Polzeath to Pentire Glaze

We were planning to follow the walk in the Ramblers book, "Short Cornwall Walks" and park at the National Trust car park at Pentire Glaze.  However, we missed the turning to this car park and ended up at New Polzeath.  As this was on the walk we parked there and walked from this point but in the opposite direction to the description.

To begin with we followed the South West Coast Path.  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.

 From New Polzeath we had a good view across to Polzeath beach where many people were surfing.

 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 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.

West Pentire Headland

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.

After a rest  in the car admiring the view across Crantock Beach, we headed home.  At one point we missed our road and ended up going down a lane, that got narrower and narrower, with grss in the middle of the road.  This is never good, but it was made worse by being met by a lorry coming in the opposite direction!  I had to reverse a long way - not easy with a lorry bearing down on you!

To give me a break after this experience we stopped at the National Trust property, Treice. Although the gardens are only small there was some lovely plants, particularly different roses.

Saltram and Bovisand

On 20th February we went to see the spring flowers in Saltram Gardens.  Most of the snowdrops were past their best, but the crocuses made a lovely display.




























As there were black clouds gathering we did not want to walk around Saltram Park, so instead drove on to Bovisand where we sheltered in the cafe until the rain had past.  We had heard that the recent storms had washed the sand away from Sandy Palour so when the rain stopped I walked down the steps to see for myself.  I hardly recognised the beach where I had spent may happy hours building sandcastles and dams to try to stop the water coming in.  Now it is a rocky beach, with only one small patch of sand.  Where will all the sunbathers lie you?  I came away feeling quite sad.

At the bottom of the steps where you walk across rocks I noticed that the rocks were showing interesting copper colours.  Also there were a number of cracks in the rocks and some had already been damaged.  I had never seen this before.

Dawlish to Dawlish Warren

It was a sunny January day.  I wanted to go shopping in Newton Abbott, but the weather was too good to spend all day indoors, so we decided to catch the train to Dawlish and have a walk along the South West Coast Path to Dawlish Warren before catching the train back to Newton Abbott for shopping.

There were stones and sand on the path showing the sea had been over the sea wall in the recent storm but today we could walk along in the dry, admiring the calm sea on one side and the trains going along on the other side.  The views were beautiful as we looked down the Jurrassic coast.

The cliffs were red as vegetation has slipped recently.  Men were working on one section and another part looked precarious with water flowing down the cliff.  There were some interesting shapes in the cliff face where earth had been worn away.

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.

Par to Fowey

We caught the train from Plymouth to Par - a pleasant journey as the train (the 9.24 to Penzance) was very quiet, having started in Plymouth.  From Par station we walked down to Par Beach a distance of about .75 miles.  We walked along the back of the beach on the dunes to the far end.  Par is a lovely large sandy beach, it is a pity about the industrial site at the side of it.

As we walked through the car park we missed any southwest coast path sign and so walked to the road and a long way around until we came to the southwest coast path from the Saints Way.  Once we were on the path it was easy to follow it to Fowey.  As usual the path went up and down, but the views were spectacular all the way.

A view back to Par Beach

 After a while we came to Polkerris and we thought this was a lovely beach and harbour.  The sand was fine and there was lots to watch as people were canoeing and windsurfing .  There was also a lovely art gallery there to browse around.

Polkerris

The next stop on our journey was  Gribben Head.  It seemed to be a long time before we saw the tower on the top of this headland and there was lots a climbing so we were glad to be able to rest when we got there.  Up to this point we had been having views of St Austell Bay, but once we were over the top we could see the River Fowey estuary and coast down towards Polperro.

View from Gribben Head

Looking back to Gribbin Head

The walk continued undulating, with some steeper parts, but it helped to see the finishing line.  On the outskirts of Fowey the path signage was confusing as there appeared to be 2 different ways you could take and still stay on the coast path!   Initially we stayed on the top path and started to walk through woods, but that took us away from the coast and so we turned around and headed down to Readymoney Cove.  This was another pretty beach and the walk into Fowey from here was lovely with views of the river and boats between houses.  

