Returning to the South West Coast Path

 

After last night's amazing meal I was a little later than usual getting up this morning - 4:30am rather than 4am. I had breakfast and blogged about the meal. Then began thinking about today's plans.

On Sunday we had made it past Butter Hole Bay on the South West Coast Path and headed back through Crugmeer to Padstow. On that day the 9+ miles seemed enough, but we had noted that the path ahead also seemed to have some pretty sites. So today we decided to go further along the path and head back towards the point we had stopped on Sunday.

We left at 9am today, rather than our more regular 8am as the Yahoo Weather app on my phone had suggested there was a 60% chance of rain from 8am to 9am and none then until soon after Midday. I'm never sure how accurate local weather forecasts are on apps like this, but today it was pinpoint accurate. From 8 to 9 it drizzled consistently, from just before 9 it cleared up and as we completed our walk soon after noon it started to rain again. So, we were grateful for the guidance. 

At 9:00am we drove from our accommodation to Harlyn Bay Car Park, a 2.8 mile drive, as you can see above.

We payed for parking and begun our walk by crossing the Car Park straight on to the South West Coast Path with lovely views over Harlyn Bay.

The view point above the bay is dedicated to the nephew of St. Petroc, the famous Welsh saint, St. Cadoc.

St. Cadoc's Point

From St. Cadoc's Point we followed the path to Newtrain Bay with its Rocky Beach.

Newtrain Beach seems a popular place for Wild Swimming, as we walked along the top of the beach one lady was just coming back to the path after her swim, another two (see picture below and zoom in to the sandy part) were just about to enter the water. 

The distinguishing feature of Dryrobe branded changing robes were like a uniform for all the Wild Swimmers we passed. 

Next we passed the Tidal Pool near Trevone Bay and it also had its share of Wild Swimmers. 

We arrived at the pretty Trevone Bay and watched a group of surfers plying their trade on the sea. [Co-pilot's note: ???]

Up to Trevone Bay the path had been stable well marked and gentle in any inclines, now as we passed the bay it became steeper and a lot rougher and at times unclear which was the path and which a side track. As the picture above shows, as we climbed the hill a particularly large gull was eyeing us up. It felt like it was evaluating our chances of making it and our edibility.

The next sight on our route was a whistling cave. A large gash in one of the rocks, seen in the picture above, which makes a whistling noise as the wind blows through it. The noise was particularly noticeable as the wind was blowing quite strongly this morning. 

The next strange site along the route is the crater called Round Hole. This odd formation in the landscape is a collapsed sea cave. Thanks to Robin Croft for finding out the details about Round Hole and sharing them with me on Flickr last night. 

The effects of the sea on the land can also be seen on the next two landmarks. The gap in the rocks called Tregudda Gorge and Gunver Head beyond. The above photo is one of many that we took of this sight from various angles. The rest are on Flickr.

To cross the Gorge upstream we had to take a very steep path down and a equally steep one back up as shown above. At the bottom, where the little stream that has dug this huge gorge out of the rock runs, there is a style. It is a much bigger style than normal and I had difficulty levering my leg over it to get to solid ground before raising my trailing leg up and over.

Drew who is some inches shorter than me didn't have this option, so he adopted the 'lay on your back and swing both legs at one' approach, which while not necessarily a gainly motion but was effective. [Co-pilot's note: I, dear readers. believe I deserve bonus points for artistic endeavour. Now let's move on!!]  

With a few rest stops we managed the hill up above Gunter's Head.

Soon after reaching the flat top we were accompanied, in the air, by a Coastguard Helicopter. 

In its movements back and for it got quite close.

Until it landed at the far end of the field we had begun to cross. It soon begun flying again and went back and fore along the coast for quite some time, apparently looking for someone or something along the coast. 

While watching the helicopter we arrived at the exact point we had turned off the path on Sunday, so made our way down the same Public Footpath to the road. Here we walked a few hundred yards to Crugmeer, but instead of going straight on as we had on Sunday we turned right to head back towards the car. 

The road took us past the Padstow Airfield that had been built here in the late 1910s. A history of the short-lived base can be read here.

From the airfield base we followed the road back to Trevone and then the return journey on the path from Trevone to Harlyn Bay that we had made this morning. Arriving in Harlyn Bay after a round trip of 5.4 miles which used up more energy during the ups and downs of this route than we had on the flatter, almost 7 mile walk of yesterday. 

A short drive back to the accommodation and an afternoon of uploading some photos that didn't really want to do was the rest of the daytime activities. While I was cursing limited internet connections, Drew popped up to Tesco for some teabags (the 80 we thought might be enough aren't) and chocolate for himself while topping up the electric in the car while he shopped.