of our coastline as a backdrop. To anyone reading this and contemplating doing the same, I would say