Thursday 28 May 2026

Rest day number 5 Looe

Not a lot happened today. A very quiet day in Looe. We had a late breakfast in the restaurant. They had a buffet with all the standard fare but also a menu. As we were not walking we gave the usual eggs, bacon, sausage, baked beans, hash brown etc a miss. I had Cornish Pancakes with Vanilla Infused Rhubarb and Natural Greek Yoghurt. Barbara had Cinnamon Pancakes with Maple Syrup and Bacon, except Barbara didn’t want the bacon (I ate it) and chopped up a banana and added Natural Greek Yoghurt instead. Not a breakfast for walking on but at least a change.

After doing some washing we walked about a kilometre into Looe. This is a medium sized Cornish coastal town divided in half by the Looe River, into West Looe and East Looe. The two halves are united by an old stone Victorian bridge. Looe was prosperous in the 14^th century as a boatbuilding town but only grew in the 19^th century with the Victorians insatiable appetite for seaside holidays. It still has some fishing industry and is known as the national centre for shark angling. It has a large safe beach which was busy today. The weather was cooler, only getting up to about 21° and cloudy in the morning but clear and sunny in the afternoon. There was even a very brief light shower of rain about 6am.

We bought some supplies for lunches and were looking to buy some cotton. After passing what seemed like hundreds of fudge shops, pastie shops, ice cream parlours, cafes, souvenir shops and art shops we found a tiny little hardware store about the size of a bathroom. He didn’t sell cotton but directed us to the Guildhall Market a store under the clock tower in the centre of town. What a gem this was, a real Alladin’s Cave. They sold all the practical stuff: kitchenware, stationary, cleaning agents, batteries, light bulbs, gardening tools, underwear and socks, shoe polish, etc. They sold cotton, and in a variety of colours, as well as needles, scissors and all the sewing essentials.

Our long sleeve walking tops are slowly falling apart. They are old and perished and get snagged on bracken and seem to melt anywhere near the mildest heat. Barbara has been diligently mending the holes but only has blue cotton from the patchwork supplies she brought with her from home. This is okay on my blue top but her orange top is developing a random polka dot pattern and so the search was on for orange cotton. Small touristy villages just don’t have any of this sort of stuff. There will be bigger stores serving the local population about 10 kilometres inland. The Guildhall Market came to the rescue.

This afternoon Barbara was busy with needle and thread while I dozed. I checked out the indoor pool and spa in the hotel but it was crowded and the atmosphere was oppressively hot and humid and decidedly unrefreshing.

We went back to the bistro bar for dinner and after last nights experience decided to keep away from the mountainous mains. The starters menu was more our size. Barbara: Baked camembert with apple, watercress and candied walnut salad, red onion marmalade and toasted sourdough. Me: Heritage tomato salad with Burrata cheese, focaccia croutons, strawberries and basil and mint oil. Just the right portion size for us and very delicious.

Tomorrow morning the red and black taxi will collect us at 9am and take us back to Polpero and we will walk here to Looe and go on to Portwrinkle. These transfers back and forth make the journey a bit disjointed and we have more of them to come.

Wednesday 27 May 2026

Day 33 of walking
Fowey to Polpero
Distance: 14.23 km
Total distance: 653.76 km
Climbing: 591 m
Total climb: 21,806 m

This morning started with a delicious breakfast in the glass house of Boscundle Manor. Back to all the trimmings with good coffee, fruit juice, fresh fruit, muesli, plain yoghurt, toast, croissants etc. Barbara had 2 poached eggs on avocado and I had eggs benedict. The Manor was booked out over the holiday weekend but there were only two of us couples today. There are 11 rooms and each is named after a female writer. Ours was Emily Manor after Emily Bronte, others were Carlotte, Enid etc. Our taxi transfer arrived on time at 9am and as discussed with the driver yesterday he drove us to Fowey not just back to Par. We paid the £10 additional fare from Par to Fowey.

Fowey (pronounced ‘Foy’) is another incredibly quaint and laid back Cornish fishing village. Its traditional purpose as a port for exporting tin and china clay have long since gone and now it is a large boat marina and depends on tourism. There are over 7000 visits by pleasure craft in the summer season. It has all the usual steep, narrow, winding streets and a literary tradition tied to Daphne du Maurier. The taxi driver dropped us off at the top of town as it is almost impossible to drive through the streets of the old town by the river. We had to get a ferry over the Fowey River to Polruan and he gave us some directions to get down to the river and to the ferry. His directions didn’t seem quite right from our research so we asked a local sign writer working in the street and he gave us directions similar to the taxi guy. After walking for a while it became obvious they were sending us to the vehicle ferry which crossed the river miles away from where we wanted to go. It was then a 1½ kilometre walk back through town to get the passenger only ferry to Polruan.

