North Walk: Hayle to St Ives

Friday 22nd May: It's May Bank Holiday and I managed to escape from work early to travel down to the St Ives area. On my last visit on the North walk - I ended a weeks walking in a rush to catch a bus at Hayle and managed to miss the proper path into Hayle. I wanted to reach Lands End this weekend, so the plan was to get from Hayle to St Ives tonight - reach Pendeen Watch by the end of Saturday, and then Lands End on Sunday.

Unfortunately, I hadn't got round to finding anywhere to stay, which was a bit daft, being that it was Bank Holiday - but I knew I would find places. A quick phonecall to St Ives TI on the way down was met with some negativity - " St Ives is filling up - it's Bank Holiday" - that's why I'm ringing you, I replied!
Anyway - I found a place in Carbis Bay which is between Hayle and St Ives and on the bus route if needed. By the time I got there it was 5.30pm so I explained that I was going to dash out, get the bus to Hayle and then walk to St Ives. As I was getting ready - her husband knocked on the door and very kindly offered to give me a lift, so that was a good start to the weekend. He was all excited, as he had just bought his neighbours motorboat and was taking it on it's maiden voyage that weekend!
St Ives Bay looking back to Godrevy

Dropped off in Hayle, I had to find my way back to the point in the dunes behind St Ives Bay where I had strayed off the path. The beach here just seems to go on forever and looked particularly beautiful in the late afternoon sun. As you reach the mouth of the estuary, you pass a whole lot of superbly positioned chalets - some of which looked like permanent homes. there is no feery across the estuary here - so you have to walk all the way into Hayle and around the estuary to the small village of Lelant. Hayle was once the site of the largest engineering works in the SouthWest - Harvey's, but it eventually suffered from the decline in mining.
Alot of the walk to Lelant was on the main road and I then had to get across the Golf course to pick up the path along the railway - one of the most scenic rail routes in England. I took a bit of wrong path and ended up popping up right behind a green just as a trio of golfers were chipping onto it. They weren't that impressed - but I eventually was able to ask them the quickest route back to the path.
Carbis Bay was reached and the path passed behind it and then rose up again to the railway and a small footbridge before heading down towards Porthminster. By this time, it was well into Friday night and the various bars and cafe's were full of early bank holiday visitors and after work drinkers. St Ives was just beyond Portminster, I have visited St Ives before - it is another of Cornwall's gems. I wandered further along through the harbour and out to St Ives head. I wanted to end the evening's walk at the far end of St Ives and also find a suitable car park to leave my car the following day.
I found a packed car park at Porthmear beach, but the attendant kindly recommended another one near the Tate - parking is at a premium in St Ives - I would have to be early!

I was ready to get back to the B&B - couldn't find the bus stop - so ended up walking - quite knackered by the time I got back at about 10.00pm - and somehow I had managed to pass all the St Ives watering holes without visiting any of them!