South Walk: Portloe to Falmouth

Sunday 7th June: Left Portloe with dry boots, straight out of the B&B boiler Room. It was a dry morning but dullish. Destination was Falmouth across both the Percuil River and the Fal Estuary which would involve 2 Ferries at the end of the day.

The first landmark was Nare Head. It was a pleasant walk which included passing a large property known as Broom Parc where the drama "The Camomile Lawn" was filmed. If I remember correctly, it involved scantily clad if not naked ladies cavorting about on their lawn! It was certainly a superb location for such antics and is now an up market B&B owned by the National Trust. As I approached Nare Head, the heavens opened and I got a good soaking, but it soon cleared. However, the views from the Head weren't as good as they could have been. The path descended towards Gerrans Bay and the long stretch of sand of Carne beach. This was dominated by the well positioned Nare Head Hotel - which I had been to before for an over priced Cappuccino, so didn't bother on this occasion. The path passed behind the hotel and on to Pendower Beach where there was also a Hotel. My first coffee stop would be the village of Portscatho which was 3-4 miles further on.

On the way - I met Bruce, who you might guess was Australian! Obviously on a long hike - it turned out he was walking pretty much the whole path in one go on his own. He'd planned it all from Oz - having had a taster of the path on a previous visit and pre booked all the B&B's en route. He was thoroughly enjoying the experience, having thought that he might get bored walking day after day, in fact it was far from the case.

I soon reached Portscatho. This former fishing village is now a small resort. It didn't look all that special on this drizzly Sunday, but the local pub was drumming up business with a special Sunday BBQ in the road which on another occasion, I might have taken advantage of! However - I restricted my intake to a quick pint and cracked on towards the well known landmark, St Anthony's Head at the mouth of the massive inlet known as Carricks Road with Pendennis Point and Falmouth across the other side. The walk was fairly flat across low cliffs as the head loomed ever nearer. I didn't hang about, as I was keen to catch the Ferries reasonably early in order to get back to Truro for my pre-booked train and wasn't sure how much hanging about I would have to do to catch the ferries.

The main vantage point at St Anthony's Head is dominated by the large battery and surrounding old military buildings. The views were far reaching - and the satellite dishes at Goonhilly near my final destination, the Lizard were just about visible. Falmouth loomed across the water.

The path dropped down through some woods to the Lighthouse and then from there it was a lovely walk around the head towards Amsterdam Point and around into a small inlet at a place called Place!

It descended through some more woods until you reached a delightful old Church - St Anthony's of Roseland - and then followed a lane down towards a boat landing point where you suddenly reach the magnificent Place House - an enormous old Manor House with wide lawns which swept down towards the estuary. Formerly a Hotel, it is once again in private ownership.

This was the first Ferry point from where you would be taken to St Mawes. There were two pick up points depending on the tide. A couple of people were messing about on a boat - so as no-one else was there waiting for a ferry - I asked them where it was picking up from. " You need to walk further on" they said "because of the tide" - so I did as I was told and 10 minutes later I watched the Ferry pick up and leave from the boat landing where I had just been! Fortunately the Ferryman saw my predicament and shouted out that he would be back in 10 mins - so I wandered back, and before long there were several of us waiting. It had turned out to be a nice day - and plenty of people were taking advantage of the beautiful location.

It was a quick ride to St Mawes and I literally stepped off one Ferry and straight on to another much larger craft for the longer trip across to Falmouth. It really is a massive estuary. St Mawes looked a pleasant place and had a spectacular Castle dominating the estuary edge.

I was in good time as I reached Falmouth. This was my first visit to one of Cornwall's largest towns and the Docks had obviously had alot of development dominated by the large National Maritime Museum surrounded by a shopping and leisure area. I carried on round the path which would skirt the edge of the Docks, however I quickly reached the Train station at Falmouth Docks - which was the end of the line for the train from Truro. I had an hour to kill before my connection - so wandered on up the hill towards Pendennis Point from where you got a birds eye view of the massive dry docks.

Another few miles under the belt - I would return here in a few weeks to head for Helford.

South Walk: Mevagissey to Portloe

Saturday June 6th: Back down to South Cornwall this weekend - caught the early train to St Austell and hopped on a bus to Mevagissey arriving about 9:30 and just when the rain started! Took the opportunity for some Bacon and Egg and a caffeine injection before hitting the path. Last time I was here - it was a sunny Sunday afternoon and Mike Ricketts and I arrived from Charlestown, and the harbour was packed. On a wet Saturday morning, it was mostly local fisherman who were going about their business.

The path left Mevagissey on the road before heading out towards Chapel Point at the southern end of Mevagissey Bay.

Along the way, on the cliffs I spotted a carcass of what must have been a whale washed up on the rocks. Seagulls were tucking into the masses of blubber which were left - I guess it must have been there awhile.

By now, the rain had stopped - but it was a grey old day - and the coast was pretty unspectacular compared to other parts of Cornwall.

The next destination was Gorran Haven, a small picturesque old fishing village with a nice sandy beach, popular with tourists - but it was deserted today. There was a small church in the narrow streets which proved to be a useful place to change back into wet weather gear as the heavens opened again.

I headed out of Gorran towards Dodman Point - one of the highest landmarks along this stretch of coast - it had a massive stone cross at the top - and for the first time, through the gloom I could just make out The Lizard - my very final destination on this whole escapade.

The path descended steeply down to Hemmick beach - a very secluded spot with just one lovely stone cottage right behind the cove - the perfect idyllic hideaway. Further on, I could see a Castle in the distance. I remembered this from a previous trip to Cornwall - it was Caerhays Castle at Porthluney Cove - and even in the wet looked impressive, especially with a herd of Longhorn Cattle in the grounds!

A couple of miles further on were the old fishing villages of East and West Portholland - 2 coves joined at low tide by a large expanse of sand .

The 2 hamlets are very unspoilt with just a Post Office between them - and most of the residences belong to the Caerhays Castle estate who have maintained the area as a working farm community.

By this time - it was early afternoon - and I was soaking wet. I hadn't booked a B&B as I was unsure whether I would carry on to Portscatho or call it a day at Portloe. Apart from a few expensive hotels - there wasn't much accommodation imbetween.

So when I squelched into Portloe, a few miles further on - I had had enough for the day and started to look around for accommodation. The local pub - The Ship Inn looked inviting - so I woke up the landlord and squelched up to view the room in my soaking wet socks. He was a bit pricey - but kindly recommended another place up the road - there were only 2 B&B's in the place apparently. He had a fantastic massive Ebony elephant in the pub, from Sri Lanka - about 2ft tall - I considered trying to buy it off him!

Successfuly booked into Carradale B&B - nice people - and then wandered back to Portloe harbour - it was a very scenic small harbour dominated by the well known and VERY pricey Lugger Hotel. I felt too underdressed to bother going in for a cup of tea - and anyway - the sun had come out by this time - and there were loads of good photo opportunities.

Apparently, Portloe was where they filmed the rather odd TV programme with Dawn French called Wild West - she was an eccentric inbred shopkeeper if I recall.

The evening was spent at The Ship inn - which was very busy - had to wait quite awhile for a table -but the food was OK. When I got back to the B&B - the owner had put my soaking wet boots in the boiler room to dry out - I crashed out and after a snifter too many - also needed drying out!