This is a regular year round ferry. On the ferry quay we read all the usual signs, time table, fares etc and also saw a whiteboard with a scrawled message written in purple “No sailing today Wednesday due to easterly winds next sailing Thursday”. This knocked us back a bit as the alternative was the vehicle ferry and about an extra 12 km of walking around the estuary, or a bus that did a 25km route inland. Or swim over I guess. As we were mulling this over a little ferry showed up at the quay and unloaded passengers. The Pelruan service was running as usual. The message referred to a ferry that ran from Fowey out in the open sea to Mevagissey. The easterly wind is known as “The Beast from the East” and disrupts the sailing of any small vessels leaving the shelter of the estuary and going out into the open sea.

Pelruan is an even quainter little village, much smaller than Fowey on the other side of the Fowey River Estuary and the start of our walking today. This section is quiet and remote (ie no refreshments or services all day), with beautiful sandy bays, smaller coves and impressive headlands (ie lots of climbing and descending). It was forecast to be 25° today but there was that easterly wind, a warm wind, to keep you a bit cooler than yesterday. The first beach we came to was Lantic Bay and although it was tempting and almost empty, it was a long steep walk down, and a long steep walk back up,  from the Coast Path. We climbed to the top of the biggest headland of the day, Pencarrow Head, and had our coffee under the shade of a tree looking down on the beach. Not too further on we came to a lovely little sandy cove, Lansallos Beach,  with the most amazing turquoise water and only a few people on it. The cove was almost right on the Coast Path, very sheltered and surrounded by steep rock cliffs so we decided to stop there, have a swim and eat lunch in the shade of the rocks.

After lunch it was another hour of ‘up and down, up and down’ until you turn a corner and almost step off the cliff into the village of Polpero. This village leaves even Fowey and Polruan dead for quaintness. It has a tiny harbour wedged into a steep sided valley and basically two streets that run for a mile up the valley. Crowded around the harbour are pubs, cafes, restaurants, shops, churches etc. This was the end of our walking for today and we had a taxi transfer forward to Looe booked for 5pm. It was only 3pm so we grabbed a cool lemonade, watched the world go by as we drank it, and then phoned the taxi company to see if they could pick us up early. No problem and they were there in ten minutes.

Tonight we are in the Hannafore Point Hotel and Spa on the western approach to Looe. This is a large, older style, hotel with restaurant, bistro bar, and leisure facilities – a swimming pool, hydro pool, heated beds, gymnasium, sauna and steam room, and a Spa Therapist offering a large range of professional treatments using natural products. They can supply secretarial assistance and shoe cleaning. I think we may stay here a week. Our room is on the first floor, large and has a bay window alcove big enough for a sofa and table. It looks out over the water and fading into the distance we can see all the headlands we will walk for the next week. We also have our own large deck with table and chairs and two sun loungers.

We ate in the bistro bar and had a Hannafore Hamburger. One of those ridiculous burgers that stand about 250mm high and have a 6oz beef patty, bacon, smoked cheese, egg, caramalised onion, tomato, lettuce, gherkin, onion rings and large chunky chips. You look at it and think how on earth am I going to tackle this? It is impossible to pick up so do you deconstruct it and eat it bit by bit? If we had seen one before we ordered we would have got just one and shared it.

It was another 25 degree plus day. The wind made it a bit more bearable and we are so glad we shortened the day by about 10km by getting the taxi. These are the highest temperatures they have had in May for over a century but we think this mini heatwave is dying out from tomorrow. It has been fantastic for all the kids off school for mid term break and we still prefer it to sloshing through the rain on a muddy track in a freezing wind.

We can stay here another day as tomorrow, Thursday, is a rest day. We need it. On Friday the taxi will take us back to Polpero and we will continue our walk coming through Looe and going on to Portwrinkle.

Tuesday 26 May 2026

Day 32 of walking
Mevagissey to Par
Distance: 18.77 km
Total distance: 639.54
Climbing: 742 m
Total climb: 21,215 m

The forecast was for another hot day today, 25° feels like ? There was a young European lady at breakfast and we met her on the path a couple of times. She said her forecast had the temperature going up to feeling like 31°. We were sceptical of this but we were already perspiring after an hour in what should have been the cool of the morning. Last night at the Mandalay our room was easily 30° + until about midnight.

The Mandalay isn’t getting a good rap. It was sold to us as bed and breakfast. Breakfast turned out to be a meagre continental: coffee, packet cereal, flavoured pottle of yoghurt, toast and one croissant each. We were having breakfast with some continental couples and one man asked if there was any cheese. No, there was no cheese available.

On our way out Barbara mentioned to Tina that our room was very hot. She said we were lucky to be enjoying such good weather, it’s not always like this you know, and she couldn’t do anything about the weather. Apparently our room was the best in the hotel and she always gave it to Coast Path walkers. Tina wasn’t having a good day or maybe she was tired of being in the hotel industry.

Mevagissey was looking fantastic as we walked out this morning. Once again the water was like glass. It is interesting to see these little harbours when the tide is in or out. Sometimes the boats are floating and bobbing about and other times they are sitting on their keels in the sand. We bought some bread and Hobnobs at a tiny grocer and then a banana and two mandarins at a green grocer. When I tried to pay by card the green grocer asked if we could pay by cash. It was only £0.99. He only likes to have a card used on big transactions, due to the fees taken out I suppose. Our lowest note was £5 so Barbara had to use two of her public conveniences slot machine 50 pence coins.

