Charlestown to Fowey

I thought I heard fireworks as I drifted off to sleep, and over breakfast I discovered that I hadn't dreamt them! The fireworks had been at a wedding at the nearby golf club, and our fellow guest at Ardenconnel had been there. We had a pleasant breakfast and left Ardenconnel shortly after 9am - we started by walking down to the harbour, where we watched a Cornish gig returning from an outing. There were a few drops of rain but they didn't come to anything and it stayed dry for the rest of the day - the dominant feature was the wind. The walking was gentler than yesterday and it was extremely enjoyable.

We climbed out of Charlestown and followed the cliffs as they dipped and rose again, past first the Porth Avallen Hotel and then the Carlyon Bay Hotel, with its extensive golf course. Below us on the beach was the former Cornwall Coliseum, which was an entertainment complex but is now being redeveloped into a luxury holiday complex. It's a bit sad in its current state, but I'm not sure I'll like the luxury holiday complex much either.

At the far end of the golf course we descended to Spit Point, then turned sharply inland past disused china clay works and the railway. We turned right along the road and followed this into a residential part of Par, following the road for slightly further than the route required, to enable us to buy provisions for lunch from a supermarket. We retraced our steps to the path down to Par Sands. The signposting wasn't wonderfully clear, and we took a rather circuitous route down to the beach then back across the dunes to a car park by an inland lake and along to a second car park - where the path to Polkerris leaves from. However Par Sands were very pleasant, with dog walkers and sailboarders and interesting views of the china clay works and associated harbour.

We climbed up above Par Sands (with more good views) and then descended steeply to Polkerris, a delightful little fishing village (though I'm not sure how much fishing there is nowadays). There's a pub and a posh restaurant in the former lifeboat station, but we had our pork pies sitting in the shelter of the harbour wall. It was very windy and the sand was blowing (as it had been at Par Sands) and we watched a boy who was totally absorbed by his engineering work in the sand, whilst a family member was pottering about on his small boat - it reminded me that children don't really need all the computer games etc. We had a cup of tea at the beach cafe and climbed up steeply out of Polkerris, through a delightful wooded area.

We followed the undulating cliff to Gribbin Head, meeting two male walkers we had passed (going in the opposite direction) yesterday - they were walking at about the same speed as us so we spoke to them several times during the afternoon, even joining the queue for an ice cream immediately behind them when we got to Fowey (though they were not very happy then as they had been intending to catch the ferry back to Mevagissey, but it wasn't running today). To return to Gribbin Head - there's a red and white striped daymark here, built in 1832 to enable sailors to distinguish Gribbin Head from other Cornish headlands. The tower is now owned by the National Trust and it is sometimes open to the public (so you can climb to the top), but not today. The view from Gribbin Head towards the Fowey Estuary was breathtaking.

From Gribbin Head to Readymoney Cove on the outskirts of Fowey, the path descended to various coves and then ascended again. At Polridmouth Cove there's a rather curious dam with a lake behind it. Polridmouth Cove was the setting for the shipwreck in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, and the author lived at Menabilly, further up the valley. We stopped at the dam and two ducks were determined that they were going to help us to eat our flapjack - they failed!

We passed St Catherine's Castle (not a lot to see) and descended through Covington Woods, then along 'The Esplanade' to Fowey, passing the landing place for tomorrow's ferry to Polruan. We reached the centre of Fowey at about 3pm and pottered about for a while before going to the Galleon Inn. Fowey has been a port for a long time, and having missed the tall ships at Charlestown, it was nice to see a couple here. We enjoyed our first ice cream of the holiday (local of course) and walked up the (steep!) hill to the car park to see if there was sufficient mobile signal to ring tomorrow's B&B - we managed to leave a message.

We had a pleasant and quiet room on the side of the Galleon Inn (you could just see the river from the window) but the bar seemed very noisy, so we decided not to eat here. After walking upstream to watch the vehicle ferry to Bodinnick, and another Cornish gig being launched, we ate at The Globe (a former Post House) - fish again. Delicious again!

Following day