A view from Fowey

View across to Polruan

 Once in Fowey we spent an hour wandering among the shops and admiring the views before heading up the hill to catch the bus back to Par Station.  This had been one of the prettiest sections of the coast path we have done and well worth the effort expended.

The Barbican to Mount Batten

On a couple of occasions we have walked on the South West Coast Path from Turnchapel to Mount Batten and we frequently walk around Plymouth Hoe to the Barbican.  However, we have never walked from the Barbican to Turnchapel.  As our car was being serviced at a garage on Billacombe Road, we thought we would remedy this today.

We started walking from the end of the Laira Bridge towards Mount Batten.  To begin with it was not the most pleasant walk, but we soon came to Oreston and there was a lovely view of yachts on the River Plym.

Mount Batten as  really close across the water, but we had to walk 2 miles  round the edge of the river.

We continued walking around Hooe Lake and across the causeway at the bottom of Radford Park.  the castle astride the path looked out of place.

We continued walking up through woodland and then down the other side till we came to Turnchapel.   It was a good path all the way and well marked.  Although we had walked from Turnchapel to Mount Batten before we continued our walk to Mount Batten before catching the bus back to the Laira Bridge.

From Laira Bridge we started walking towards the Barbican.  As with the first part of this mornings walk this section of the South West Coast Path is not very pleasant as you walk past industrial units, with just glimpses of the river Plym between them.  However, after a while we were opposite Mount Batten and it was interesting to see this from the other side of the river.

St Christopher on wall at side of South West Coast Path

Before long we were walking into the Barbican.  This was not one of the most picturesque parts of the South West Coast Pat, but there was still some beautiful scenery and I was glad I had done it.

Bude, Coast and Canal

I was surprised recently by discovering it only took 1 hours 15 minutes to get to Bude from Plymouth.  I had always assumed it was much further away.  I still did not quite believe the AA so we decided to check it out for ourselves.  We drove to Widemouth Sands, which is 2 miles west of Bude and it took us 1 hour 15 minutes, so had to admit that the AA was pretty acurate.

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.

This had been an excellent walk and one we would repeat again.  Full details can be founds at http://www.southwestcoastpath.com/walksdb/34/

Start Point

It was high tide as we drove through Kingsbridge, which made this part of the journey very pretty.  But once we turned off the A379 the road was very narrow and windy which was not good for driving.  The last part to the Start Point lighthouse was particularly narrow with vegetation brushing the car as we drove past.  For such a remote car park we were surprised that we had to pay £3.50, but the views around Start Bay were spectacular and made it worthwhile.

To begin with we walked out to the Lighthouse, which was a concreted path.  We then retraced our steps to the South West coast path and followed this around the Point.  To begin with this was a rocky path and we had to be careful how we walked, but the views were superb.

As we walked we were amazed at the number of butterflies we saw.  Many of them were landing on the path in front in front of us.

This moth was dead on the path

As we approached Great Mattiscombe Sands the path improved and the walk from there to Lannicombe beach was relatively easy and fairly flat with only gradual short climbs.  The beach at Great Mattiscombe looked lovely with fine sand.  Lannicombe was more stoney, though we could see that as the tide went out there was sand.  There were only a few parking spaces at Lannicombe at the end of a track so I am glad that we did not drive there.  We had planned to turn around at Lannicombe, which was fortunate as there has been a landslide just past there and the footpath has a long diversion.

Initially we planned to walk across the fields from Lannicombe to Hallsands, but the coastal path was so scenic and such a good path we decided just to retrace our steps to Great Mattiscombe Sands.  We then took the direct path back to the car park, which was uphill, but a good path.

After a rest we then walked from the car park down to Hallsands. Again we had fantastic views around Start Bay all the way and loads of white butterflies fluttering around the fern on the bank at the side of the path. It was very interesting to see the information of the lost village of Hallsands on the viewing platform overlooking the village.

As we walked back we had the view of the Lighthouse.  Unfortunately it was quite a climb back to the car park, not particularly steep but a long climb that was not good at the end of a day's walk.  It would have been better if we had parked at Hallsands, which was free, and walked from there, and then the last part of the walk would have been downhill.