Firstly, I had to get to the train station - get the bike out, I thought, dust it down, blow up the tyres. Well, I should have blown up the bike itself - b****y thing, tyre went down half way to the station, fortunately because it's not the first time, I left myself plenty of time to finish the journey on foot, but arrived hot and bothered - not a good start to the day.
Took the train to Plymouth and then a bus across on the Torpoint ferry ( that was a first!) and then eventually, after a 45 mnute wait and a quick bacon sarnie, another bus to Crafthole from where I could wander down to re-join the path at Portwrinkle. Despite leaving Devon in full sunshine - South Cornwall was awash in sea mist, and it didn't clear until lunchtime, which was a shame as the first part of the walk across the cliffs to Downderry was supposed to be very scenic and exhilarating even. Further on, I reached another Seaton - much smaller than it's East Devon cousin, a small sandy bay adjoining a local Nature Reserve. From here, the path heads steeply up a lane heading towards the famous Woolly Monkey Sanctuary, first established in 1964. But there was to be no monkey business for me, and the path soon diverted back through some woods heading towards Bodigga Cliff, a popular tourist spot with easy access.
A little further on, and I dropped down into the deserted holiday beach of Millendreath which used to be a Holiday village, but is now a sad concrete mess together with a massive disused warehouse cum sports Hall - it was a real blot on the path. I headed on, my destination was Looe, although depending on the time and state of my legs, I thought I might carry on to Polperro.As I neared Looe, I kept seeing power boats whizzing about, and it turned out that it was a special competition day based in Looe which added some extra interest for the Bank holiday.
I couldn't remember having visited Looe, but recognised it when I saw it, being separated by a bridge across the river into East and West Looe. I hadn't booked any accommodation, but the gentleman at the TI office was most helpful and I ended up finding a small B&B on the road out of West Looe near Hannafore. I thought afterwards, that I could have headed on to Polperro, but decided to spend a bit of time in Looe instead.
For some reason, I had felt tired out all day, but I hadn't walked all that far. Looe has quite a bit of character and a scenic harbour with plenty of bird life up the River. I didn't have to walk far for a meal out, the pub right near the B&B turned out to be an excellent choice - Tom Sawyer's Tavern gets my recommendation. The next day I would head for Fowey.
No comments:
Post a Comment