Monday 11 May 2026

Day 20 of walking
Portreath to Hayle
Distance: 19.98km
Total distance: 400.18km
Climbing: 415m
Total climb: 12,672m

Our itinerary includes a 30km and a 34km day and we had decided before we left home that we would not walk days that long. Today was the 30km day from Portreath to St Ives. We decided we would walk the 20km to Hayle and get the local bus from there to St Ives. The buses are not very frequent, about one an hour and we had to wait about 30 minutes. £3 each for about a 20 minute ride that would have taken us at least 2½ hours to walk. The bus stop was right outside the hotel entrance so we didn’t waste even a second trying to find it. The walk out of Hayle is alongside a busy, noisy road for about 4 or 5 kilometres so we were not sorry to miss that. The remainder of the walk to St Ives is through the village of Lelant or at low tide along the estuary and beach at Carbis Bay and this part is very nice especially if you approach St Ives along the beach.

When we reached Hayle we had walked 19.98 km so Barbara walked twice around the bus shelter to tick over 20km. I didn’t so it is not in the “official” distance.

We have revised our itinerary as follows:

Tomorrow, May 12, our “rest day”, we will walk out and back from St Ives toward Hayle to do the best bits and knock off the required 10km.

The day after, May 13, was scheduled to be a short 10km day walking St Ives to Zennor and getting transferred back to St Ives. We will make this our rest day

The following day, May 14, was a transfer to Zennor and walking 14km to Pendeen.  We will combine the 10km and the 14km to walk 24 km from St Ives to Pendeen.

I hope you understand all that.

We were transferred from Perranporth back to Portreath in the hotel Tesla this morning but only with the man of the two young Germans. His wife had injured her ankle yesterday and was taking the bus from Portreath to St Ives. After a couple of stiff climbs and descents the rest of the morning was on level smooth cliff top among scrub and brilliant yellow gorse. This was fast easy going and most of it was a nature reserve as the cliffs are filled with nesting sea birds and at Hell’s Mouth grey seals breed in the caves below. We did not see any seals there today. The only major headland was at Godrevy Point which has an offshore lighthouse on a small island. This is the inspiration for Virginia Woolf’s classic 1927 novel To the Lighthouse. It draws on memories of holidays in St Ives with her parents. The lighthouse is merely a plot device for the development of the story.

There were lots of people at Godrevy Point but not to see the lighthouse. Far below on the shore were dozens of grey seals. We do not see what all the fuss is about as it is nothing like as spectacular as the seal colony on the Kaikoura Coast or even Red Rocks. We didn’t want to say we can sometimes see seals up close  just a few metres away on the rocks at Queen’s Wharf in Wellington Harbour. Another young German couple we have met a few times told us seeing the seals had accomplished the purpose of her Coast Path walk as she was from Berlin and had never seen a seal before.

From Godrevy Point the next 6km is along St Ives Bay, starting at Gwithian and ending at Hayle. There is a choice of walking along the beach or following the official route through the dunes. We started off in the dunes and although it was quite interesting it was hard going and about ¼ of the way along we went down onto the beach. Another one of those vast empty beaches. The tide was coming in and we could see we would not be able to get around the low cliff at the end as you enter Hayle so at the ¾ mark we climbed a steep soft sand track back up into the dunes. Our shoes felt twice as heavy as they filled with sand.

Hayle has been a port since about 1500BC and today the estuary is home to lobster boats and other commercial shipping. It is an unattractive but good-sized town with all the services: banks, post office, shops, library, commerce and industry. The Great Western Railway runs over the town on a high viaduct on its way from Penzance to Paddington London. We ate our lunch on the bank of the estuary and then went to wait for the bus. There is also a train from Hayle to nearby St Erth (on the main line) and from there a branch line to St Ives. The bus was a better option for us as it was a direct bus service (you had to change trains at St Erth) and it was half the cost.

Tonight we are in the Western Hotel in one of the older parts of St Ives. The Western Hotel is one of St Ives oldest coaching houses and has been a St Austell brewery hotel from the nineteenth century. It is very comfortable and we are only up one flight of stairs! We are here for three nights.

We were very, very tired at the end of the day and only went out to get a meal at The Hub down on the waterfront. It was a large menu and we decided that without looking, we would just take a stab and see what we got. Barbara ordered a “Betsy” (VE, GFA) and I a “Dirty Disco” (GFA). A Betsy turned out to have a Falafel patty, Applewood smoked cheese, mayo, chilli jam, guacamole, charred corn, pink pickled onion and lettuce. The Dirty Disco had crispy fried chicken, crispy bacon, American cheese, Guacamole. Charred corn, pink pickled onion and lettuce. They both turned out to be burgers, and very nice ones. The best so far.