Days 4 & 5

Day: 4
Started at: Gwithian
Finished at: Portreath (Nance Farm YHA)
Miles: 9
Miles from LE: 46
Duration: 5hrs (9:30-14:30)
Trig points visited: 1 (SW592435)
Ales imbibed: Cornish Buccaneer, Wooden Hand Brewery

I thought I’d have a slightly shorter day today, and spend a night in a hostel, just to mix things up a bit. Headed north from Gwithian and up to Godrevy Point and just around the corner is Mutton Cove but there are no sheep to be found, instead a large seal colony. Unfortunately some other hikers did not see the ‘keep quiet’ signs and promptly scared them all off into the water but I did manage to get the camera and binocs out in time.

Seals at Mutton Cove

From there is was mostly flat across the top of the cliffs. Stumbled upon an unexpected cafe at Hell’s Mouth but far from hellish, I demolished a very tasty cream tea and was off on my way again. When I arrived in Portreath I headed straight to the bakery to pick me up a ‘Hiker’s Lunch’; pastie, doughnut and a drink for £4.50 – bargain and delicious! The sun was blazing and so headed for the beach and was the only person to scurry into the shade. It then occurred to me that it was a Wednesday lunchtime and apart from the pensioners and toddlers, why were there so many people on the beach and not at work…?! It didn’t trouble me for long, instead and I spread my towel and read my book.

Knees on the beach!

After picking up some supplies, I headed up through Illogan Woods out of town and up to the YHA – a lovely and very fit elderly couple (70s/80s) let me follow them to the hostel as that was where they were heading. I think the YHA needs to re-brand to ‘Hostel Association’, from my experience there are certainly very few youths in hostels, it’s mis-selling!

To cut a short story even shorter, I then spent the next 36hrs either in bed or near a toilet for I had been afflicted either by something I ate (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the pastie, more likely my dinner) or a virus.

Day: 5
Started at: Portreath
Finished at: Porthtowan
Miles: 5
Miles from LE: 51
Duration: 2.5hrs (11:30-14:00)
Trig points visited: 0
Ales imbibed: 0

(I’ve decided not to include days off in my day count…these are walking days, not elapsed days.)

Having not eaten for 24hrs I was feeling a bit sluggish but wanted a change of scenery so ambled along to the next village of Porthtowan. Experienced my first rain of the trip, which didn’t particularly help my mood but the clouds did part long enough for me to pitch my tent, crawl in, cook some soup and then have a nap. I’m hoping to make it the 9miles up to Perranporth tomorrow so that I can stay here: (I have options if I’m still struggling.)

Perranporth YHA

Author: lhwood1

I enjoy a good walk and so I decided to go on quite a long walk from Lands End to John O'Groats this summer. You'll be able to keep up with my progress through this blog. View all posts by lhwood1