11.5 miles walked today
1111.5 miles walked in total (10.485 average)
What a beautiful beautiful day! The weather has been glorious although when we got in the car this morning, the temperature gauge showed three degrees and a little snowflake!
We got to Portscatho and ambled down to the village from the hilltop car park and Mum and Dad went off to have a mooch and left me striding out to the path at 9.45 am. The path was excellent - nearly flat! - and I made very good progress out to Towan Beach where I was welcomed by field upon field of daffodils - heavenly!
There's a wreck post at Towan which had been erected by the coastguard service to simulate a ship's mast for training. A rocket and line shot at the post would be made fast and a breeches buoy could be attached.
The coast path sign indicated that it was only two miles to St Anthony Head so I strode off once more. The fleece was off by now and the sun was very warm with little or no breeze. Shetland ponies graze the land around Zone Point and five of the stupid things were laying on the path! They did look very hot though so I wasn't as cross with them as I could have been. They barely stirred as I negotiated my way around them.
The views from St Anthony Head were fantastic - over to Falmouth and down to Place and St Mawes. I didn't stay long, sadly, as I only had an hour to get to the ferry point at Place so I flew down the hill and made it with a few minutes to spare. There are two quays at Place, one for high tide and one for low tide, both two hundred metres apart. Not being an expert in matters nautical, I decided to sit on the quay nearest to St Mawes and, if the ferry shot past me, I could wave, shout and run back to the other quay. In the event, this plan wasn't needed as the ferry chugged in sedately to my quay.
At St Mawes, I had a twenty minute wait for the ferry to Falmouth. It was only at this point that my fleece went back on - very choppy indeed. The views upriver were fabulous and I got a good vantage point at the back of the ferry over to St Mawes Castle, built between 1540 and 1543. The castle was only taken once - in 1646 by Cromwell without a shot being fired - because all its guns face seaward!
Falmouth, when I eventually got there, was a nightmare - far too many people about. I find it really hard to cope with crowds when I'm walking, probably because I spend so much time on my own out on the footpaths. Even though the paths have been covered in people today too - everybody taking advantage of the long Easter weekend.
I sped through the town as fast as I could - the coast path goes past Marks and Spencer for God's sake! - and headed out to Pendennis Point where I could see over to St Mawes and St Anthony Head. Stunning.
From here, it was all a bit mundane - prom walking really. Past Gyllyngvase and Swanpool beaches, before heading out on another footpath round to Maenporth where I'd arranged to meet Mum and Dad. As I started my descent, I could see Mum and Dad on the beach near the car park. Apparently, they'd only just got there as they'd done their own walk from Portscatho back to Nare Head today and had popped back to the cottage for showers before picking me up.
Tomorrow, we move from our cottage at Devoran, near Truro, to our new base at Sancreed, near Penzance, and the scenery will become more rugged methinks. Not to mention the paths!
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