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.