Today’s distance walked – approx 37 kms (23 miles).
Ascent – approx 1480m (4855 ft).
I woke at 5.45am after possibly the best sleep I’ve had on the trail so far. I wiped down my tent which was wet from the rain last night – it was still drizzling, so it was a bit of a futile effort. I packed up and went up to the landry room to make my coffee and breakfast. I left around 7.30am.
It was an awful morning – still drizzling with lots of low cloud and a stiff breeze. I walked back past the hotel, but saw even less of it than yesterday. I saw even less too, of the ruined castle at Tintagel… Oh well, that’ll be on the list for another day.
The trail started with a short diversion by the castle, and took me back up to the clifftops again. My feet were soaked within the hour. Luckily I’d dressed in all my waterproofs – pretty much everything else was wet too, by the time I’d walked through a few of the overgrown sections. The rain had brought out the slugs and snails, and although I did my very best to avoid them, I frequently felt a little crunch underfoot 🙁
Up on the top I could only see the immediate view, as the cloud was so low. There were a couple of big rock stacks on the Seward side, with rolling fields inland. I reached the beautiful tiny village of Trebarwith Strand, where amazingly the toilets were open before 9am and I didn’t have to pay 20p to use them!!
The guide book had detailed the next section as ‘severe’. It was ridiculously hilly, but I was on top form today, and it didn’t really seem all that bad. Maybe the brightening of the skies helped. The low cloud lifted eventually and I could see over to Port Isaac way off in distance (and all the hills I’d have to climb in between!). I really enjoyed the section.
I arrived in Port Isaac at lunchtime, and had an ice-cream. The place was packed! This is where the TV show Doc Marten is filmed apparently (I wouldn’t know, I don’t watch it). It was very pretty though.
I walked through town without stopping and instead had a break on the hills on the other side of town. I put up my tent to dry it out and changed my wet socks. Really annoyingly I broke another hook on my solar panel, so I did an on the spot repair.
I left Port Isaac at 1.20pm, and then the sun came out – yay!! I basked in the heat but cursed when I had to climb more hills!
Soon enough I came to the very pretty Port Quin inlet, where a short road walk up an extremely steep hill led on to a nice grassed area, some old mine shafts and the very tiny and beautiful Doyden Castle. It was built by a man named Samuel Symons in 1830 as a place to entertain friends, and is now a one bedroom holiday home!. From here it was back to the side of the cliffs and on to an area known as The Rumps where there used to be an Iron Age fortress. The views from here back along the coast to Tintagel were wonderful!
I rounded the headland at Pentire Point and was greeted with more spectacular views. The amazing surf beach of Polzeath was directly ahead, with other beautiful sandy beaches in the distance. I was getting pretty tired, so I decided to stop in Polzeath, and found the Tristram Camping Park right above the beach and right on the trail 🙂
I got a shock when I went to the shower and looked in the mirror. It was then I realised I’d forgotten to put on any sunscreen this afternoon. I’m usually really good about it, but today I’m left with sunburned arms and a bit of a silly red nose 🙁
Stunning x