Sunday 23nd June:  Weather: 15°C to 16°C: Overcast, misty, cold, Drizzle

Jamaica Inn to Camelford:  Taxi to Dunmere then Walk to Camelford: 25.4k, Asc 432m, Desc 289m

Time:  9.00am to 4.30pm: Total time 7hrs 30mins: Walk time: 7hrs Plus 1 x 20min and 1 x 10 min stop: 

Accommodation: Countryman Hotel Camelford

Misty morning Jamaica Inn

Taxi to Dunmere near Bodmin

Borough Arms Hotel, Camel Trail

Camel Trail along Camel River

Coffee at Poley’s Bridge Camel Trail

Good choice to not walk moors

Twin piglets - where’s mum & dad?

Highlight was walking the Camel Trail from Dunmere to Wenford Bridge, about 11k.  Then continuing to walk 14k on the Camelford Way on lanes, fields and unsigned tracks into Camelford, which was memorable because it was so awful rather than a highlight.  Only thing nice about this last section was the pretty villages of St Breward and Churchtown, high above the River Camel.  The Camelford Way existed only on a map, not in reality!

I’m awake ar 5.30am to see the misty moors through the window of my room at Jamaica Inn and this confirms my choice to get a taxi to somewhere near Bodmin to walk the Camel Way then the Camelford Way along the sheltered Camel River. I shower, pack and then go to breakfast at 7.15am to have the same/same as yesterday - a buffet of cereals and fruit etc and a takeaway English Breakfast in a box.  I check out at 8am and ring for a taxi which arrives (from Bodmin) at 8.20am.  Tabatha is the lady driver, a bit hot and sweaty having just taken her dog for a walk in Lostwithiel then jumped at the chance to take a £32 ride from Jamaica Inn to Bodmin.  

At 8.45am I’m dropped at the Borough Arms in Dunmere, a few k further on than Bodmin, to the start of the Camel Trail.  It’s a beautiful Trail running beside the River Camel, very flat having been an old railway line, and more suited to cyclists.  But it’s fairly quiet as I walk along the tunneled path through the trees.  I make good time and after 2 hrs and 9k, I’m at Poley’s Bridge and find a seat for a coffee and biscuit.  I take a wrong turn up a hill to Trenarlet Farm thinking it will connect with the Camelford Way, then have to retrace my steps and ask a man in his van for directions.  Following the Road towards Blisland, I soon realise that the Camelford Way isn’t sign posted. It’s marked as green dots on my OS Map called the Camelford Way, but in reality, it’s a hotch potch of unmarked lanes and overgrown fields.

I cut across towards Penvorder Cottages through long grass, then use google maps to get to the pretty villages of St Breward and Churchtown.  It’s Sunday and the Inn at Churchtown is busy with Sunday lunches.  I’m hungry, cold and damp as it’s misty rain, so I stop at 1.30pm for 10 minutes to put a raincoat on and have a quick bite of a jam sandwich. After 2 hrs of walking, the signs for Camelford village have changed from 6 miles to 8 miles, when I know I’ve already walked 4 miles.  Go figure! 

These pretty villages are on the edge of the moors which are still shrouded in mist. This was a good way to come as far as the weather, but not good for directions. After Churchtown there’s a lane that leads to a grassy field, and a farmer points me up the hill to a public footpath.  The grass is wet and long as I traipse through the field for 3k but soon there’s two dogs with a couple who tell me they walk this way all the time.  Could have fooled me!  They point me to Henon Farm, and then I stick to country Lanes into Camelford.  

Passing by the local Co-Op, I stop to buy some nuts and a lettuce, I haven’t had anything green for a few days.  The Countryman Hotel is on the other side of the village and I arrive at 4.30pm.  The owner greets me with a “yes?” as though I’m a travelling salesman, and that was the start of my encounter with the couple from Faulty Towers and I soon find it’s the pub with no beer.  But the room is spotlessly clean, and it’s the only place I’ve been that has Whole Milk in little pods rather than PW skimmed milk, and there were also a few pods of Luxury Coffee Creamer.  So I couldn’t really down rate them on booking.com. 

I have my Jamaica Inn brealfast for dinner with lettuce and mayonnaise and a cup of tea, then watch Switzerland play Germany in the soccer until bed at 10pm.  It was a long day.

Old telephone box now a library