Newquay to Perranporth

Newquay to Perranporth - Sunday 9th September 2012

Path Facts - Length: 11 miles, Ascent: 1581 feet

Continental breakfast before getting on the 9am bus to Newquay. Started walking by 9.30am. My enduring image of Newquay town centre was a pub owner jet washing the remains of Saturday night's binge drinking from his forecourt. Nice!

As we headed out round Fistral Beach things started to become a bit more like the old coast path. Surfers out here in force.

First slightly early stop at about 11am was the Fern Pit Cafe which is rather nice and overlooks the River Gannel.

The route from here on is optional depending upon the tide. As it was high we opted for the ferry which is £1.20 and consists of man, dog and small boat. It is, however, one of those experiences that is far more memorable and satisfying than things which cost many orders of magnitude more.

Some fairly level walking for a while.

Lunch stop at St Pirrans Inn at Holywell.

From here on in there is quite a large military presence at Penhale.

Then begins the rather long slog (3 miles apparently) along Perran Sands before Perranporth. Quite impressive though.

On the final approach we could see our hotel which was a very cool location overlooking the beach. Arrived approx 3.30pm.

Perranporth was ok. Not the greatest or worst place we had been to. We had tea in a very dodgy new age type place with weird Freudian-basement dream paintings on walls and syrupy music. Then checked into the hotel.

The hotel was pretty dated in terms of decor and mod cons but this was more than made up for by the fantastic view.

Best recommendation for the evening was The Green Parrott which was good grub and cheap. Shame it was a Weatherspoons in some respects as I would prefer to put money into the local economy but there wasn't an obvious better option.

Watched the end of the Paralympic closing ceremony on returning. It was basically an f****** Cold Play concert. Arrrggghhh. Worst nightmare.

Info:

Accommodation – Cliffside Hotel

Location ***** great view over Perran Sands
Room ***
Facilities **
Noise ****
Food ***
Ambience ***
Price **** £60 for the room

Food –The Green Parrott

Quality ****
Price *****

Beer
Castle Gold ****