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.

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.

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.

Lansallos to Pencarrow Head

We drove to Lansallos and walked from the National Trust car park down to the coast through a pleasant green sunken path beside a stream.  At West Coombe we walked west towards Pencarrow Head.  The path went up and down steeply at times but the views along the coast were great and we were able to look down on coves and beaches.

Once we had walked around Pencarrow Head we continued on the South West Coast path until we came to the path that led up to the road and car park at Churchtown Farm.  We then walked back along the road until we came to a footpath that led across fields and through woods back to Lansallos.

Many times during this walk we had to go over walls.  Stones had been set in the walls to act as steps, but nevertheless it was not easy with big drops.

This was not an easy walk

Perranport to St Agnes,and around Lands End and Bedruthan Steps

These are walks that we did at the begninning of August.  I wrote about it in my Holiday blog, but forgot to put details in this blog.  So although I am adding it in September it is over month out of date.

From Perran Sands Caravan Sit we walked across the dunes into Perranporth and then followed the South West Coast Path along to St Agnes.  There was a lot of remains of mine working and the path was was rough with stones some of the time.  The heather and gorse was out and the colours were vibrant and made the coastline even more attractive.

  The walk was mainly flat until near the end, where there was a steep hill down, then a steep climb up the other side and we had to climb up a hill to get to St Agnes village to catch the bus back.

The next day we caught the train to St Ives then the Open Top Bus to Lands End.  From there
 we set off  to walk along the south of the Coast Path.  Again there was heather and gorse to make the scenery even more spectacular.  We walked until we came to a slope heading down a valley.  We could see a steep climb up the other side so decided it was time to turn around.

On our way home we stopped at Bedruthan Steps and walked from the car park in both directions along the coast path.  There was not any heather on the path towards and around Park Head but in the other direction there was a lovely display.

West Pentire to Holywell

I had heard that there was a beautiful wild flower meadow on West Pentire headland so as it was a lovely day and we had all day to walk we drove there and walked around the headland and continued on the south west coast path to the other end of Holywell before returning on an  inland path.

We hoped to find the National Trust car park, but could not see where to go for that so ended up in a car park at West Pentire.  Although we had to pay it was very reasonable (£2 for 4 hours) and the view over Crantock beach towards Newquay was stunning.

As we started to walk around the West Pentire headland we saw the field of wild flowers to our left.  It was a bit disappointing.  Photos we had seen from last year showed many more poppies.  I am not sure if we were too early in the year or it was not such a good display this year.

The walk on the South West Coast path was beautiful.  The sea was a lovely blue and beaches we passed very sandy and enticing.  On the headland there was masses of sea thrift that added to the colour.

We stopped for our lunch overlooking Holywell beach - a magnificent view!

Generally it was an easy section of the coast path with gentle hills and no steep climbs.  However once we had reached Holywell we had to walk through the sand dunes to reach the other side of the beach.  This is never easy, but it was not too bad.  We had some problem finding the inland path to take us back to the car park, but a helpful attendant at the NT car park gave us directions.  We were following the walk we had downloaded from the NT website,http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/article-1356405233898/ but it needed more detail at this point.  Further on in the walk we were unsure which path to take, but decided in the end to make our way down to Polly Joke and then take the path across the headland.  This was not the route on the walk and involved a steep climb up from Polly Joke, but by taking it we saw more wild flowers and walked through the wild flower meadow at West Pentire to get another view of it.

Cremyll to Cawsand

It was a bright sunny day so we thought we would do a walk along the South West Coast Path. We have often  done the part of the walk that goes through Mount Edgecumbe Park but not all the way to Cawsand.  Looking back on this blog I see that it was 28 February 2013 when we last did the whole stretch, just a couple of weeks after moving to Plymouth.

We parked the car at Devils Point and took the South West Coast Path through the Royal William Yard to Admirals Hard where we caught the ferry to Cremyll.  Although there has been rain lately the path was not too muddy.  It was not too hard a walk until we got to the steps.  Usually we go up one flight of steps then turn back to Cremyll, but this time we had to continue to the top and it was a hard slog.  However, once we had conquered them it was easy walking all the way.

Twice on the way we saw deer but they ran away before I could photograph them.  There were still some leaves on the trees, but not many and not much autumn colour.  The views out to the Sound, however, were beautiful.

View to the Breakwater and Mew Stone

The walk is about 4 miles and we were surprised how quickly we saw the villages of Kingsand and Cawsand.  At this point we stopped for lunch on a bench looking out to sea with the sun shining on us.  It was really warm for the last day of November.

Kingsand and Cawsand

Walking through the narrow streets of Kingsand we were charmed by the quaint old cottages. We noted that the car park in this village was £1 for 6 hours.  I am sure this is a winter rate, but worth remembering if we want to come in this direction by car.

View through a garden gate, Cawsand

Cawsand was in shadow and a little chilly so we decided not to linger but catch the next bus back to Cremyll.  Fortunately we only had a couple of minutes to wait,  The bus ride itself was very pretty with views over woods and fields to Millbrook and across to Plymouth.  The tamar bridges stood out in the sun. The bus links with the ferry so we were soon back home.

Bude, Coast and Canal

On the South West Coast Path website this walk,  http://www.southwestcoastpath.com/walksdb/34/, starts in Bude, however it was more convenient for us to start at Widemouth Bay and walk in the opposite direction

We anticipated that the car park by the beach at Widemouth would be expensive so drove past it to a car park on the cliff overlooking the beach.  We were very pleased when we got there to discover it was a free car park.  The car park led right on to the SW Coast Path and we were soon walking towards Bude.  The views were lovely, but probably been better it the tide had not been so low exposing all the rocks.  There was some heather and gorse in blossom on the cliff tops, but not as much as I had hoped.

The coast path was undulating, but there were not any really steep inclines.  Soon we were on the cliffs overlooking the beach at Bude, where we stopped for our lunch.

We proceeded to walk into Bude and crossed the canal to divert into the Heritage Centre which is situated in Bude Castle.  There was some lovely art work on display in the galleries here and the area around was attractively laid out gardens.  We were also impressed with the small craft shops along the edge of the canal.  After buying an icecream (and not been ripped off pricewise, which was refreshing) we started to walk along the towpath.  This was an excellent pathway and it was good to see people enjoying boating and canoeing along.  After passing a lock there were no more boats, and it was very tranquil.

After a couple of miles we came to Helebridge.  There was a large tea rooms here with activities for children, but we did not stop but headed across fields to return to Widemouth Bay.

This had been an excellent walk and one we would repeat again.