Par to Fowey – A Two Day Tootle

One can walk from Par to Fowey in half a day round the coast path, one can. I was feeling the pinch a bit physically and was way behind on my blogs, which I like to write. Self-indulgence city Arizona. But people read it and some like it and it makes me happy. Yes I’m boastful. “Did I tell you about my treks?” Nowt wrong with that. Boring, baldy, butthead.

Sharing the path with David (aka Killer) was great because it worked before in Nepal (did I tell you about my treks) and we know each other well enough to be comfortable.

I must admit I did wonder about how it would be with Colin, who I’d never met before, and Lyons, who I knew but who was still a bit of an unknown factor. But it was great and we had a good, hard walk.

The four of us, Colin, Lyons, Deborah and myself had breakfast in Par, five if you include Flo – Deborah’s dog. Then Colin and Lyons headed back to their homes, Deborah went off to put my washing in the launderette and I strolled from where we left off yesterday over to Polkerris.

It was another beautiful, sunny day and I felt a bit drained when it came to clambering up the cliffs. It was only an hour’s walk to Polkerris, and the beach was packed and shrinking as the tide was coming in.

I was perched on the terrace of the Rashleigh Inn, logged on to the Wi-Fi and blogging away. Deborah joined me and we had late afternoon lunch/dinner and went back to the campsite to prepare for an early start.

Night night.

And all of a sudden it is tomorrow! Great sleep again in Deb’s tent and up at 7am for an early walk. But before I did we had to dismantle the tents and pack for a move back to Falmouth. No problem, whip the tarp down and Deb will do the rest!

I cut across the fields to the Saints Way, an ancient route from Padstow to Fowey for early Christian travellers from Ireland travelling to mainland Europe. This saved them sailing round the difficult waters of Lands End.

And luckily it leads on to the Coast Path, where I dropped down to the Rashleigh, had a cup of tea and a bacon bap and climbed back up the cliff. Mevagissey showed up bright white in the morning light. Top left of the photo.

This was a longer walk than yesterday, but not by too much. The only noise was from the birds, particularly the Skylarks. There was an air of unreality in the……in the…. air! Silence save the sound of Skylarks, a morning haze embracing the day and no-one on the path. A clear distance from the real world. Stepping back into the thirties.

In the distance St Austell sprawled along the hillside dividing the north and south coasts of Cornwall.

Built in 1832 this tower on Gribbin Head was to aid the navigation of mariners and save lives at sea. Talking of Saving Lives at Sea, Killer says we collected over £60 for the RNLI plus over £300 sponsorship. Pretty good going.

Folk started to appear walking in the opposite direction to me. Most coast path walkers are women of varying ages, most are on their own. There are not many men walking on their own, or in groups. Any men are usually walking with their wives/partners.

Most people walk in the same direction round the path as I am, but part way through the day you do meet people coming round from your end point to your start point.

From Gribbin Head I got my first view of Polruan and the entrance to the Fowey estuary.

Looking back the most beautiful of beaches were almost empty.

Approaching Fowey estuary entrance the view across several headlands was inspiring.

Then, just after noon the path rounded a corner and I saw Debs and Flo walking down the road to Readymoney Cove, not far from Fowey.

And caught up with them at the beach.

She’d parked the van at the top car park in Fowey, so we climbed up the hill, took a photo…..or two or three……….

and then drove down to Falmouth. Tent up and an early night. Tomorrow is an early start to catch the low tide. I’ll explain tomorrow.

Night night.