Wednesday 26th June: Weather: 16°C to 19°C: Mostly sunny and warm, no rain, then misty
Port Isaac to Padstow: 23k, Plus 1k extra from low tide ferry = 24k: Ascent 777m, Descent 850m
Time: 7.00am to 4.00pm: Total time 9hrs: Walk time: 7hrs 40min Plus 2 x 20min, 1 x 30min, 1 x 10min stop:
Accommodation: Air BnB Peter and Pam’s Place 20 Duke St Padstow
Looking back at Port Isaac
Swimmers and Kayakers at Port Quin
Blow hole just past Port Isaac
Coffee looking back at The Rumps
Polzeath Beach
Barnecutt’s Bakery Rock Rd Padstow
Low Tide ferry landing from Padstow
Highlight was simply more spectacular SWCP scenery. A long, tough day made harder because I decided to leave Port Isaac via the “proper” SWCP around the many headlands, which was really tough going with many steep ups and downs into Port Quin. In 2018, Ian and I took the inland route which was much more enjoyable, high views, reasonably flat and 2k shorter. Then I took a 3k detour to the famous Barnecutt Bakery out on the Rock Road.
Again I’m awake early at 5am, trying to tip toe around from bathroom to bedroom without disturbing the whole house. I have a cup of tea with a jam sandwich and a slab of Suzie’s Meusli cake. I leave just before 7am. The co-op on the way to the harbour isn’t open, and neither is the bakery where we bought the delicious Barnecutt’s multi seeded bread from in 2018. Past the boat slip way and up the side of the hill where Doc Martin was filmed, then there’s the choice of around the headland or over the fields. I chose the headland because it was a nice day and we hadn’t done that before. Wrong choice. It was extremely tiring with so many steep ups and downs and twisting and turning with no time to enjoy the views. It took more than two hours to walk 6k to Port Quin. It’s 9am and I was stuffed so I sit on a slab of sandstone to have a coffee and Biscoff biscuit while watching the kayakers and swimmers in the harbour. The water is a freezing 10°C, and the swimmers don’t have wetsuits.
On leaving Port Quin, the next 17k walk was long but relatively easy, and I make good time walking mostly along the cliff tops with smaller ups and downs but no Mt Cottons. I step out quickly in the warm sunshine and after 2 hrs I’m at the Rumps, where we had seen seals in 2018. But there were none today. Just lots of day walkers mostly bird watching. Ten minutes later I’m at Pentire Point and find a large granite slab to sit on and make my second stop for today, having a tea with another meusli cake while enjoying the view back to the Rumps.
Then it’s a hilltop walk to Polzeath where there’s hundreds of people swimming and sun baking on the sandy beach. The SWCP passes higgeldy piggeldy through the busy town on to Trebetherick Point and Daymer Bay where there’s a handfull of beach goers. I’d already checked out if there was a Barnecutt’s Bakery in Padstow, and found that it was 2k up Rock Road from Padstow Ferry. At Daymer Bay I see on Google Maps that I can walk up a lane from there and across on Trewint Lane to Barnecutt’s and if I walked quickly, I could be there before they close at 3pm. So I do and get there at 2.30pm to see it’s quite busy with cyclists and locals queued up. I buy a a multi seeded loaf, plus a pasty for dinner and stroll back down the 2k to the Rock Ferry to Padstow
It’s low tide so everyone has to walk an extra 200 metres across the sand to where the ferry could land. The ferry arrives in 10 minutes and costs £3. Another 5 minutes and we’re on the other side, then need to walk an extra 1k as likewise it’s low tide and the Padstow harbour has boats sitting on the mud so the ferry had to land on the sand bar. Peter and Pam’s Air BnB at 20 Duke Street was only 60 metres from the harbour and was easy to find. I’m welcomed by Peter and my double bedroom is very comfortable and spacious with a private toilet and basin in the room, and shower up the corridor. I’m tired after a 24k day, the first 6k being tough, so I have a cup of tea first, then stroll down to the harbour with my Barnecutt’s pasty to sit on the seat and enjoy dinner while swatting away the large seagulls the size of ducks. It was a battle for everyone eating takeaway to keep the pesky seagulls at bay. Back to my bedroom and I shower, have a cup of hot chocolate and go to bed at 8pm. There’s no TV in the room but I’m too tired to watch it anyway.