D122: ST AUSTELL to GORRAN HAVEN
Tuesday 23rd April 2024
Today miles: 12.6 Total miles: 2036.4
Slept in this morning and didn’t start walking until around 10am. I’d originally dropped into the Aldi store before boarding the bus towards Charlestown. I actually ended up boarding the wrong bus and got dropped off further away from the path than I had hoped. It wasn’t going to be a particularly long day so it wasn’t that much of a big deal.
There’s a short climb up to Duporth and then a nice leisurely walk along Du Porth beach. There’s the customary early morning surf boarders and a large group of dog walkers stood chatting on the footpath. After about a mile I noticed that there was a large section of gorse bushes on the side of the hill. It wasn’t difficult to move along however there were many occasions when the path would split off in different directions. I took several wrong turns and would then turn back after a few hundred metres when realising my mistake. After manoeuvring through the gorse I finally arrived at Black Head, just South of the village of Trenarren. There’s a huge granite headstone, a memorial to a local historian and poet A.L.Rowse at the end of the footpath. I made the short three hundred metre walk to Black Head fort and had a short break, tucking into the energy drink and some of the food I had picked up earlier.
The gorse maze continues beyond Black Head but by now I had just decided to take whichever path was closest to the edge of the cliff and this seemed to work out quite well. A mile further along the South West coastal path I reach the village of Pentewan. The route goes slightly inland along the road to avoid the Winnick Caravan Park. It’s only a short time before I’m back onto the cliff top. I stopped again for a break at a conveniently placed seat near Portgiskey and this time I was joined for my lunch by an overly friendly Robin. It wasn’t shy and it seemed more than happy to hop onto the seat and mop up any crumbs from my Ginsters Cornish pastie. Even the noise from my boiling stove didn’t frighten it away.
Mevagissey town was very busy, particularly down near the harbour. As is typical the streets are very narrow and bearly wide enough for a vehicle and a solitary very narrow footpath. It’s made even worse by me wearing a wide backpack. I eventually found a quiet spot near the public toilets, but resisted paying the extortionate 50p to use that particular facility. From the harbour there’s a steep set of stairs up to the minor road which I walked along for the next kilometre to just beyond Portmellon Bay. The walk along the cliff top towards Gorran Haven was straight forwards and no issues to talk of. I arrived in Gorran around 2pm and hung around for an hour, grabbing some items for my tea tonight. The campsite I’m booked into for tonight at Treveague Farm is around a half mile from Gorran Haven. It’s a really nice campsite and on arrival the owners gave me a free cup of coffee and told me to camp anywhere I wanted. I chose a spot close to the main toilet block with tall hedges on two sides offering some extra wind protection and shade.
As I enjoyed my tea I was joined by a nice lady, who is section walking the SWCP from Minehead. We chatted for a couple of hours until the light began to fade and we then climbed into our respective sleeping bag.
Werewolfandflump UK Coast Path 