Thu 22nd April - Day 6, Mawgan Porth to Polzeath (20 miles)

Waking at 6:00 I could hear no rain on the tent, a good start, I was ready to leave at 8:00, there was no warden on site when I arrived last night or when I left this morning so I couldn’t pay any site fees to anyone, oh dear!

Low cloud but the sun was coming out, from the top of the first hill I had a signal on the phone so I was able to call Sandra and sort out the problem with the website.

A noticeable feature of the walk so far was the amount of large snails on the path, if I wasn’t watching where I was putting my feet I would hear the crunch as they were squashed underfoot.

I had a break at Porthcothan at 10:00 and had a hot pastie, mug of tea & a mars bar from the shop, then onto to the next village of Treyarnon and walking on the sands of Constantine Bay before going back up onto the path.

It looked like being a hot day so I put on sunblock as I came round Trevose Head, passing by the lighthouse and lifeboat station.

At the next village of Harlyn I stopped for lunch of a bacon roll & a drink of tea before going on to Trevone then back up onto the easy cliff path taking me round Stepper Point.

From here I could look across Padstow Bay to Polzeath, only a mile away as the crow flies but much longer along the coast.

Coming into Padstow at 16:00 I wrestled with my conscience and decided to take the ferry across to Rock, it was an all year passenger service so I was sure that everyone else doing the coastal path would take it rather than the xx mile detour round to Rock

The ferry took 5 minutes to cross, driving up onto the beach before dropping the front ramp onto the sand to let us all off, I stood all the way across so I didn’t feel as though I was cheating!!

My stop for the day was 3 miles away at Polzeath, after first going through the sand dunes to Trebetharick.

The first campsite in Polzeath wanted £12 for the pitch (the computer wouldn’t accept anything less!!) so I went on to the next one and only paid £6.

I was certainly ready to stop here after 20 miles, there was no pain from my blister but my right knee was aching and the new rucsac was taking a bit of adjusting to.

The sun had been out all day with a cool breeze and there had been lots of swallows & peacock butterflies.

93 miles completed.