Sunday 22nd April: Weather: 9°C to 12°C:
Tintagel to Port Isaac: 17k walk: 6hrs: 9.30am to 3.30pm: 800m ascent
Accommodation: Tea rooms Port Isaac
Route Tintagel to Port Isaac
King Arthur’s castle in ruins
Views up to Port Isaac
Crossing a wall over a stone stile
Looking back to Tintagel
Morning tea out of the wind
Large chunk of cliff edge missing
Views up to Port Isaac
Coastal scenery with big surf
Sheltered lunch spot
Green green farmland to cliff edge
Getting closer to Port Isaac
Don’t look down
View to Tintagel from bedroom
Port Isaac harbour and slipway
Boates moored on sand with ropes
Happiness is being Cornish
6pm Brilliant sunshine looking from Port Isaac to Tintagel
Well the weather forecast was half right - it was supposed to be miserable and overcast all day but after a bleak cold morning with high cloud and some mist, this afternoon in Port Isaac was brilliant sunshine. Highlight, apart from the spectacular cliff walking, was getting to the very small village of Port Isaac early at 3.30pm, in time to wander around the harbour with the fishing boats grounded at low tide and secured by long ropes to a fixed anchor. But we also discovered that this was Doc Martin territory. Doc Martin was created by Dominic
Minghella after the character of Dr Martin Bamford in the 2000 comedy
film Saving Grace. The show is set in the fictional seaside village of
Portwenn and filmed on location in the village of Port Isaac, Cornwall. That’s where we were on Sunday 22nd April!!
It’s Sunday and time to phone the home. Bonnie and Kane are having dinner at Cass and Will’s house- good time for the cousins to mix. Breakfast is at 8am and delightful. This stay at Bosayne has just been magnificent and I’d rate it 10/10 on booking.com - not because it’s luxurious but because it had every thing we like - friendly hosts, a room with a view (nice but not necessary), small tub chairs with a small table in the room to have coffee/tea/small snacks/dinner instead of spreading out on towels on the bed. And a great breakfast.
We leave a little late at 9.30am and rejoin the SWCP track where we left off yesterday and walk a few hundred metres to King Arthurs Castle, now in ruins. We’d been there 38 years ago, so no need to visit again. It’s a cold bleak morning with high cloud, some mist, but reasonable visibility up and down the coast. It’s 9°C with a chill wind blowing and we’re so cold on the cliff top we have to stop to put on jackets, scarves and beanies. There’s lots of farmland to cross and this means lots of stiles - a structure allowing people but not animals through or over a fence via steps, ladders, or narrow gaps. Some of the Cornish stiles are quite ingenious and come in various shapes like squeeze stiles, timber step ladder stiles, stone stiles, kissing gate stiles and just a plain old gate stiles.
The path is up, down, along. Up, down, along. And by the time we’ve done 20 ups of only 50 metres, that’s 1000 metres of ups and downs. It’s not the alps with 1000 metres up then 1000 metres down. But it’s just as tiring, especially if there’s mud. But today is an 800 metre day with no mud so an relatively easy day.
By morning tea at 11.30am, it’s still cold, and I have to put on another layer of plastic pants. Climbing to the top and across the field, there’s a large chink of cliff missing, and the grass overhanging on nothing. There’s signs everywhere warning of dangerous cliffs, but it feels safe today with no mist to hide the danger. By lunch at 1.30pm we’re still looking for shelter from the wind. We find a grassy patch and finish off our bread with the morning’s bacon and tomato.
For the next hour, we’re romping across green fields before walking down a road for 100 metres into Port Isaac. It’s not a very big place and we soon find the Tea Gardens Cafe, our home for the night. We’re welcomed by Steve and Bev and shown to our beautiful room overlooking Tintagel where we had just walked from today. It’s only 3.30pm with plenty of time to check out the local Co Op supermarket and wander down to the little harbour with it’s slipway and boats moored on the low tide waters edge by long ropes anchored 100 metres up the beach.
Ian has a desire for a Cornish Pasty, so once back at our BnB, he trots back to the Co Op to buy beer and a capsicum while I blog. He calls in to The Old Schoolhouse Hotel to buy a take away Pasty and chips which we had seen advertised earlier and had found out they opened at 6pm.
Dinner is at 6pm and is delicious - pasty, chips, sausage and red capsicum all doused with mayonnaise. By 7.30, we’re finished and sit back on the bed googling tomorrows track watching the view outside through window of the sun bathing the green fields of Bteween Port Isaac and Tintagel.