Saturday 28th April: Weather: 7°C to 12°C: Sunny all day with a cold north wester behind our right shoulder
Perranporth to Portreath: 20k walk: 7hrs: 8.45am to 3.45pm Ascent 880 metres
Accommodation: Gywthian Way Perranporth Air BnB
Perranporth to Portreath
Two days in a row with fantastic weather. Sunny, but cold with a north wester behind our right shoulder and all day the coastal scenery was spectacular for the whole 20k.
A lazy morning after waking at 6am, having a cup of tea then phoning home. It’s Kerri Ann’s birthday today and we haven’t seen Nash and Zara for a few days. Breakfast is our own muesli and yoghurt carried from Newquay. Thank you Tony and Nicola for the use of your Air BnB Mod Box in your back yard. It was a very cosy private place for the night.
We rejoin the coast path at the back of Gwythian Way and soon we’re up on the moorish cliffs climbing to Cligga Head where there’s a plaque commemorating the Nobel family. Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize, patented his invention for dynamite in 1867. More than three decades later in 1892 the Nobels bought a cliff top factory at Clligga Head from the British & Colonial Explosives Company. It was moth-balled between 1905-1914 but opened again at the start of the Great War to manufacture grenades.
Our Mod Box at Portreath
Tin Mines capped near St Agnes
Alfred Nobel and Cligga Head
St Ives in the distance
Arriving in St Agnes
Clotted cream, jam and bread
Yum
Looing back towards Perranporth
Blue ocean, blue skies, Seal Island
Rugged coast lne ahead to Portreath
Wheal Coates, a tin mine 150 yrs old
Porthtowan, 12°C air 11°C water
Lunch at Porthtowan
St Ives in distance
Heather and gorse
Some steep ups and downs
Through the yellow gorse flowers
Portreath Harbour
Cost Cutters and Bakery Portreath
The path runs through rugged moorland covered in heather and gorse then at 10.30am the houses of St Agnes appear and we have an early morning coffee with bread, jam and clotted cream. I had bought the jam in Padstow and carried a heavy glass jar for days before Susie kindly acquired some plastic small (wee) bottles perfect for carrying jam without the weight of the glass.
Looking back we can see blue ocean, blue sky and a rugged coast line looking forward it’s the same, and looking out on the ocean we can see seal island. Another spectacular day where ever we look. It’s Saturday and there’s hundreds of walkers taking advantage f the wonderful weather. We pass the ruins of Wheal Coates where tin mining began in 1802, part of the mine extending under the sea and fraught with the danger of flooding. The National Parks man at the carpark in Porth Chapel tell me that it was an old tin mine and the tall shaft was for the steam engines operating the water pumps to clear the tunnels of sea water and pulley lifts for both teh workers and crushed rock containing the tin.
More spectacular cliff walking until the small village of Porthtowan, where there’s a row of seats sheltered from the cold breeze just behind the beach. The beach sign says the air temperature is 12°C and the water temperature is 11°C - cold in or out. It’s 1pm. Time for lunch. Bread, cheese and tomato followed by a cup of tea because we have made good time and it's only 6k to Portreath.
Up a steep road out of Porthtowan to join the coast path at the top. More rugged heath and gorse country, lots of capped tin mines and Wheal sites with stack chimneys for the steam engines. We’re walking fairly quickly at about 4kph and soon the holiday cottages of Portreath appear in the cliff tops. Around the corner, down a very steep road and we soon arrive at the Portreath Arms Hotel. At £110 per night it had better be good. For. start, it’s directly opposite the Costcutters supermarket and the Portreath Bakery so that’s good.
The room is very warm, facing the setting sun - good here, not good in Oz. And it overlooks the High Street within 50 metres of CostCutters supermarket and the Portreath Bakery - that’s another good point. We’ve booked a table for dinner tonight. There’s no sausages and bacon left over from Perranporth. After a shower and a bit of washing, Ian trots across to the supermarket and returns with two beers to have with our nuts while blogging and googling before dinner.
Dinner is bigger that we thought - Ian has a steak with chips and salad, and I have chicken and salad with an Argentinian Merlot. It’s very nice but too much, and Sharon offers us a container for the rest. Her husband has just completed the London Marathon.
Back to our nice warm room where it’s still light until 9pm. It’s supposed to be a luxury room but there’s too many gadgets. The coffee/tea maker has a list of 20 point instructions on how to work it. Where’s the jug? The toilet has an electronic gismo to flush 2 minutes after yu press the button. Where’s the handle? The towel rail is heated to 120°C and burns when you touch it. Where’s the control? The shower has an electric heater box which alternately spouts hot then cold water. Where’s the normal taps? There’s so much padding on the bed that we roll off the edges. Where’s the standard mattress? But at least the room is warm and spacious.
After a few hours of blogging and googling to see how we’ll tackle the 29k tomorrow, we decide to take a bus from Hayle to Le Lant to get around the inlet. Lights out at 10.30pm