Hayle to St Ives, 9.5km + 3 km from accommodation, 188 metres of climbing

‘Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet’

We didn’t have great expectations for today. Our shortest day so far, the first 3 km a repeat of yesterday, walking through an industrial area, walking alongside a very busy road and not a great weather forecast. But as is often the case it turned out a great day.

King George V Memorial walk was much more interesting when we were fresh this morning, than when we were tired yesterday afternoon.  The industrial area was a rundown section of the Hayle River but with lots of old boats and buildings, something I find quite interesting. There was an unpleasant couple of kilometres walking alongside the busy road and it was now raining. We managed to suss out a much quieter road to a ‘park and ride’ railway station at Lelant Saltings. This is a branch line from St Erth to St Ives.

There we met and spoke to a local guy who had been in NZ last year walking the Abel Tasman and Queen Charlotte Walkway and toured the South Island in an RV. He put us onto a local path on the estuary side of the railway track which followed the Hayle River past Dynamite Point, around a golf course and onto yet another wide golden beach, Porthkidney Beach. Dynamite Point is a remote wharf on the river opposite Hayle where they used to unload dynamite to be used in the mines.

This was a thousand times better than the official route which followed the busy road. We were trying to walk slowly as we only had a few kms to go and checking in at our B & B was ‘strictly 4pm to 6pm’. At the next beach, Carbis Bay we stopped at the Carbis Bay Beach Club Hotel for coffee and cake. This was quite a snooty affair with uppity waitresses in white shirts and black trousers and waistcoats. Barbara gave them a detailed description of what we knew as a long black and which was not what they called an americano or a double espresso. Miraculously they delivered the best coffee we have had in England but let it down with sponge cake that was at least 3 days old.

From here we walked on the beach all the way into St Ives, trying to walk more and more slowly. We thought it was interesting arriving in St Ives from the seaward side rather than the landward side by car or coach. The tedious part of the day was spending two hours watching the tide come in. It was now raining steadily and the only covered shelter we could find was outside the women’s toilets.

Another rest day tomorrow and we will explore the town.