It was a walk of two different characters today. The first section quite remote with some quite serious climbs and some attractive cliffs and headlands. The second half was more urban with houses, some walking on roads, busy beaches, a golf course a railway line and a large clay works.

Our first stop was at Pentewan Sands. This is a lovely little village but it is squashed up at one end of the bay and totally dominated by the huge Pentewan Sands Holiday Park. Hundreds of chalets, camper vans and tents. We wondered why everyone hadn’t gone home after Bank Holiday Weekend but learnt it is now half term break for the schools so all the children are still on holiday. At Pentewan Sands we stopped at a nice little café and bakery called Little Bay. They did breakfasts and baps and ciabattas and had a cabinet full of their own delicious cakes. We resisted the cakes and they provided us a refreshing drink of Cornish lemonade and ice. The lemonade was perfect, not too fizzy and with a hint of ginger to it.

From Pentewan it was a huge steep climb to the top of Black Head and we were suffering a bit out in the hot sun. We stopped in some woodland in the shade to have our coffee and get our breath back. Some easy cliff walking then a couple of steep up and downs. We came across a family retreating up a grassy slope who advised us that the path at the bottom was narrow between bracken and gorse hedges and the path was completely blocked by about 30 cows that wouldn’t let them through. They were going back to find a different way to get out of this field. There was another lady further down the track also frightened to go ahead. We said we would go ahead and have a look. Our old cow hand Barbara just waded into the cows, yelling at them to move and waving her walking poles. Reluctant at first the cows did turn tail and retreat down the path jumping into the gorse when they had a chance. The lady followed us through and probably thinks all Kiwis are farmers and know all about this stuff.

We were pretty hot and bothered now so at the next beach, Porthpean Beach, went for a swim. There is something about a swim in these circumstances. Not only does it cool the body and wash all the sweat from our bodies, it seems to revitalise the legs and feet, and refreshes and clears the mind. We ate our lunch in the shade of the trees away from the beach. The beach was packed and had absolutely no shelter.

A short walk over a hill and we reached Charlestown, an unspoilt harbour village, one of the loveliest in Cornwall. It has a dock built when there was a thriving clay exporting industry here. There are often old tall ships in the dock but nothing special today. We stayed here 2 nights last time and know it quite well. From here we had taken a bus inland to the Eden Project. From Charlestown it was an easy walk to Par but not without walking along the edge of a golf course, a railway line and around a huge industrial complex, part of a china clay plant with its own dock.

Today was another of our transfer days. At the Par Inn we were to be picked up by a Taxi at 5 pm and driven inland to our hotel in St Austell. We were at the Inn by 4 so ordered two large ice cold lemonades, rang the taxi company and waited in the cool of the beer garden. The taxi arrived in about 15 minutes and drove us about another 15 minutes inland to Boscundle Manor.

The contrast between last night and tonight could not be more stark. This is an eighteenth century manor set in a large estate of gardens and woodland. Our host is extremely friendly and obliging and calls Barbara ‘Madam’ and me ‘Sir’. There is a restaurant with inside and outside seating, a sun terrace, a 45 metre indoor pool heated to 28°, and it is extremely comfortable and beautifully furnished and decorated, with a special interest in zebras! For dinner Barbara had Katsu Leek and Feta Cake: leek & feta polenta cake, maple sweet potato with Katsu curry sauce. I had Vegetable Tangine: chickpea, apricot and sultana, shredded halloumi, maple siracha carrots.

Barbara looked up the temperature when we got to the manor and sure enough it was 29°, feels like 31°. This is 13 degrees above the average for this time in May. Tomorrow more of the same is forecast and it is a 24 kilometre section. This will be too much for us and we have concocted a new plan. The taxi is to pick us up at 9am and transfer us back to Par. Instead we will pay the taxi company the extra and they will deliver us further on to Fowey. This will take about 10 kilometres out of the day and make it a more comfortable walk.

Maggie records our exact distance walked and we compare this to the South West Coast Path Association Official Guide. They say the distance to Par is 594.9 kilometres. We have walked 639.54 kilometres. So we are ahead 44.6 kilometres. We treat this like credit in the bank. We can spend this credit as and when we like. So tomorrow we can spend 10 kilometres and get a taxi. On no account are we allowed to go into overdraft!

Monday 25 May 2026

Day 31 of walking
Portloe to Mevagissey
Distance: 21.48 km
Total distance: 620.76 km
Climbing: 866 m
Total climb: 20, 473 m

Today was another hot day, ‘23°feels like 24°’. We handled the whole day a lot better than yesterday. Energiser bunny Shane obviously knew Coast Path walkers. She had breakfast ready at 7.30am and us delivered back down to the coast by 8.10am. A nice early start compared to 10am yesterday. It helped that today all the steep climbs on uneven boulder strewn paths were in the morning and the path got flatter and easier all day. I had my water better organised and got through 2½ bottles today compared to 1 yesterday. We also spaced out our stops more evenly and made sure they were in the shade.

