The campsite was called Sea View. If you stood on top of the shower block you might have glimpsed the sea. I could hear the sea though. Maybe Sea Hear campsite. See hear now, you.
Down the hill and back to the coast path we were quickly away. Minor climbs warmed us up but the path all the way to Newquay was steady and quick. Bay after bay, point after point, the scenery never ends.
Early morning beaches and Englishmen were erecting their castles of windbreaks and beach towels with wooden hammers. They had beaten the later rush to the car parks which soon filled up and were turning people away.
Runners were a common sight early in the day and families dragging karts filled with beach gear a later sight as many had left their cars at car parks upon hills, not near the beach of preference. There was more room for people on the beaches than there was for their cars.
New build houses are everywhere they’re allowed to be through this section. Offensively expensive goldfish tanks in hillsides where the only right angle is the right angle for the rich and tasteless. I’m sure they are very nice inside.
A peregrine falcon glided past us level with our faces and a handful of metres away. It was using the updraft from the curved cliff we were walking along to position itself. We don’t have many falcons in Wales so I find them hard to identify in flight, but this was clearly a peregrine falcon. I could see its yellow beak, large eyes, dark hood and speckled chest. I do not have a photo because a peregrine falcon was flying level with my face a handful of metres away from me. You really do have to be there sometimes.
I had not realised what the Bedruthan Steps were until I got there. Large rocks on the beach or islands depending on the tide, I guess. Bedruthan the giant used them as stepping stones. Not sure where he was coming from or going to. Huge numbers of gulls were interested in something here.
We arrived in Newquay. Another busy tourist town in a popular part of Cornwall on a rare good weather British bank holiday weekend. Before we had even made it to the town we had helped up one fallen holidaymaker from the sand. Forging through the crowds Kim found a couple of outdoor kit shops. Her shoes have not been waterproof since she bought them and wanted the chance of getting an actually waterproof pair before the rain forecast for next week. She was successful and we hurried on to the harbour, around to surf beaches keenly watched by grey, long haired and bearded men in black neoprene. A collection of classic VWs were left while men fiddled with other vans nearby.
Kim spotted a pub marker on the OS map on the last headland of the day. We looked out and surely there was nothing out there. Going that way anyway we found a hotel and pub serving excellent fancy sandwiches and spotted pastries left from the morning that a hungry walker really should take care of and did.
Around the turn and we entered the estuary that we knew would add mileage before our finish. The first crossing was under water, the second crossing was not tidal and was the one we expected to take. Signposts disappeared after that and we followed the shore back to the incoming tide so turned around. We found a higher path that again led us to the rising waters. The third path led us high around the hill to no more acorn markers and paths not yet fit for the King Charles III path but that was how they were labelled on the OS map. We had to climb over one gate protected by barbed wire.
Dropped back to the signposted low tide route we had to cross a ford, and the tide came in to cover that seconds after we crossed it. The tide in we saw what all the fuss was about. The estuary is a beautiful sight when the tide is high in the evening and filled with people playing on it. A better path led us to Crantock Beach, the other side of which was not far away but had taken us a long time to travel from. Leaving the coast path here we headed up the road through the village to the large, well equipped campsite.
We ate our dinner on the grass at dusk with a bat flying around our heads. There is a bar but I am too tired to go there.
36.3km with 757m of ascent.