Geoff Jones

Falmouth to Portloe on The South West Coast Path

Today started with two ferry crossings both costing £4 single! The first was a mega journey of 16 minutes the second taking less than 10mins. The day’s walking started in the sleepy hamlet of Place where you are carefully directed around the back of Place House so the owners can avoid the inconvenience of looking at the unkempt and spoiling their sea view.. A common practice on todays walk.

The day was overcast with very little wind so was quite pleasant walking conditions. The path’s are also much drier now with almost no bad muddy spots at all. So please don’t be put off with my earlier mud ridden posts 🙂

It was a reasonably tough 14 miles especially the last bit, I felt quite sorry for Roger & Pauline who I met on the ferry, as it is their first day of their weeks holiday to Plymouth. I really wish the National Trails could buy an acorn stencil and a can of a special colour spray paint, it would make the marking much simpler & cheaper, it is all so ambiguous with these expensive, elaborate, individually carved wooden finger posts and chunks of granite etc only situated far apart and then not at trail Y points

I met a couple of National Trust volunteers and a paid employee mending fences and later litter picking, I’m sorry to say they had to listen to my little diatribe on the evils of the National Trust. btw If you are reading this, the boardwalk and bridge at Nare Head are lovely and in good condition (although perhaps they should be stained a light green colour 🙂 ) My idea for insulating electric fences would be using spiroband see here

All in all a good day’s walking with very pretty villages. Had interesting chats with the NT folks and the volunteer National Coastwatch guy who reminded me of Jimmy in Reginald Perrin plus had a good natter with Roger and Pauline about dentistry and bureaucracy gone mad.

The Carradale b&b, booked by Luggage Transfers, is excellent, except for the usual internet problems.

The stats are here the pics here and Everytrail below

South West Coast Path – Falmouth to Portloe at EveryTrail

Porthallow to Falmouth on The South West Coast Path

Today I awoke to a gorgeous sunrise at Halwyn it was an early start for me. In fact I was on the beach at 7.30, I needed to catch the low tide so I could use the stepping stones over Gillan Creek.

The starting point today is the midpoint on the trail so exactly 3 weeks after setting off from Minehead I’m now half way, will be interesting to see what the weather gods can throw my way in the next 3 weeks after the gales, sleet & heavy rain.

It was a beautiful walk today in idea conditions, I had trouble finding the stepping stones, not because of the tide, but because of the swollen state of the river! each stone was at least 6 inches under water, with the seaweed on the top of each stone it became a delicate operation 🙂

The next river crossing at the Helford passage was by ferry boat and at £4 for one way must rank it in the most expensive ferries per minute in the world.(It takes about 3 minutes).

The paths are still very muddy in places but the lush undergrowth of bluebells, wild garlic and numerous other flowers and bird song make this a very pleasurable walk.

I arrived in Falmouth to see the cremated remains of the Best Western hotel at 13.40 leaving loads of time to explore Falmouth in bright sunshine. i treated myself to a haircut not bad for a fiver but obviously Sally’s are much better 🙂

The Falmouth Lodge Backpackers at £25 is not bad value but I will be glad to be in a b&b again tomorrow if Mike can fix it up.

Biggest disappointment of the day was Rick Stein’s fish & chip shop, dreadful value at £11.60 greasy fish and almost soggy chips what is even worse is they use beef fat ughhh

Oh! Terry & Hilary it was good to meet you in your Rohan kit 🙂 Hope you had a good walk.

Pics of today are here stats are here and Everytrail below.

South West Coast Path – Porthallow to Falmouth at EveryTrail

South west Coast path 315 miles walked and now half way

After the mother of all mega days I arrived at the halfway point a fancy 315 mile marker, on the beach, in the lovely fishing village of Porthallow. According to the GPS today I walked 27 miles (including the stretch up to the Halwyn Guesthouse ) and climbed 6200 feet, so my longest day so far. Some of the length is due to me having to retrace my steps to retrieve The Guide I left on The Lizard plus some wanderings to try and find dry land.

The day was dry with a little wind but the terrain was very, very soggy in many places after all the heavy rain particularly going up to the Lizard, also it was quite treacherous going down into Coverack a pretty hard stage by any standards. The diversion on Permissive footpaths from Godrevy Cove to Rosenithon is a nightmare+ wading through cow slurry 10″ deep to reach the road at the end, a kind lady told me to wash the boots in the stream.

I met up with the Dutch couple in Coverack who I last saw leaving Penzance in the torrential rain & wind on Sunday, they managed to get as far as Marazion before a hotelier rescued them, dried them out and packed them off on a bus to their destination.

The paths around The Lizard are amazingly busy and in the summer must be a walkers nightmare, plus the cafes around there are pretty rubbish.

The stats are here, pictures here and Everytrail here:
South West Coast Path – Mullion to Porthallow at EveryTrail

South West Coast Path – Penzance to Mullion

Today was a good 23 miler in pretty awful conditions, started with light rain and some sun but then turned into a gale (not funny on cliff tops) with some very vicious squalls. Not a pleasant day at all. Even the Scillonian ferry was cancelled.

All the equipment is keeping dry OK, although its a drag to keep hiding the camera in a dry bag every time there is a particularly big downpour. The iPhone is great in its Aquapac, which is large enough to hold the Tecknet iEP387 batter pack connected up. The iPhone can be operated OK through the plastic, although not so good for phone calls!

The biggest disappointment are the Scarpa boots. The left boot has now sprung a leak so my foot & socks were thoroughly soaked when I arrived, plus they have lost traction in the mud since the tread has worn away. All with just100 hours of walking covering 300 miles in 680,000 steps.

The terrain was a lot gentler to begin with but getting hillier towards the end but certainly hot as bad as the first few days. Adze thought I had climbed 4117 feet today The Guide thought 2848 feet (maybe I should add the Adze figures to the spreadsheet). So a pretty heavy day really. The next couple of days are going to be 20 milers as well.

The Mounts Bay Guest House is comfortable, the owner is very pleasant and he is trying to dry my boots out, the b&b is directly linked to the pub kept by his son. The food was more for car drivers than hill walkers 🙁 maybe I should have gone to the chippie.) Thanks to Mike for booking me in.

Unfortunately the historic Marconi station at Poldhu wasn’t open and the inclement conditions meant I didn’t hang around. Still amazing that transatlantic radio only started in 1901.

Todays stats are here photos here and Everytrail below.
South West Coast Path – Penzance to Mullion at EveryTrail