Two other better things today. At Gorran Haven for lunch, we bought ham sandwiches, more water and large smoothies (Barbara: green vigour, Paul: berry crush). We sat in the shade of a very  crowded beach. The tide was coming in and the beach was getting smaller and smaller as the beach goer numbers got larger and larger. The smoothies absolutely hit the spot for two hot sweaty walkers. We had our swimming togs with us today and had been looking for a place to swim. Gorran Haven was just too busy.

We had seen many beaches today and in the afternoon were looking for one not too crowded. At Chapel Cove we found our beach. No public vehicle access so almost empty. A sheltered little cove, a bit stoney getting in and out of the water but sandy further out. The water temperature was okay and it was so refreshing, kept us cool for the last 5 kilometres into Mevagissey.

The first two hamlets today were the tiny West and East Portholland. We were hoping to buy a cold drink but neither had a café. The next hamlet Porthluney Cove did have a café but it didn’t open

until 11am. We did make use of their tables and shade to have our Kleen Kanteen and some bananas Shane had given us for the day. Portluney Cove has the estate of Caerhays Castle which is supposed to be gorgeous with fabulous gardens and daily guided tours. It was designed by architect John Nash who designed Buckingham Palace and much of Regency London. There was then the biggest and hottest climb of the day to Dodman Point which has a large stone cross erected in 1896 as a navigation aid.

After our swim as we neared Mevagissey the walk was on sealed roads. Mevagissey is the archetypal Cornish fishing village. It is a bustling working harbour and is named after two saints, Meva and Issey. It is one of the highlights of the whole Cornish Coast and today being a bank holiday was teaming with people. It is a very sheltered harbour but thank goodness cruise ships can’t get anywhere near the place.

Our accommodation tonight is The Mandalay Hotel. You know it’s going to be a tiring end to the day when the hotel is located 1 to 2 kilometres from the centre of the village and the directions are to go up Church Hill Road and then up School Hill Road. Be wary of any address with Hill or Cliff in it! This hotel gets the award so far, for being the least charming we have stayed at. No one in reception, just a sign to phone Tina at such and such a number. Tina will say: you are in room 11, your bags are in the foyer, breakfast is at 8am. Our room would normally be quite nice with a large glazed curved bay window, but it faces the afternoon sun, has only two small opening sashes, soaks up all the sun’s heat and is unbearably hot. A call to Tina elicited the information that there was a fan in the corridor we could use. In fact the fan was under the stairs in the foyer but at least it is now making the room almost liveable.

Sunday 24 May 2026

Day 30 of walking
Falmouth to Portloe
Distance: 20.62 km
Total distance: 599.28 km
Climbing: 807 m
Total climb: 19,607 m

English summer arrived today. A cloudless, windless, sunny day. The forecast said it would get up to 22° but it felt hotter than that in the afternoon. The easy walking was in the morning and the harder walking was after 3pm in the afternoon with two up and down headlands to get over before Portloe. We were getting tired by then, ran out of water for the last half hour or so and were wilting in the sun but we are experienced enough to know we are strong enough mentally and physically to keep going.

The day started with an early breakfast at the Membly Hotel and then a 2km walk through the town to the ferry to take us to St Mawes. Falmouth was deserted with hardly a person or dog in sight. Such a contrast to the chaos of yesterday. The ferry was £11 each for the 25 minute crossing to St Mawes and there were about a dozen on the first sailing. The ferry can take up to 100. It chugged along slowly, about the pace I used to kayak! The water was like a mirror. The ferry ticket collector told us yesterday was the annual Castle to Castle ocean swim from Pendennis Castle to St Mawes Castle, a direct line swim of a mile, and the conditions had been ideal. I don’t know how they get on with boat traffic as the Carrick Roads are a very busy sea lane.

Coming into St Mawes you pass the matching Henry VIII Castle to the Pendennis Castle on the Falmouth side. At St Mawes you don’t even get off the quay. There is another little seasonal ferry service that takes you from St Mawes across the mouth of the Fal’s tributary, the Percuil River, to a place called Place. £6.55 each for a fast, short crossing. As we got off the first ferry we were hustled onto the second ferry that was just about to depart. Place has a large manor house with its own church. It was Sunday so we poked our noses into the church, unusual in that it has a cruciform plan.

After leaving the church it was now 10 o’clock and we were just starting the day’s walk. It was easy walking along an undulating grass path passing a succession of small beaches. Porthbeor, Towan, Portscatho, Porthbean, Pendower. The ones with car parking were very popular and even the ones without, had plenty of users who were prepared to walk to their favourite, private spot. There were long lines at ice cream vans and cafes that sold cold drinks. A lot of people were in swimming and we took our shoes and socks off at Portbean Beach to cool our hot feet in the sea. We were wishing we had our swimming togs with us as the water was warm enough for us to have a dip. From now on they, and a small towel, will go into the day pack, along with the rain coats.

