Today Peter & I left the house in Cubert [the village where he and his wife live] at 6.45am and drove to Portreath and eventually we found the coast path out of the village. It was nice seeing Portreath again and the cottage where I had a family holiday when I was17 years old - haven't been back until Saturday! At 7.20am I started walking up the road as the first part of the path has been closed due to landslips on the cliff making the path unsafe. Not a long way up the road I was able to re-join the path which then went seaward of the old Nancekuke Common Airfield which is now a radio/ radar establishment and the land farmed to produce cauliflowers. The base extended a long way, probably over half of the way to Porthtowan which I arrived at about 8.40am and then continued to Chapel Porth at 9.20am, then on to St Agnes Head at 10.00am and St Agnes village at 10.45am. I passed Trevellas Combe at 11.08am and this was a pretty little place - not much there just a valley with small beach and cliffs. At 12.30 I arrived at Perranporth and stopped at The Watering Hole on the beach for coffee and some chips. I resumed walking at 12.55pm and decided to walk along the beach - one of the best beaches in Cornwall. It is over 2 miles long with firm golden sand and the beach when the tide is out is over 300 yards from the sea to the top of the beach and in places much more. At 2.45pm I arrived at Holywell Bay one of the most attractive bays and beaches I have seen in Cornwall - backed by rows of sand dunes which run at right angles to the beach and some rise to over 100 feet and it is quite difficult to follow the official path. On the north side of the bay I stopped for lunch and resumed walking at 3.05pm and arrived at Joke Cove [yes, that really is its name!]. But you have to decide of course if the laugh is on the other side! I continued walking around two more headlands and then walked across Crantock Beach and having spoken to Peter on the mobile he came to pick me up as there was no point trying to cross The Gannel, the ferry being only available in the summer and the tidal bridge only usable at low tide. So the plan is for Peter to drop me off on the other side of Newquay and The Gannel tomorrow morning at Porth Beach in Newquay, skipping the rather tedious and repetetive urban walk in Newquay.
This morning when I started I had a problem with tendonitis behind my right ankle. This went during the day. However, my right knee which had not been good over the weekend was fine this morning but far from fine when I ended the walk. Tomorrow I am planning another early start to get me well on my way to Padstow for tomorrow evening. Tomorrow like today looks like being fairly gently walks along clifftops and not too strenuous - unlike the end of Wednesdays walk and the start of Thursdays which are the last two reallydifficult bits according to reports but not as difficult as last Fridays walk between Pendeen Watch and Zennor.
There are now only 10 days to go - the end is in sight. I weighed myself on Saturday and I now weigh 12 stone 8 ozs, having lost another half stone since I started stage two of my Dawdle on September 17th.
Today I walked 21 miles
No comments:
Post a Comment