Padstow, The Saints' Way walk and Fowey

This and the previous post come to you from, by far the best internet service we've experienced since Iceland - better in fact - and we are now relaxing in a lovely B&B just about 1 mile south of Harlech in west Wales (26th June). 

June 17 – We loaded our day packs with spare clothing, rain protection gear, water and snacks and headed off on our walk. We were met with hills straight away, even to get to the starting point for the Saint’s Way at the church of St Petroc in Padstow. The day consisted mainly of tramping across paddocks, uphill and down dale, and traversing country lanes, also used by speeding traffic. Much of the day was spent out in the open with blazing sunshine streaming out of a cloudless sky (being us, we wore our sun hats and were slathered in sunscreen) . We lost the track at one point after passing through the tiny township of Little Petherick, and had to tramp uphill along a very busy highway, with traffic whizzing past us at close range. We turned off at the next village and took another lane to get back to our pathway. We lost time through this event but were happy to be back on track. We suffered from the heat and towards the last part of the day diverted from the track to take an easier road down to our first night’s accommodation. This was in a B&B on a farm called Tregolls farm, near to a very old village called Withiel. It was a lovely old house and we had a very warm welcome along with a fabulous meal cooked by our host. It was a really comfortable place to spend the night after 18+ kilometres of walking.

St. Petroc's Church, Padstow and the official start to the Walk.

Leaving Padstow behind

First night's rest - Grateful to be in a luxurious farm stay B&B

 June 18 – Day two, and it was difficult to pull on the boots and leave our haven. We headed off again, and after five minutes encountered our first difficulty for the day trying to find the correct exit from a complicated paddock arrangement we were crossing. We had to retrace our steps, adding another kilometre or so to the walk. We passed through the tiny town of Withiel, had more trouble exiting the next group of paddocks, but managed to find our way out of trouble again. We had a little more shade than on day one, but not much, so were still fairly exhausted by the time we got to a town called Lanivet, and had to walk up a really long and relentless hill to our next highway crossing. We continued on to Helman’s Tor, a hill topped with granite rocks, and a high point of the walk. Irene rested half way up while Howard climbed to the top for the view. It was then a long walk on fairly level (thankfully) ground to our next overnight stop at Lanlivery, where we stayed in a twelfth century “longhouse” building converted into a hotel – low ceilings and doorways with ancient timbers still in place. We had another really filling meal and a bit of relaxing after a long day of around 18 or 19 kilometres.

Rolling Hills (though pretty tough while walking over them), and another ancient cemetery on the way.

 

 

 Helman Tor was the highest point in the walk, by this time we were over the heat and wanting only downhill, which we got.

One of the Crown Inn's out buildings (not quite as old as the Inn) and now accommodation.  Our room on the right.

One room of the restored Inn

 

June 19 – The final day of our walk dawned – another hot one, but slightly shorter at only 12 kilometres. Also a lot more shade was promised for today. The path dropped down into the Milltown area, then climbed steadily for a couple of miles via a fairly narrow lane. At one stage when we were with a group of three other walkers, three large trucks passed us in succession. We had to really push ourselves into the hedgerows, and fortunately the trucks drivers slowed down so as not to frighten us too much. After a short break for lunch, we headed off on a long descent to a good size town called Golant on the banks of the River Fowey. We whiffed the scent of home! We passed a riverside pub, and being exhausted with the heat, were compelled to find a seat there and order a cold lemon lime and bitters. It was divine. We then had only one major hill to climb, luckily in shade, as it was the steepest of them all. From then on it was a mile or so long descent into Fowey down another shady lane. During the final walk in through the outskirts, we were not impressed at all with the town, although everyone we had spoken to had told us that we would really love the place. However, after we reached our accommodation, in yet another ancient building, and had an ice cream and a short walk around the town, the place grew on us. The township of Fowey surrounds a very pretty harbour, with its houses and hotels covering every inch of the steep, surrounding hillside. It is another English seaside town leading the competition for steep, narrow and winding streets. We were so pleased to have completed the walk, in all around 50m kilometres including extra distance covered correcting our mistakes. It would have been a really pleasant experience in cooler weather. Also there had been a lot more road walking than we are accustomed to. Anyway, we had done it and were in a fitting place to finish it.

 Jun 20 – We awoke to the sound of gulls, and decided to do an early morning walk through the town while it was still quiet. We climbed quite high to get a good view over the harbour and the town of Polruan, just across the bay. Breakfast was the normal grandiose full English thing. This actually had been suiting us, as we then had enough fuel to last until mid-afternoon, when more food would be needed. We had previously planned to do a three hour local walk in the area before returning to Padstow. However, after the rigours of the previous three days, we decided to cancel today’s walk and instead took a five minute ferry trip over to Polruan to have a wander around that little town, another interesting place. All of the UK is so steeped in history that it is hard to avoid it wherever you go. We ferried back, collected our gear, and met up with the taxi driver who was to take us back to Padstow. We arrived back, settled in to the Golden Lion again, and took a long beach walk to fill in the afternoon. Irene even had a short swim and revelled in it. On the way back to the hotel, we passed another interesting way to build stone walls. Instead of using blocks of stone, they use pieces of slate placed vertically in one row, then horizontally, and sometimes capping it off with a row of tiles angled at around sixty degrees. Howard was intrigued by this method.  We finished the day preparing for our foray into Wales on the following day. This was to be the day for heading north and the start of our homeward journey to Edinburgh.