iWalk Cornwall

As the summer draws to a close, we re-enter mussel season. Although mussels are one of the most sustainable forms of seafood, you should avoid harvesting them between May and August as this is their breeding season. Make sure you collect more mature mussels of at least 50mm in length as smaller ones are less good to eat. It's worth studying the tides to get to the beach for a low Spring tide as this is when you'll find the biggest juiciest mussels. Avoid picking any mussels with a damaged shell - you want to be sure they are alive and fresh. Ideally take a bucket and bring your mussels home in clean seawater. Otherwise use a carrier bag and try to keep them cool. Once you have harvested your mussels, soak them for a few hours somewhere cool in clean saltwater to allow them to purge any sand (don't submerge them in freshwater as this will kill them). If you don't have seawater, you can use cooking salt in tap water at the ratio of 32 grammes per litre. Sort thro

Holywell Bay unsurprisingly gets its name from a Holy Well, but there are 2 rival contenders for this!  The first is in the valley at Trevarrick (near the 18th hole of Holywell Golf Course).  The second, and more likely the original, is a freshwater spring in a sea cave at the north end of the beach.  In Cornish, the name is Porth Elyn, meaning "cove of the clear stream" which also lends weight to the latter being the original Holy Well. Cornwall's Cotton Castle In Turkey, Pamukkale (Turkish for "Cotton Castle") is a huge tourist attraction, however Cornwall's equivalent is more of a hidden gem.  The spring in the cave is along the side of Kelsey Head and is only accessible at the lowest part of the tide (i.e. when you can see the shipwreck protruding from the waves). Shipwreck at Holywell Bay at low tide The location of the cave is not that obvious unless you know where to look.  If you follow the cliffs out towards the headland, you eventually pass a rocky

For use with iWalk apps, the Nexus 7 tablet has a number of things going for it: A built-in GPS which is very quick to get a position fix A decent sized screen for viewing maps Good battery life when GPS is enabled Still small enough to fit in a coat pocket Light enough to sling around your neck in waterproof case They are available from Amazon either with 16 or 32Gb of memory. 16GB 32GB For running the iWalk apps, either is fine. Protection from the elements For walking, we'd recommend getting a waterproof case. Not only are they useful if the weather is wet, but in cold weather you can hang the tablet around your neck to save fiddling with gloves and pockets. To keep the wind, rain or children's lunch off your tablet, this one is fine: I took mine out in all weathers and the tablet has been fine, though it eventually split after about 6 months of heavy use. If you want something that is guaranteed waterproof, that you can drop in a river and still be OK, and will last for y

The majority of our walks are available as guided walks for Android phones (or tablets), and we are steadily working through making the remainder available.  See our apps page for the current list of which walks are available as apps.  Each walk also contains a link to the app in the top-right corner if it's available for the walk. Phone models Any phone running Android 2 or above should be OK for running the iWalk apps.  Map scrolling is smoother on newer faster phones, but we regularly use an old HTC Desire C for testing and it works fine.  Note there is a bug in the Android 4.2 operating system that may cause the very occasional drawing glitch when panning or zooming the map, but if you just pan or zoom a bit more, it should redraw fine.  Hopefully Google will fix it in 4.3 as it's affecting a lot of other apps on 4.2. Installing the apps If you have a QR scanning app installed you can zap the QR code (either from the web pages on the screen of your PC or a printout) to g

The bluebell is symbolic of England, though we have them in Cornwall too ;)  Some estimates suggest the UK has up to half of the world's total bluebell population; nowhere else in the world do they grow in such abundance. The poor bluebell faces a number of threats: There has been large-scale unsustainable removal of bulbs for sale, though it is now a criminal offence to remove the bulbs of wild bluebells. Bluebells are likely to struggle in the face of climate change.  During periods of cold weather, spring flowers, such as bluebells, have already started the process of growth by preparing leaves and flowers in underground bulbs during summer and autumn.  They are then able to grow in the cold of winter, or early spring, by using these resources stored in their bulb.  Other species (such as cow parsley or dandelions) require warm weather before they are able to germinate and grow.  With the warmer springs induced by climate change, bluebells will lose their 'early start' a

Wild garlic, also known as Ramsons, can be harvested roughly from March to May. Unlike domestic garlic, it's the leaves that you eat rather than the bulbs (which are unimpressively tiny). The leaves are relatively mild, similar to garlic chives, so you can use them in salads or sandwiches. In larger quantities they can be used anywhere you'd use garlic or leeks. The main thing is to add them at the very last moment when cooking as they quickly lose their flavour. The younger leaves are delicate and best for salads. As the leaves grow larger they toughen up a little and resemble the tender parts of leeks in their texture. You'll therefore most likely want to chop the larger leaves into strips. When harvesting the leaves, snap the stems rather than pulling which rips out the bulbs, diminishing next year's supply and covering your harvest with mud. Locations along the edge of paths popular with dog walkers are best avoided for obvious reasons. Walks with Wild

We're pleased to announce that 11 of our walks are now available as Android apps from the Google Play app store. We developed the apps to allow you to guide yourself around our walks by making use of the "SatNav" technology of smartphones and tablets.  We now fit into your pocket, telling you what to do next, when to do it and what's interesting to see at that point. We're in the process of producing an Apple version of the apps for iPhone and iPad and are working towards making all the walks on our website available in both the Android and Apple app stores. To find out more, see the  apps page  on our website.

This is our first post on the iWalk North Cornwall blog. If you've come to this from a route other than our website or facebook page are wonder what it's all about, we have set up a website of our walks in North Cornwall which are free to print out - each has detailed directions and some information about points of interest along the walk.  At the time of writing, we have 72 walks available on the website, although we'll be adding more whenever we get time. Some of the things we're planning to include on the blog are: announcements of new walks some suggestions for walks suited to the season, e.g. foraging for wild garlic, seeing bluebells or spotting seals. announcements when walks are available as mobile apps, plus some tips on using our apps on different models of smartphones and tablets. If you're interested, if you use google blogger to read blogs, you can use it subscribe to our blog, or there is an RSS feed if you prefer to use those to keep track of blog p