Mevagissey to Charlestown - Friday 6th September 2013
Path Facts - Length: 7.2 miles, Ascent: 2034 feet
In the planning for this trip it was obvious that our usual five days walking would put us within a few miles of St Austell which is an obvious connection for the return train. Hence tagging on a short 7 mile walk on the end would be no big deal, right?
Today had about as much ascent as many walks twice the distance, so there's a bigger staircase density than most of the places we've been to. Add 60 miles of walking from the last few days to the legs and the result is that this was quite a knackering walk! To counter this the weather and scenery were top notch.
Our B&B owners told us a tale about the path out of Mevagissey. It goes quite steeply up out of the harbour then, so we were told, there was a steep descent where a previous occupant had broken their foot in four places. It had been raining when they visited. It had also rained last night but not too badly. Caution had been advised though we didn't seem to have a problem with said stretch.
A few staircases and an early drink stop at the caravan site at Pentewan. There is also a landlocked harbour here. It was built for the increasing china clay trade but quickly silted up and is now a long way from the sea.
Some hills,
some great coastline,
and a waterfall on the beach at Hallane after a shady, wooded descent all the way back to sea level! This was a nice stop to drop the packs, have a brief chill and a wander around.
It's been too long without a cow photo.
There's a brief detour out to the headland called Black Head where there were good all round views.
Below shows the view way out beyond Plymouth into Devon to the coastline South of Dartmoor.
Today's monster staircase.
We didn't have the possibility of a lunch stop before arrival at Charlestown. As we had been told, they were filming a Norwegian children's pirate film here. Charlestown is often used for filming due to the harbour all being built in the 19th century.
We were pretty lucky to just miss the rain having just finished walking and moved sharpish from T'Gallants tea room garden to inside before this apocalyptic cloud emptied itself.
There had apparently been flooding in Falmouth which we'd only missed by a couple of days.
After lunch we had a look round the local museum which is dedicated to the china clay industry, the local harbour and local and famous shipwrecks. Worth seeing, but don't let Andy play with the guns.
There was also the local rowing club going for it, and plenty of local fisherman and swimmers.
Info
Accommodation - Ardenconnell
Location ****
Room ****
Facilities ****
Noise ** the main road outside was quite noisy
Food ***
Ambience ***
Price *** £70 for the room
Food – The Rashleigh Arms
Quality ***** Falafel burger & chips. The only veg option but superb. Perfect chips!
Price ***
Beer - Proper Job *****
The Walker's Strategy Section
Mevagissey to Charlestown elevation:
Next trip will take us to Fowey, Polperro, Looe and Plymouth so we'll finish the Cornish section of the path. Beyond Plymouth there are some challenging river crossings , one of which (The Erme) is necessary to wade across or circuit 8 miles round. Note to self: bring towel.
Overall progress can be viewed on this tracker map on Google. This is also on the links on the right hand side of this page. We've now covered approx 368 miles and a cumulative ascent of 72,589 ft. This averages out at 10.8 miles and 2135 ft per day over the 34 walking days... so far!
Until next time, I'll leave you with some seagulls at the train station.
