Wheal Coates to Trevaunance Cove to St Agnes Beacon

We parked the car at the National Trust car park at Wheal Coates.  We started walking down towards Chapel Porth before picking up the South West Coast Path.  the heather was out, so the countryside was looking beautiful.

Looking down to Chapel Porth

Having walked down to Trevaunance Cove we then walked up to St Agnes and through the village and up to St Agnes Beacon.  The views from the top were lovely. We made our way down in the direction of the car, but there did not seem to be a direct path.  We asked a dog walker and he told us to walk through a field, which was a permitted path even though there was a sign "Bull in the field"  We walked quickly through it to the car park.

Walk around St Antony's Head

From the caravan at Perranporth we drove across to the King Harry Ferry to the Roseland peninsula.

Initially we drove to Portscatho  and wandered around the village, then went on to to the National Trust car park at Porth Farm where we walked down to Towan beach before starting our walk around St Antony Head.  The coast was different to the north coast but just as beautiful.

 At the end of St Antony Head we looked around the battery, then walked down to the lighthouse, before starting round the headland and up the river.

The last part of the walk was through woodland and not as good as the first part of the walk.  It seemed more than a 5 mile work, but that was probably because we were suffering from our 10 mile walk yesterday.

Perranporth to Holywell Beach

We started from the caravan at Perran Sands.  We tried to follow the South West Coast Path but there were lots of paths through the dunes and it was not clear which one we should take.  The one we followed eventually took us down to the beach, and as walking on the dunes had not been easy we decided to continue along the beach to the end.  We then climbed up a marked path the the South West Coast path.  The view back along the beach was lovely.

It was a relatively easy walk along the cliffs to Holywell Beach, with lovely views all the way.  We had hoped for a cafe at Holywell, but there was nowhere special, so we just had an icecream from a van on the beach, before climbing up to the cliff to walk back.  When we came to the path that led down to the beach we chose to go down there rather than try to find the south west coast path.  We walked all the way back to Perranporth along the beach, paddling in the sea.  After stopping for tea and cake in a cafe in the village we walked back to the caravan via the dunes.

In total we had walked 10 miles.

Polzeath to Pentire Glaze

We parked the car at New Polzeath and followed  the South West Coast Path towards Pentire Head.  There were beautiful views  all along this walk and it was not too strenuous, although up and down at times, particularly where the path had to be diverted inland due to cliff falls.  In total we walked about 6 miles.

Polzeath beach as seen from New Polzeath

 The first bay we came to after a short walk was Pentire Glaze Haven and we were surprised what a lovely beach this was that as deserted,

There was gorse growing on the cliff edges making the walk even prettier.

When we approached the Rumps we thought it looked like a dinosour.

Along the way we had seen the occasional bluebell, just coming out, but they were more prolific after we had walked past the Rumps, and the bluebells were out further.

There were clear signs from the coast path to the National Trust car parks and when we reached the sign to Pentire Glaze we followed this path inland back to the car park, then walked down the road until we came to a footpath that took us down to Pentire Glaze Haven.

When we got back to the car we carried on walking down to Polzeath beach.  Having crossed the beach we had a cup of tea a the TubeStation overlooking the beach before heading home.

Par to Charlestown

We took the train to Par, then walked from the railway station down to the coast path.  The first part of this walk was through Par village then the industrial area, with the china clay port to one side and not very attractive.  But once we had left Par it was much more scenic.

As soon as we had left the industrial area we came to a lovely isolated beach where we stopped for lunch.

Looking back to Par Beach

We then walked along low cliffs by the side of a golf course.  At times the path had to go into the golf course because of cliff  slips.  Eventually we could see Carlyon Bay below, but we did not go down to the beach.  We continued on walk across green fields.  There were some gentle ups and downs, but nothing severe, it was an easy walk compared to others on the South West Coast Path.

As we approached Charlestown we came to a Coastwatch station.  The volunteer manning this explained about their work.  There was a wonderful view of all St Austell Bay from this hut.

Carlyon Bay from Coastwatch Station

As we walked down to Charlestown harbour we saw how busy it was.  We realised that this was because filming was taking place for Poldark.  We spent a pleasant hour wandering around the craft shops and art galleries in the village and eating ice cream while sitting in the sun.  It seemed a very nice village.  We then walked up to the bus stop and caught the bus to St Austell railway station for the journey home.

Babbacombe to Maidencombe

We caught the train then buses to get to St Mary's Church from where we walked down to the South West Coast Path.  We had been here before, when we walked  to Torquay, but this time we went in the opposite direction.  There were some lovely glimpses of the sea, but we were too far back from the edge to have a view all the time.  Some of this was our chosing as we went on a parallel path further back through woodland rather that up and down the cliffs around Shag Cliff.

Looking towards Torquay

 After Watcombe we climbed through the Valley of the Rocks.  The description of this in the SW Coast Path guide had put me off doing this walk in the past, but the "ledge hacked out of the cliff" was not as bad as it sounded.

Again when there was a choice of two paths we took the inland path through woodland, but headed back to the S W Coast Path after a while.  When we reached Maidencombe we knew a bus was due shortly so hurried straight up to the main road - a steep hill.  Next time we will start walking the next section of the Coast Path from Maidencombe and explore the beach before we walk to Teignmouth.

View of the Jurassic Coast

Boscastle Farm Shop to Forrabury

It had been many years since we visited Boscastle so thought it was time to re-visit this Cornish village.  Searching the South West Coast Path website I found a new walk starting at the Boscastle Farm Shop and Cafe.  This looked a very nice place and so we decided to  follow this walk.  It only took 1.25 hours to get there and we were very impressed with the setting.  There were wonderful views out to sea and up and down the coast from the cafe.  Two sides of the building were windows to make the most of the panoramic views.  It was a pity the service was slow, but you can't complain with the views.

It was only a short walk to the coast path.  Initially we walked away from Boscastle as I wanted to see the waterfall in the next valley.  However, it was a very steep climb down and back so, after going half way we decided to return and leave that for another day.  We continued along the coast path and before long came to a point where we could look back and see the waterfall.  It was not very impressive and so we did not regret not walking further to see it.

We continued along the coast path, with good views up and down the coast all the way.  Unfortunately most of the plants like heather and sea thrift had finished flowering, I am sure it would have been really prettier earlier in the year.  I had also read that there are seals around this coast, but we did not see any.  However, we did spot a peregrine falcon on Penally Hill, which we climbed to get a good view of Boscastle Harbour as we approached it.

We wound our way down to Boscastle Harbour and then explored the shops in this pretty village before climbing up the other side, eventually rejoining the coast path and continuing up to Willapark.

 The white tower at the top of this drew us and we climbed the hill to reach the top and admire the views up and down the coast.

We returned to Boscastle along the coastal path and after an excellent ice cream we followed the 'Panoramic Path' along the side of the valley, which came out at the road down to Boscastle.  There was a public footpath through fields parallel to the road and this took us directly back to the Farm Shop and Cafe.