South West Coast Path Day 11.
Distance today: 20.9 miles.
Total distance: 1291.6 miles.
Accommodation: campsite.
Another beautiful summer’s day walking the trail. Maybe that’s all I need to write. If you look at the photos, I think you’ll get the idea. Very, very special. As with yesterday, the reward for being up early (apart from having the place to myself) was the light. There’s a softness to it but it also feels like a hint or even a promise of what’s to come. And since when did estuary beaches have golden sand? That’s it, I’m moving down here.
Beyond Padstow, I made my way past places like St George’s Cove, Harbour Cove, Hawker’s Cove, Stepper Point, and Trevone Bay. Beautiful beaches nestled amidst rugged coast line. Just beyond Trevone I got chatting to a couple and the woman was gently mocking the man who seemed to be a mine of interesting facts. One of them was the exact halfway point between John o’ Groats and Land’s End (as the crow flies). Any guesses? It is actually the Isle Of Man. I did not know that. They promised to make a donation and indeed, when I checked later they had given £30! So a big thanks to Sally Wilcox and partner.
It was about 11 o’clock by the time I reached Harlyn Bay and the beaches were starting to fill up. The nearby Holiday Parks undoubtedly helped swell the numbers. Suspecting the café at the beach was going to be more expensive, I thought I’d wander into the village to find a cheaper alternative. After a fruitless loop I was back at the beach and reluctantly queuing up at the Beach Box Café for a coffee. Given how hot it was, I probably should have been hydrating rather than caffeinating.
Beyond Harlyn, the SWCP skirted the coast, passing the holiday parks on its way to Trevose. There at the end of the bay was the incredibly iconic RNLI Padstow Lifeboat Station. What an amazing looking building that is. Another one for the proper camera.
On past Bays Constance & Treyarnon, and Coves Wine, Pepper, Warren, Fox, Rowan, & Long. Approaching Porthcothan, I passed a group of cheery women setting up camp in the Porthcothan Clifftop Camping site just over the fence. “Would you like a beer?” one of them asked. Yes, I would. They all worked in Newquay and were very much enjoying their day off.
My own choice for campsite was a couple of miles on from Porthcothan at Bedruthan Steps. It was a fantastic cliff-top location. I could tell straight away that this was my kind of place. It had a definite ramshackle off-grid Glastonbury vibe to it. The young team staffing the site were all sat outside the reception caravan, busy in conversation but equally happy to greet new customers. At gunpoint I was forced to tell everyone about what I was doing and I think they were suitably impressed. So much so that one of them (Kate I think her name was) was doing a run to the shops and asked me what she could get me. Beer? She later delivered 2 cans of beer and refused to take any money for them. It was much appreciated. I appear to be drinking for free today.
For some reason I decided to pitch my tent near the fence next to the road. I think it may have been because I hoped it would slightly quieter with less people camped there. That was the theory. Half an hour later I was perhaps regretting my decision. A black Audi cabriolet pulled up next to me and out-stepped the angriest camper I have ever met, followed by his understandably cowed girlfriend. It genuinely looked like his head was going to explode at any minute. I think I detected a London/Essex accent and by all accounts he had done a lot of camping whereas his girlfriend was a novice and was consequently getting a lot of flak for doing everything wrong and saying anything that remotely sounded like she was complaining. I mentioned my walk and his response was that he could do that. “It’s all up here”, he said, stabbing his finger against the side of his head.
Food-wise, the good news was that I had picked a night when Fat Jack’s Shack was on site. At £10 for a burger I thought it was a bit steep but it came with a healthy portion of potato salad and I am here to tell you it was the best burger I have had in a very long time. And somehow I appear to have been caught loitering by the on-site social media updater.
I mentioned Angry Audi Man to the camp site crew and they agreed, he did look like an unlikely camping enthusiast. Concerned that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep, Kate very generously offered me the use of one of the tipis in the next field. I nobly declined, figuring everything was probably going to quieten down. And it did.
