South West Coast Way

An earlier than normal start for this trip, despite the lengthy slushy trudge to the single shower at the end of the farmhouse. Amazingly, no one else seemed to be up so I didn't have to wait for the dubious pleasure! I used 2 x 20p coins in the shower and trudged back to the tent to pack the soaking thing away! It had rained repeatedly during the night... what a week to pick to come away walking and camping! after such a generally nice summer too! I'd packed away and set off for the day at 8.45am. I passed the old man farmer on my way by the farmhouse - I'd obviously seen his son the night before when arriving. I had been going to retrace my steps of last night to return to the coast path, but he told me to carry on down the track to the end and turn left to emerge at a small bay. The track bent almost back on itself and so I cut down the field and climbed a fence to get onto the coast path again. It seemed that had I done what the farmer had said then it would have been...

I got up and showered and dismantled the wet tent. I set off from the Valley Caravan Park at almost 9am. The weather looked fairly promising. I joined the road at the end of the drive and turned left along it until reaching the coast path off to the right just as the road starts to climb up out of the bay. I set off along the path - the Greenway - walking in front of the ridiculous campsite that I'd tried to get into first the previous afternoon!! Walkers boycott the place as far as I am concerned! I will certainly never return! Beyond the campsite, it was a pleasant and flat walk over low cliffs, with bits of beach below me and a niceview out across the estuary to Stepper Point and the golden sands of Harbour Cove. The low cliffs with sand between from The Greenway as I leave Polzeath, with Stepper Point over the Camel Estuary beyond. Looking down the Camel estuary just before Daymer Bay, with Padstow ahead and the golden sands of Harbour Cove visible on the right, across...