The last part of the day was hard because of the sun. There were short sections of woodland but mostly out in the open crossing fields. Nare Head and Manare Point were both hot, steep climbs, and just as you think you will never get there, Portloe appears, tucked into a tiny little cove. It has a narrow slipway, The Lugger, a very nice hotel we stayed at last time, a very nice pub, The Ship Inn, we ate at last time, a church and about 3 dozen houses. We are not staying in Portloe tonight, this is another one of our transfers. We were to meet Shane (female) at 5pm and she would collect us and take us inland to her Jago Cottages B & B, about a 10 minute drive away. We arrived in Portloe  a bit after 4pm, Barbara rang her, and she immediately came and picked us up. It is very comfortable and attached to her farm house. It has a fridge, toaster etc, things we don’t normally get. If it had a microwave it would be fully self-contained. It is not near any place for dinner and Shane offered to drive us back to the Ship Inn but we were too done to think about going out again. We knew about the dinner situation and bought a vegetable pastie earlier in the day in Portscatho to have for dinner. Sorry folks a pastie is just not worth photographing as dinner. When we arrived there was a slab of home made fruit cake waiting for us. It was woofed down before I remembered to get a photo of it.

Tomorrow morning Shane will drive us back down to the coast at Portloe where we continue our walking. This weekend is a bank holiday weekend and the weather forecast is for more of today, so we can expect the path and the beaches to be busy again.

Saturday 23 May 2026

Day 29 of walking
Mawnan Smith to Falmouth
Distance: 12.38 km
Total distance: 578.66 km
Climbing: 426 m
Total climb: 18,800 m

What a contrast from yesterday. We knew we had a short day today so we had a late breakfast and took everything very slowly. We didn’t leave until 9.45am and the walk was on a road, through a little woodland and then a paved footpath all the way to Falmouth. Our hotel tonight is at Gyllyngvase Beach which is about 15 minutes walking before Falmouth. It was only 4.75 kilometres from yesterday’s Trelawne Hotel to today’s Membly Hotel, which took us about 1½ hours, so we were there by 11.15 and check-in wasn’t until 3pm.

There are three charming little beaches between Mawnan Smith and Falmouth – Maenporth, Swanpool and Gyllyngvase. They are all very sheltered and popular with families, swimmers, kayakers and paddle boarders. It was a hot, sunny, windless day so they were going to get busy. We had previously swum at Gyllyngvase at this time of year and the water was freezing.

To fill in time we walked around the headland of Pendennis Point. The stretch of water between Falmouth and the land across the water at St Mawes is called Carrick Roads. The entrance to Carrick Roads, and Falmouth Harbour is guarded by two castles built by Henry VIII. Pendennis Castle and another in St Mawes. In 2018 we spent a day at Pendennis Castle and knew today it would be over run with visitors from the cruise ships, so we decided to keep well away.

Falmouth is a working port and holiday resort rolled into one. It is a sheltered deep-water port and so has a large ship building and repair industry, as well as being a major yachting centre. It has tall ship festivals and major yacht regattas and marinas with thousands of pleasure craft. We ate our lunch down on the waterfront near the National Maritime Museum and a large square filled with a craft market. There was also some form of performance going on with a large crowd standing around and loud outbursts of clapping and cheering every minute or so. We walked through the old part of town but it was awful. Too many people, too many dogs, too many vehicles trying to push through.

Two cruise ships were in Falmouth today. Falmouth is on the circuit of around the UK cruises. The Viking Saturn was at a dock and the Majestic Princess was anchored out in the bay. A continuous stream of orange tenders was taking passengers out to the Princess and back. There were probably an additional 5,000 visitors in Falmouth from the cruise ships and the town, bars, cafes, shops and waterfront were packed. You could tell the cruise ship people by their red (Viking) and blue (Princess) lanyards around their necks with their identity cards. There was also a fleet of buses taking them out on day excursions.

We went down to the Prince of Wales Pier to check out the Falmouth to St Mawes ferry for the morning. One of two ferries we will use tomorrow. Tomorrow is Sunday so there is only one ferry per hour and we want to get an early one. This is a regular, year-round service in a decent sized boat. All of the walking today was ‘urban walking’ except for a short stretch at the beginning in a quiet woodland. It was on paved surfaces, through a built up environment and close to busy roads. Such a contrast to the walking we have been doing in remote areas where you can walk for hours and not see a soul. This will change tomorrow when we cross the River Fal to St Mawes and the Roseland peninsula and we are back on a more remote coast.

Friday 22 May 2026

Day 28 of walking
Coverack to Mawnan Smith
Distance: 22.21 km
Total distance: 566.28 km
Climbing: 668 m
Total climb: 18,374 m

What should have been a day of fun turned into a day of unexpected missed steps. This was supposed to be a 27km day and we decided this was too long so had researched a variation using a bus. Later in the day on arriving at Helford Passage instead of walking around the coast we could walk inland about 400 metres and get a bus to Mawnan Smith (a 5 minute bus ride) then a 15 minute walk along a country road and public footpath across a couple of fields to our hotel. Theoretically the hotel was in Mawnan Smith but it is actually in the countryside and a couple of kilometres away from the coast path. We were hoping to shorten the day by about 6km by using the bus. There was a bus every hour except for a gap between 2.10pm and 4.28pm.

