20180530 Port Isaac – Padstow – Rob's South West Coast Path

Date: 20180530

Time: 9:35 – 15:10

Distance: 21.4 km

Stay: The Old Ship Hotel, Padstow

Walk

Today a more relaxed route. The sting is in the beginning, in the first 4-5 kilometers. After that it is not too bad.

I start on time because at the end I have to catch the ferry from Rock to Padstow and I want to be there in time (otherwise it will cost me a taxi).
It is raining, so that is not so good.
I start together with three people that I have already encountered before the last few days, both in hotels and on the path. It is a couple from Germany (from the neighborhood of Nürnberg) and an English friend. I walk faster and lose sight of them after a while. I expect to see them again in the hotel or pub tonight.

Before I start my walk, I first walk through Port Isaac. The town is famous because it the Doc Martin series is filmed here. The hotel where I slept last night is in the series the school building (which it used to be). Port Isaac mainly has many small and narrow streets.

Although the sting is in the beginning, it is not that bad. The hills are not that high anymore, so every climb and descent is a lot shorter. There are a number of steep slopes to take, but I can manage that. However, I have to be careful because everything is wet. Especially on rocky stretches that means it is slippery.

After about 5 kilometer I reach Port Quin, a hamlet by the sea. Normally here in the parking lot one can get something to drink (from an old Citroen HZ), but today they are closed because of the beautiful weather. Too bad, I really would have liked a cup of coffee.
The good news is that the worst climbing is over. Not that it is all flat now, but there are not many height differences anymore.

And then you walk on a not too wide path, along a cliff, and then there are about 10 cows that want to pass you. Going back does not make sense, then you get stuck on a stile. So, crawl against the edge as much as possible and stay as still as possible. The cows have a look at this, they do not trust it completely. Then they pass by one by one. One of the last is a calf and that needs more time before it dares to pass. But in the end it takes a sprint and shoots past. The cow behind it looks at me for a moment as if to say: how dare you against a calf …
All in all, this resulted in some nice close-ups of the cows.

Soon after, Polzeath comes into view, a seaside resort. Despite the bad weather, there is still plenty to do on the beach and in the sea. At least there is coffee here, at a beach bar.

At Polzeath and later at Rock and Padstow, there are huge sand plains. Here they do have real beaches.

After Polzeath it continues via a mainly flat route to Rock, via the dunes, the beach and along the last hill of today.

I’m lucky, when I get to the beach at Rock, a ferry arrives and I can board immediately. They use two ferries today. When we arrive at the Padstow side, it becomes clear why. There is a huge queue waiting.
When I arrived in Padstow, I see that the three people I started with this morning were on the same ferry. In our hotel (we have the same hotel again) I have a chat with them and there I hear that they have taken a short cut. That explains why they have caught up with me.

In Padstow it is very busy. I do not have to get bored here during my rest day tomorrow.

Weather

Well, today finally came an end at the good walking weather. It rained. Fortunately not very hard. From the beginning there was a constant light rain. Later in the day there were dry periods, but the rain kept coming back again.

I had put on my raincoat for and although it was very hot, I kept it on all day.

In the end I was soaking wet, but just like last time only partly because of the rain. Today, especially at the beginning, I had many pieces where I walked along very narrow paths that were largely overgrown with vegetation. That made me the most wet, all that vegetation was soaking wet and so was I in no time.