Sunday 29th April: Weather: 5°C to 10°C: Sunny all day with a cold north easterly behind our back
Portreath to St Ives: 24k walk to Lelant: PLUS train Lelant to St Ives: 7hrs: 9am to 4pm: Ascent 810 metres
Accommodation: The Den, Alexandra Terrace St Ives Air BnB
Portreath to Dt Ives
Goodbye Portreath Arms Hotel
Looking back to Portreath
Deep erosion on cliff edge
Views back to Crantock at Newquay
Through the heather and gorse
St Ives in the distance
Runners on the track
Going to St Ives
11.30am morning tea
Seals on the rocks at Navax Point
St Ives getting closer
Godrevy to Black Cliff Beach
As I was going to St Ives 4k on beach
No way across Hayle River
Waiting for train to St Ives
St Ives Harbour
The Little Den St Ives
Another spectacular day of coastal walking. Cold but sunny. Not too windy and no mud or mist. The designated walk is an extra long one at 29k, when it should be 20k, because it’s impossible to cross the Hayle River mouth by ferry or foot, so there’s a 10k detour around Hayle. We take the scenic railway from Lelant to St Ives to lessen the trip.
A late start at 6.30am with the sun streaming through the window. There’s no sign of life across the road at the Portreath Bakery where we’re hoping to buy fresh bread for lunch. Not much time to google and only a quick phone call home before breakfast at 7.30am. Muesli yoghurt and toast with a full English breakfast, half of which we stash in our container to take to our Little Den Air BnB in St Ives. Another walker at breakfast suggests taking the scenic train from Lelant instead of teh bus from Hayle. This means another few k to walk but the buses are very infrequent. The train sounds like a good idea.
There’s signs of life at the bakery at 8.30am, and after packing, we call in and are disappointed that it’s yesterdays bread as it’s Sunday and teh delivery van from Redruth hasn’t arrived yet. Old bread will be ok today.
It’s a very cold 5°C when we climb a steep road out of Portreath and are immediately rewarded with spectacular views down to the village of Portreath and back as far as Crantock near Newquay. After a few very steep up and downs, the path become level as it crosses heather and gorse across teh cliff tops. It’s almost a balcony walk. There’s many car parks interspersed omong the gorse and lots of Sunday runners and walkers taking advantage of the beautiful sunny weather. The cold north easterly arctic wind is at our backs and it’s ok if you keep walking fast at 5 to 6kph, but stopping to take a photo or re-tie shoe laces is freezing cold.
There’s a headland ahead and as we turn into the wind, we have to stop once again to put on more warm gear - rain pants, scarf and gloves. It’s 11.30am when we finally find a sheltered spot out at Navax Head for our morning tea - hot chocolate, with stale bread, clotted cream and black currant jam. There’s dozens of day trippers at the point, and after morning tea, we wander out to the point where there’s many standing against teh barrier fence watching the seals below. Further around the Godrevy Point and we see the beaches all the way around the St Ives. There’s also a car park close by where all the day walkers have come from.
A bit further on and we’re stepping down on to the hard sand. Low tide was at midday, and we had already decided to walk the 4k of beach rather than trek the coast path through the sandy dunes - been there done that. It’s a very relaxing walk along the beach with many other day trippers enjoying the romp at low tide. After an hour of walking we eventually come to the Hayle River, which looks so temptingly crossable. Close to teh mouth across the sand bars, it looks no more than shin deep, but most of teh blogs I had read about walking across this spot say DON’T. So we walk back around the smelly inlet towards Hayle. There’s an ASDA supermarket near the bridge over the River Hayle and we call in to visit their ladies, and buy a few tomatoes and milk for tonight.
Over rhe bridge and around teh back end of the Hayle inlet, there’s no place to sit out of the wind to have lunch. It’s almost 3pm when we come to Levant Saltings railway station to catch the 2.51 scenic train to St Ives, only an 8 minute ride. It’s freezing cold and windy, but sunny when we step off the train and walk towards teh harbour crowded with tourists. Stopping for just a minute at the Co-Op to but a few beers for dinner, there’s another 1k to walk up steep hills to Alexandra Terrace and find our Little den - a garden shed decked out with a mini kitchen, sofa bed/lounge and ensuite.
The heater is turned on immediately before settling down to a beer and a few nuts at 4pm - that’s lunch