We had an early breakfast at Fernleigh and were walking by 8.15am. The disadvantage in being the first on the path in the morning is that you get all the spiders’ webs in your face as you walk down the hedgerows. The weather was ideal for walking and it was easy for the first part around Lowland Point which is all of 5 metres above sea level. The path then goes through an abandoned quarry and turns inland to avoid a large working quarry on the coast. We were happily following the posts with the acorn signs and yellow arrows down quiet lanes and across fields when they just petered out. A bit confused we turned on the Macs App. This showed a different route that we were miles away from. We backed tracked to get onto the Macs route but it didn’t seem right so took a road to the coast at Porthhoustock. There we talked to a lovely lady who was a walker and knew the area well. She explained that the original ‘official’ route was the road we came down to Porthhoustock and then went around the coast to Porthollow. But that path had been damaged by storms and a new inland route, the Macs route, was devised. The coast route was now repaired and the Macs route was redundant. To complicate matters our Trailblazer Guide book (now 10 years old) had another slightly different route. The lovely lady put us right and restored our confidence but we were still two old people dazed and bewildered about what had gone awry.

Today there was one point of special significance to Coast Path walkers. At Porthallow is a large sculpture marking the halfway point on the South West Coast Path – it is 517km (315 miles) back to Minehead in Somerset and 517km (315 miles) forward to South Haven near Poole in Dorset. On one side of the sculpture is a list of flora and fauna that may be seen on the path, and on the other is a poem which commemorates the life of Porthallow and coastal Cornwall. We stopped here for a coffee break and of course had our photo taken.

A short walk further on was the obstacle of the inlet of Gillan Creek. One hour either side of low tide the creek can be forded. Otherwise you could take the path around the estuary, a walk of 45 minutes, or you could take the ferry. An enterprising boatman offers to ferry people across for £5 per person. He has a little dinghy with an outboard motor on the back. It is a seasonal operation and runs from sort of April to sort of October and depends on the tide. On the Gillan side of the creek is a little landing with a large folding square. Normally the square is folded in half and shows as black. If you want a ferry you unfold it so the it shows as an orange square to the boatman who is based on the other side of the creek. When he sees the orange square he putters across to pick you up. This worked a treat as we were only at the landing for a minute or two before he was on his way to pick us up. It is a crossing of only about 100 metres to St Anthony-in-Meneage on the far side which has a gift shop and another of those lovely country churches. The boatman required to be paid in cash and this is the first time we have used cash since we arrived in the UK just over a month ago.

After a quick look in the church we set out on the path but were soon stopped by a notice on the first gate. The path to Helford Village was closed due to fallen trees and root plates. We knew Cornwall had been hit by a cyclone a few months ago and many places, including St Michael’s Mount, had lost a lot of trees. This meant the path around the coast was closed but the notice had a coloured map showing an alternative inland route on roads to Helford Village on the bank of the Helford River. We took a photo of the map for reference and set out. It turned out to be a nice walk on a very quiet country road. Narrow, just one lane wide, and with high hedgerows either side, not a road we would usually like to walk on, but it was faster and easier walking than the coast would have been.

Helford Village across the Helford River to Helford Passage is another ferry ride, this time in a slightly bigger boat that had a partial cabin and is a more commercially run year-round operation. It is a longer crossing than Gillan Creek, cost £7 per person, and accepted card payment not just cash. This ferry had an orange disc system instead of a square and when we turned up the ferry was on its way to our side to deliver some passengers, so good timing there. We were at Helford Passage at about 3 o’clock and the bus, only 400 metres away, wasn’t due until 4.28. To fill in time we went into The Ferry Boat Inn and did another first for this trip. We bought a coffee! So far this trip we have had coffee at our accommodation and a flask coffee on the walk, so we can have it when and where we like. The don’t make a Long Black as we would know it in NZ. In the UK they make an Americano which is an upside down long black but only one shot and far too much water. We found you can order a double shot espresso with a little jug of hot water and get the nearest thing to a long black. Coffee here is also expensive, two double shot espressos are £7.50, which is about NZ$18.

The bus was on time and the walk to the Trelawne Hotel was easy but we didn’t arrive until 5pm which is late for us. This hotel is a bit upmarket from what we have become used to. Dinner was a quite formal affair with all the staff in white shirt/blouses and black trousers. The food was excellent and beautifully presented and for the record Barbara had roasted cod loin with sauté seasonal greens, sweet and sour capers and peppers and sauté potatoes. I had pan seared pork tenderloin with apple and celeriac remoulade, teryaki sauce and parmentier potatoes. Each came with vegetables: broccoli, carrot, beans, corn and something else.

So today had a lot going on, we are past the halfway mark, wandered around fields confused, two ferry rides, a closed path with diversion, used some cash, bought a coffee, a bus ride and being hopelessly underdressed for dinner. I didn’t bring a tie and Barbara didn’t bring her pearls.

