Slept well, got a leisurely start, and headed into Anstruther to find a hearty breakfast. None of the sort we had in mind was on offer, though — mostly only coffee and pastry — so we grabbed a passing bus to Crail, which was our next destination anyway. We recalled two venues in Crail, each of which might have provided the desired hot breakfast, but alas! both were closed. That left the Golf Course Hotel Restaurant.
The last time we were in Crail, we decided to breakfast at the Golf Course, perhaps even on our last day in the village, as a treat — expecting that the Hotel Restaurant would be expensive but expansive. That day, it was expensive but fatally flawed: they had no coffee to supply, and showed no inclination to obtain any despite thee fact that there’s a market a literal stone’s throw away. We vowed a vow on that day that we would never eat there again.
My children, do not make rash vows, as Jephthah and Saul learned, to their dismay.
They did have coffee, and the meal was adequate, and it was Eat Out to Help Out so the breakfast was half off. I did not detect any curse descending on us for oath-breaking.
We then set out for the Fife Coastal Path, which we followed for the four-plus miles rom Crail back to Cellardyke.nThe walk was agreeable in general, if a bit grey for most of its duration. We were blessed with a look-in from the sun that lasted fifteen minutes or so, but that dialled up the vividness of everything’s colours for a short interval. We made our way along the rocky coast past several empty buildings to the Caiplie Coves, a small series of natural caves which had at certain times been used as shelter and as a worship space by Christian monks and missionaries. They resemble some of the eroded cave systems of the American southwest, though Caiplie is very much smaller: only two or three caves proper, and some arches and hollows. Still the site is intensely impressive, especially when (as we) one doesn’t anticipate it. Even more especially, when it is not in use by a crew of adolescents who brought their beer and boom box (such as arrived just when we were departing).
We also spotted a boar (in the sense of ‘a male domestic hog’) of alarming proportions. A dino-swine. I couldn’t properly make sense of it. It may have been a Duroc, a hog with relatively long legs, an auburn coat, not fat at all, but a solid pig.
We finished the walk in about four hours, and were expecting a longer path home so that we walked directly past Madhavi’s door. Doubling back, we settled in for a long afternoon conversation, for some good times with Gabriel, a convivial Snack Hour, then delicious risotto, and returning to our shelter when it became clear that Gabriel needed some time with his mum and dad.
