Friday 4th May: Weather: 10°C to 12°C: Sunny/overcast day with almost no wind
Marazion to Porthleven: 25k walk: 8hrs 30mins: 8.30am to 5.00pm Ascent 900 metres
Accommodation: Keigwyn BnB Helston (4k from Porthleven)
Marazion to Helston
St Michael’s Mount early morning
Crab fishing on a calm ocean
The Lizard - we go there tomorrow
Magnificent coastal scenery
Renovating an old Cornish mansion
Fisherman and sea gulls
Looking back to Lamorna
Ahead to Praa Sands
Morning tea at Praa Sands
Slanted trees in windy Cornwall
The Lizard
Rinsey Pount and mansion
The camel rock
More tine mines
Memorial to 22 fisherman lost at sea from Porthleven
Porthleven
Lunch at Porthleven Harbour
Talking to John in Newquay
Coastal path diversion to Helston
Cows by the sea
Penrose trails, woodland bluebells
Helston via Penrose trails
The stables in Penrose park
Keigwyn BnB Helston
Fully stocked fridge for brekkie
Porthleven in 2014
Another magnificent day of coastal walking plus an unexpected woodland walk. It’s hard to believe we’ve had 4 days straight of sunshine. Highlights were seeing St Michael’s Mount in the early morning high tide, great coastal walking on good paths to Porthleven, then through the Penrose trails, a secluded woodland valley from Porthleven to Helston.
It was nice to wake up and do our own breakfast in our own time. Ian has Muesli and yoghurt, I have yoghurt and bread and jam - with several cups of tea. We leave Wheal Rodney at 8.30am to walk the 1k back down the road to Marazion where we left the coastal path yesterday. St Michaels Mount is surrounded by water and is quite a picture set against the looming rain clouds with Penzance in the foreground in a patch of sunlight. The path is an easy walk near the beach before rising to the cliffs. It’s a warm 10°C sunny day and even warmer walking up hill with no breeze at all. We can look back towards Lamorna and ahead to the The Lizard.
We pass through a collection of cottages and mansions known as Prussia Cove. It is known for the 18th-century ship-wrecker and smuggler John Carter (born 1738), also known as the "King of Prussia"; thought to be from a childhood game he played and the origin of the name for the area. Perched above and overlooking the cove is a Victorian house built in 1885 for du Boulay, former Archdeacon of Cornwall in his retirement. The coastal path passes though a "circus" formed by the buildings. The largest building was being restored by dozens of workmen as we passed through.
More coastal walking until 11.30am when we spy a seat overlooking Praa Sands, a beach holiday resort. Bread, jam and clotted cream (which froze last night when we turned the fridge dial to very cold, melting our capsicum as well and turning our lettuce to mush). Plus a coffee with carnation milk, our norm for the morning. It’s such a glorious day and the narrow deeply gouged out path is not too difficult especially since someone has whipper snipped it recently. The ocean is a wonderful deep view, almost calm with no wind, and we have clear views up to The Lizard and down the coast to Lamorna.
Within another 2 hrs at 1.30 we’re at Porthleven, a very touristy resort with so many people wandering around the pasty, fudge, and seashell shops. We find a spot in the sun out of the whispy sea breeze keeping things a cool 12°C, and have peanut paste and cheese on bread for lunch, with a cup of tea. Time to get out the laptop and check out our accommodation in Helston - like where’s the closest Tescos or Sainsbury’s to buy a beer or or three for dinner. They’e way out on the outskirts of Helston. We’ll see if there’s an off licence when we get there.
We also need to check out how we’re going to walk to Helston which is 4k off route from the coastal path. I was impossible to find accommodation in Porthleven as this weekend is a bank holiday weekend and everyone in England pours down to the beach resorts, of which Porthleven is a popular spot. Hilary, our host at Keigwyn BnB, suggested walking up through the Penrose Trails. I’d never heard of them but soon found they are a set of delightful tracks through farm and woodland area behind Porthleven towards Helston. A google check of these trails also revealed that the Coastal path was closed in two places near Porthleven due to cliff erosion and there were diversions via the Penrose trails. A hiker we met this morning coming in the opposite direction told us there were long diversions near the Loe Bar and he had to walk the back trails almost all the way to Helston. So choosing Helston was a good option as tomorrow morning, we now know we can’t start back at Porthleven, and we can pick up the path easily further on the other side of Loe Bar past the blockages. Better still says Ian, Hilary had offered to drop us anywhere we wanted as Helston was so far off the track.
After an hour in Porthleven, we walk around the harbour and head up towards Loe Bar expecting to see the coastal diversion sign which would take us up the Penrose trails. We’re standing gaping at the map and looking ahead when a woman tells us about the diversion, and better still, she has a better more detailed brochure of the Penrose Trails and shows us which way to go to Helston. Off we go along the coast path and soon we see the diversion sign and turn left across farmland with cows grazing. It’s not well marked, but we have a detailed map. I don’t know how other walkers would get on and this diversion would have taken us miles off route had we not been going to Helston anyway.
The path winds it’s way around farms then woodland with fields of blue bells, old stables and mansions and one and a half hours later, we’re in Helston looking for a Beer/wine shop. Some locals direct us to Londros where we buy a cold beer and rose. It’s still another 15 minutes to our BnB and after Ian googles it’s location, we arrive at 5pm to find a key in a coded box, and then to a wonderful granny flat complete with sitting area, king size bed and a kitchenette. Hilary arrives and we discuss the Penrose trails and she offers to take us back to almost where we left off today, the other side of a second coastal diversion. Yes says Ian, Hmm thanks but no thanks says Jan. We compromise and agree for Hilary to drive us to Chyvarloe Farm, a place where she grew up, and from there we can rejoin the coastal track at Loe Bar at leaset around the first diversion.
It’s not surprising the track has suffered a lot of erosion. Porthleven is famous for copping the brunt of the huge south westerly storms that hit the Cornish Coast with 20metre waves recorded during storm Imogen in 2014. So fierce are the storms and so high are the waves, that people flock to Porthleven just to see the action.
We have a beer and cheese followed by chicken (left over from our hot chicken last night), tomato and lettuce with Mayonnaise and our rose - so nice. Our bedroom overlooks the spire of St Michaels church and it’s such a quiet location. 10/10 for our BnB Keigwyn. Thanks Hilary.