D138: TREYARNON BAY to WADEBRIDGE
Thursday 12th September 2024
Today miles: 17.2 Total miles: 2267.2
Before eating my breakfast I spread out my wet tent outside the hostel. As I looked over towards the beach and was surprised to see several young children surfing in the water, that’s real commitment at 7am in the morning. Turns out they’re having a surf lesson before going to school, respect. Leaving the hostel with a full belly I traversed across Constantine Bay golf club and then walked over towards the lighthouse at Trevose Head.
The walking conditions were just about perfect, it’s overcast, there’s a light breeze and thankfully absolutely no rain. There’s several people running along the path and each time I happily stepped aside, which was no easy task on a very narrow path. There’s a bench seat overlooking Mother Ivey’s Bay and I sat for twenty minutes, there’s some great views. A little later as I continued towards Trevone I could see a large group snaking its way up a small hill in the distance, maybe half a mile in front of me. I dropped into the solitary small shop at Trevone and then spent the next hour pursuing the group, eventually catching them up just before Stepper Point lookout tower. They are a local, over 60’s walking group from Newquay and I sat talking to them for a while before they continued. I passed them again as they chatted to the staff at Hawkers Cove coastguard station and wished them all good luck. The tide was still out so I left the SWCP temporarily to walk across the sand at Hawkers Cove. There’s still some signs of the old RNLI slipway at Hawkers Cove before it was moved a few miles up the coast to Trevose Head.
I was pleased that I had managed to stick to the beach for a mile, all the way to St George’s Cove.It was a short but pleasant change from the footpath. Despite being midweek it was still fairly busy. I got to talking with a young lad named Mark who was section hiking the South West Coastal Path, it’s amazing how quickly time and distance goes by when you’re chatting with somebody. I left Mark at Padstow and went in search of some lunch. Padstow lies close to the mouth of the River Camel and it’s a pretty town. It’s popular with cyclists and several celebrity chefs, including Rick Stein and Paul Ainsworth have businesses in the town. I took a long break overlooking the river before setting off along ‘The Camel Trail’. It’s approximately five miles to Wadebridge. It’s a decent walk as long as you look and listen out for all the cyclists. It began to rain heavily after around four miles and I found some temporary shelter under a large tree to put on my waterproofs.
The Camel Trail ends (for me) at the South Western edge of Wadebridge where there’s a large Aldi store. I’ve booked myself into the Dolphin Backpackers in Tintagel for the next three nights so I made sure that I grabbed enough food from Aldi to last at least a couple of days. I was finally able to cross the River Camel at Wadebridge and ate some food whilst waiting for the bus. I arrived at Dolphin backpackers an hour later.
Werewolfandflump UK Coast Path 