Thursday 21 May 2026

Day 27 of walking
Lizard to Coverack
Distance: 19.32km
Total distance: 544.07km
Climbing: 699m
Total climb: 17,706m

On a clear day you can see forever, but not today. When we left this morning Lizard was shrouded in mist. Austin and Linda at the Caerthillian said it would burn off but it was not to be. Back down at Lizard Point we could barely see the lighthouse but sure could hear its sound. Every thirty seconds a blast. It was very directional though. In bed last night I could hear it faintly but down on the coast on the seaward side of the lighthouse it was very loud. Apparently they typically emit a specific. rhythmic pattern that allows sailors to identify which lighthouse they are hearing.  This lighthouse was not a deep low frequency groan but more of a high pitch whistle.

The South West Coast Path Association says ‘this is a section of cliffs and coves, punctuated by headlands giving excellent views along the coastline. Here and there are areas of sandy beach at the foot of the cliffs’. This could well be true, we will never know. All day we hardly knew we were on the coast. The mist rolled in off the sea, up the cliffs and across the meadows. At least there was no wind or rain today and it was warmer for that.

From Lizard we passed the murky outlines of the lighthouse, Lizard Wireless Station (another site of Marconi’s pioneering work in wireless telegraphy) the Lloyds Wireless Station and the Bass Point Coastguard Watch. At the Watch the volunteer opened his window for a brief chat, mainly about the weather. I think we were the first walkers he had seen this morning.

We passed the new RNLI life boat station. This has a building at road level, a cable car down to the boat house and then a long slipway that disappeared into the mist but presumably went into the sea. We did see the dramatic collapsed cave called The Devil’s Frying Pan, This has a narrow hole through the rock with a narrow land bridge over it. Then the tiny fishing village of Cadgwith, a collection of lobster pots, fishing floats and boats clustered around a single pub. This village had a very high proportion of cottages with thatched roofs.

From Cadgwith we soon came to the ruins of the Serpentine works, a once-thriving Victorian serpentine rock factory. The Lizard area is the largest outcrop of serpentine in Britain. It is part of the earth’s mantle which would normally be about 20km below the surface. The rock has streaks of blue, green and red, reminiscent of a snake’s skin giving the rock its name. Local sculptors still carve ornaments from the colourful rock. The only beach we crossed today was at Kennack Sands which had the usual surf hire shop, cafe, life guard, car park and toilets.

From the beach it was fairly easy walking on low cliffs. The mist lifted for a while and then descended again. Just before reaching Coverack we had two options, both official Coast Path routes. The first was to continue around the coast, the second was to go inland and through a sculpture garden. The coast wasn’t offering anything today so we went the inland route. The Terence Coventry Sculpture Park is set in three small meadows surrounded by trees and with an outlook over the coast. It is a free sculpture park and celebrates Coventry’s life as an artist and as a rural farmer. There are about 25 large works in metal and stone representing rooks, owls, swallows, bulls, cows, horses, dogs, as well as people. It is a beautiful, quiet, peaceful setting, such a contrast to the dramatic rugged coastline.

Tonight we are in Coverack at the Fernleigh B & B. On arrival Anne made us a fresh pot of coffee and some home made lemon drizzle cake. In our room were also home made chocolate cookies. It is yet another of those nice little Cornish fishing villages going about its business without the crass commercialism of some others. There is a little harbour with boats sheltered behind a tall stone quay wall, a cafe, a community grocery store, a gift shop, fish and chip shop and a lovely pub called the Paris Hotel, named after a liner that ran aground here.

We had dinner in the Paris Hotel. Barbara: 5 bean chilli with rice, homemade tortilla chips and fresh salsa, Paul: chicken Shawarma, marinated chicken, flat bread, tzarziki hummus. vegetables, fresh salsa, jalapenos and fries. We stayed in this hotel last time and loved it. It is on a low point right by the sea and eight years ago as we ate dinner a pod of dolphins swam by.

Overall today was another good day despite the white out. No rain, no wind and warm enough. Late in the afternoon the mist had gone and it was a beautiful warm, sunny evening. We felt good after our day off in Lizard. Having rounded Land’s End and Lizard we now have a lot more woodland, hedgerows, flowers and a feeling you are not quite as exposed to the elements.

Coverack to Mawnan Smith is going to be a fun day, so don’t go away folks, stick around and come back tomorrow.

Extra:

In the last little while we have seen signs like: The Western most point in England, the Southern most point in Great Britain, the best crab sandwich in the British Isles, the prettiest beach in the United Kingdom etc. So what do these place names actually mean?

United Kingdom – a political sovereign country made up of England Scotland Wales and Northern Island (but not the Republic of Ireland – a separate country).

The British Isles is a geographical term for a group of over 6,000 islands including England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, The Republic of Ireland, and Crown Dependencies (Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey).

Great Britain is England, Scotland, Wales and their associated islands – but not Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland.

Britain is just a shortened version of Great Britain.

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are distinct constituent countries making up the sovereign state of the United Kingdom.

We have an app on our phones called Map my Walk. We have the limited free version which basically measures the distance walked, the time, the route taken and the elevation gain. There is a subscription version which does a lot more including workouts from your trainer, sharing with friends, the weather (temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction), analysis of your walking etc. It will measure the number of steps taken, stride length, cadence, foot strike angle etc. There are also versions called Map my Run and Map my Ride.

