Newquay to Porthcothan

I cannot remember a better or more spectacular day on the coast path than today. I am so pleased that Pete & Deb will take away memories of Cornwall that are huge pristine beaches, spectacular headlands and surf, and finally a memorable visit to Port Isaac. So good to have their help and company: thanks to you both. It was such a good day that I took about 3 times as many pictures as the previous day. You can see them all, and the route summary, on Komoot here. I've given up captioning them there are so many but you can work out the locations from the Komoot map. Let me know if you want more info.
So, last day with P&D - here's the 'before' picture on Porth beach, which I mentioned yesterday.

Jess and Soph will remember it, because we rented the ground floor apartment in this block:

Having left Porth, the hill climb  quickly brought us to the cliff tops above Watergate Bay. This is another truly amazing beach, almost as long as Perranporth's

About half way along is the Watergate Bay hotel, in Tregurrian, owned by the same people who run Beach Retreats - Karen's and my source for the rented places we've enjoyed. We forced ourselves to stop for elevenses and nearly didn't get going again! Its very relaxed and sea-side ambiance, plus pool and massage facilities were very seductive. Still, places to go, things to do.....
Looking back from the headland at the end of Watergate beach gives some idea of its enormity; some of those little dots are people

Past Griffin point and Beacon Cove, with a gorgeous sheltered beach that appears to allow access only by sea or rope

and then 'round the next corner' (isn't everything) to Mawgan Porth, just in time for lunch at the pub.
Mawgan is a beautiful spot and unlike Beacon is easily accessible. The two headlands shelter it considerably and on a sunny day like today it's hard to imagine anywhere better. Certainly the racing, chasing dogs thought so. Isolated today, it does get a bit busy in the season as this picture shows:


Most civilised, having a lunch break but that's Pete and Deb's influence. That said, it's always hard to get going again after a meal and so it proved as the path goes straight away back up onto the cliff tops to continue along a series of cliffs and beautiful sandy beaches either side of Bedruthan Steps. The name is thought to have referred to the original cliff staircase, long since lost to erosion. The coastline here has changed considerably, the softer rocks washed away to leave the harder 'stacks'. One of these was christened Queen Bess rock as it was thought, rather unflatteringly, to have looked like her. It has since lost its head...
I've put a sequence of photos in here to give some idea of the drama

 

We followed the path right round Park Head, for scenic value (oh, all right: slight Nav error) and this brings a change in view with darker, harder rocks and no beaches (for a bit, anyway). Rather more dramatic and, to my eye, rather more interesting.

This then turns into Porth Mear, a rocky inlet that I'd love to explore. A rock pooler's paradise I expect

This was the last 'down and up' of this section and we turned into Porthcothan Bay

this rapidly narrows to allow only a few houses on the South side, most with their own direct (though rather precipitous) access to the beach. Although almost deserted today the size of the car park suggests this is a very popular beach.

As you can tell, this was an almost continuous beach run, although some of them tantalisingly inaccessible by anything other than a kayak, and we were blessed with almost continuous sunshine. The overnight rain had not left much in the way of gaiter-needy terrain and the wind (of which there was quite a lot) made the walk all the more exhilarating.

To top it all off we made an off-plan diversion for dinner to Port Isaac. It's famous partly for the Doc Martin series, an acquired taste I'm told, but I think more justly it was chosen for the series simply because it is such an archetypal fishing village. If you go, for heavens sake don't try and drive through it. For one thing there are marshals to stop you, for another the streets are so steep and narrow that you may well lose a door mirror. But do go, it's gorgeous.

There'll be more on this when I go through later this week.

I shall miss my companions, who return to London tomorrow to continue their own adventures by way of Ireland and Gratham among other places. They are great company and helped me enormously in shuffling cars around to fit in with my revised itinerary. I'm sure they're sad they're going to miss the section graded 'Severe' in a couple of days but hey, que sera.

So tomorrow the plan is Porthcothan to Padstow (Padstein if you prefer) and the forecast isn't too bad so it should be good walking. Here's hoping.

Peter