Fowey to Looe

Fowey to Looe - Monday 7th April 2014

Path Facts - Length: 12.5 miles, Ascent: 2280 feet

Breakfast 8.30am upstairs at the B&B. Fantastic large windows overlooking the river. Weather: rain, fog, drizzle... Left 9.30 ish.

Woo-hoo! Another ferry (not sarcasm). Ferries are great. From Town Quay in Fowey to Polruan for £1.70. Quite a choppy sea but not to the extent of threatening the re-emergence of breakfast.

 Looking back at Fowey.

Polruan has some character by the riverside. It is 6.5 miles from here to Polperro, the most likely lunch stop today.

Pretty tough going over the next stretch. Rain, hills, slippery paths. The rain was light and intermittent for much of the time but came down heavily at one point.

Another impressive sight as Polperro began to emerge from the path ahead.

Polperro was ok. We had lunch at a local bakers but the food wasn't great. The pasty was luke warm and uninspiring. Also had a bread pudding the size of a brick which did also not live up to appearances. We were pretty much damp through all levels at this point.

From Polperro onwards, the weather was better and the path more level. The latter 5.5 miles seemed much easier. The sun evetually broke through about 3pm.

Arrived at Looe about 4pm.

 
A quick stop at the B&B to drop our wet kit off before a wander around.

 

Ended up at the Fisherman's Arms for a quick Tribute. This felt like a very locals type pub but not unfriendly. Perhaps one of the few pubs called the Fisherman's Arms that's actually frequented by fishermen.

Back to the B&B. This was fairly rough lodgings with the local builders frequenting the place, but fine to dry off and re-energise.

The eatery this evening was one of the worst on the whole path. I can only remember the Indian restaurant in Newquay being comparably bad. Not an overall good experience of Looe. I don't remember it being like this when I came as a child.

Info

Accommodation - Bridgeside Guest House

Location ****

Room **

Facilities **

Noise **

Food **

Ambience **

Price **** £56 for the room


Food – The Golden Guinea Restaurant

Quality ** Worst veg curry I've ever had with the possible exception of the one at Newquay. Seriously, my work canteen does a much better job than this. The only thing that stops a one star rating was the apple pie with ice cream

Price **

Beer - bottle Tribute **

Charlestown to Fowey

Charlestown to Fowey - Sunday 6th April 2014

Path Facts - Length: 10.3 miles, Ascent: 1411 feet

Due to the train line to the South West having been shut by storms some weeks before, I opted to drive to Plymouth the day before and take the train to St Austell. Got a chance to sample The Rashleigh Arms' world renowned chips last night.

Started off this morning at 9.15 am amongst wind and drizzle. This was fine at first but ended up lasting a large part of the day. It was 3 miles to Par. This section was described as one of the least picturesque so given that it was mostly obscured by drizzle, this may have been advantageous.

Stopped for tea and an opportunity to dry off slightly on the edge of a campsite near Par.

Stopped for an early lunch at Polkerris at the Rashleigh Inn (common name round these parts!). Nice pub. Good character. Also some respite from the rain hitting the windows.Again, dried off a bit before heading out up a steep slippery path out of Polkerris into woodland.

This was fairly hard work as it was steep and slippery. There were quite a few sections like that today.

On to Gribben Head and the stripey daymark which was visible from back at Black Head (before Charlestown). Very windy up here.

Fowey and Polruan were quite a welcome and impressive sight when they emerged out of the fog.

Got a bit lost trying to find the B&B. One of these locations where the marker on Google maps is nowhere near the actual location. Arrived approx 3pm. Great B&B. Views down to the river, guest lounge and the lady kindly dried out our things for us which was necessary!

Wandered out about 6pm. A steep walk from the B&B down to the riverside. After a quick wander round and a perusal of eateries we opted for the King of Prussia


Info

Accommodation - Trekelyn

Location ***
Room ****
Facilities ****
Noise ****
Food ****
Ambience ****
Price *** £75 for the room


Food – The King of Prussia

Quality **** walnut, apple & brie salad, loads of bread
Price ***
Beer - Proper Job ****