We want the app to accurately measure the distance we have walked each day. The distances in our Macs Adventure notes and the various guide books are woefully inconsistent. They also only give distance on the Coast Path not adding in the often considerable distance to your hotel, path diversions and us getting lost. We used the app on our four 20km walks in Wellington before we left home to check its accuracy and it is pretty good.

As we are about to start walking we activate the app and a female voice says:

Start workout.

At each kilometre she says for example:

Time, five hours forty three minutes twenty one seconds

Total distance, 18 point zero kilometres

Average pace, fifteen minutes seventeen seconds

Split pace, thirteen minutes nineteen seconds

Then silence until you have walked another kilometre.

In Wellington we found this annoying. We thought she was nagging us and called her Naggy Maggie and turned the sound off. But here we love to hear her and now she is Maggie our friend and walking companion. It is really motivating to hear each kilometre ticked off. Barbara keeps her phone in a pocket of her day pack and we can hear Maggie without having to look at the phone screen. Barbara is getting very good at predicting just when Maggie is going to pipe up.

Maggie’s voice is obviously AI generated and is a little bit mechanical I imagine her as an Asian lady with an American accent.

It is interesting to see how your pace varies during the day. In the morning on a good surface we don’t go faster than about 12 minutes per kilometre. In the afternoon on a long steep climb or descent with lots of steps or a slippery surface this can go out to 27 minutes a kilometre. It also makes a difference if you have a tail or head wind.

If we stop for coffee, lunch or to talk with someone for more than a few minutes then we have to remember to pause workout or else the pace becomes meaningless. And then we have to remember to restart workout to set her off again.

On three occasions just as we have arrived at hotel reception to check, in Maggie has piped up with Time, five hours etc. The person on reception has looked a bit startled until we turn Maggie off and explain who that strange voice is.

Wednesday 20 May 2026

Rest day number four Lizard

This was a restful day. A slow, late breakfast where we had a long talk with a lady from Switzerland who is touring around Cornwall/Devon in her car with her wee dog. She is doing day walks on the coast and next goes to St Ives then Padstow. She came over from Europe on the “chunnel”, the channel Tunnel. It takes 35 minutes from Coquelles in France to Folkstone in England and a train runs every 15 minutes, 365 days a year. You do not directly drive your car through the tunnel you drive onto a specialised train and sit in your car for the length of the crossing. We told her we were in Switzerland in 1978, before she was born, and we went on the train from Jungfrau  through the Eiger Mountain to Europe’s highest railway station. She said she lives very close to the Jungfraubahn (the railway).

After doing our “rest day laundry” we retraced our steps from yesterday afternoon to the Coast Path and walked the last little section to Lizard Point, the southern most point in mainland Britain. This is very low key compared to Land’s End. Some information boards, UK’s most southern cafe, a couple of small souvenir shops, the old lifeguard station and a slipway down to the sea, and that’s about it. Some distance away the Lizard Lighthouse, a car park and toilets. The Lizard Village is about a 15 minute walk inland from the point.

We had lunch in the very nice Coast Coffee Bar and Bistro in the heart of Lizard. CFC (Coast fried Chicken) crumbed chicken, salad and fries. Cod burger with fries. It was hard to find anywhere that did not just do seafood dishes which seems to be the thing in Lizard.

There is no grocery store in Lizard, you have to go to Helston 18 kilometres away, for us a day’s walk each way. By chance we went into a hidden away Farm Kitchen and Cafe and they stocked enough food for us to get fruit, yoghurt, baguette , biscuits etc for tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon I went out to find the St Wynwallow’s Church, another one of those wonderful old village parish churches I love to poke my nose into. This one had a few interesting things to offer. As is usual it is surrounded by a cemetery of ancient gravestones. Like a growing number of places the grass is just left to grow. The church has the grass mown three times a year and at present is supporting “no Mow in May”. This is a conservation campaign to encourage gardeners to put away their mowers and let the grass grow wild, allowing early spring flowers like daisies, dandelions and clover to bloom creating a vital nectar and pollen source and shelter for early season pollinators like bees and butterflies. Next month the campaign is “Let it bloom in June”.

St Wynwallows had a nice warm inviting feeling to it helped by the light coloured stone, dark timber, bright red carpet and two very fine stained glass windows. Capping it all off were brightly coloured tapestry kneelers on the pews for all the congregation. Each one was an individual design, some simple designs, others more complex, some commemorating events or loved ones. No apparent overall theme to it, a lot of dedicated people just doing their own creative thing.

On the floor in the church is a large bell, among the oldest pre-reformation bells in Cornwall and over 600 years old. It formed part of a chime of three bells used up until 1937. The two others are still in use as part of a peel of six bells that have been used since 1938. One of the original bells still in use is stamped with the Royal Arms as used from 1189 to 1340. The bells still ring out at least three times a month and they are looking for new bell ringers –  not campanologists, they study the art and science of bell ringing.

So we are rested up and ready to hit the path again. Seven days walking until our next rest day in Looe.