Helford to Falmouth - 10 miles

Our walks along the SWCP are so much easier when we don't have to rely on public transport. Today we drove to Falmouth because we were meeting Ann's friend, Angela. Ann hasn't seen Angela for more than 10 years and I've never met her so I was given strict instructions to be on my very best behaviour and show Angela what an absolutely fantastic collie I am. Angela was visiting Cornwall for the weekend and staying somewhere near Truro, she likes walking so was happy to walk part of the SWCP with us. We met in the Falmouth Maratime Museum car park just after 10am. We didn't have to pay anything to park because we'd left our car just outside the car park on the single yellow lines which is fine on a Sunday. Ann had already told Angela that we would go in her car to the start of our walk and then in ours on the way back. She said this was because I would be lovely and clean when I got into Angela's car but the chances were I'd be wet, smelly and dirty at the end of our walk. Ann was right!

Angela drove us to the start of our walk at the Ferryboat Inn at Helford Passage. Officially we were supposed to start our walk in the village of Helford which is across the water from where we were, but Ann said that logistically that was too difficult to organise and travelling via a ferry for the first half a mile doesn't count as walking! It cost Angela £1 to park so that was as cheap as the Zennor car park.

Our walk today was easy peasy. The website describes this section of the SWCP as 'moderate' but we thought it should be described as easy - there weren't any hard bits. It is a really pretty section of the SWCP. We passed through loads of woody bits that had masses of bluebells in them, in fact we saw loads of different flowers along this route. We even saw some orchids growing wild. For the most part, the path was really well defined too. We didn't have to scramble over any rocks or walk in any boggy bits.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best today. We set off at 10.45am and although very overcast and misty it was warm so Ann & Angela had to strip off to their Tshirts. Our walk took us past a few small beaches so I was allowed to go and have a little wallow and swim. Most of them had streams running into them so I was OK for drinks.

At 1pm we reached the Maenporth Beach Cafe so stopped for lunch. We'd just got there when it started to rain. A group of people were leaving so we managed to get a seat under the gazebbo bit. We were really pleased 'cos sitting at the picnic tables would not have been pleasurable. Ann & Angela both had fish & chips and a coffee - only £6.20 each. I wasn't allowed anything. I tried my sorrowful look on a man that was eating an ice cream but he didn't give me anything, so I tried putting my wet, smelly head on Angela's lap but that didn't work either. So I lay down to show everyone how good I was. We stayed there for about an hour hoping that the rain would stop but it didn't.

At about 2pm we set off again in waterproofs but after about 15mins the rain had stopped so Ann & Angela had to take off their waterproofs. However, for the rest of our walk we kept going through short showers so Ann had her anorak on and off more times than I could count. She gave up with the waterproof trousers saying that the trousers that she had on would dry quickly.

We met loads of people and dogs on our walk today. Angela was really impressed at how good & well behaved I was. I only had one naughty moment - I was on my lead for the last part of the walk and was walking around the Pendennis Castle peninsular when I spotted one of those horrid green buses coming towards me. Naturally I went a bit crazy at it because I don't like buses. I pulled on my lead and barked at it. Ann said I'd let myself down, because up to that point Angela thought I was a 'perfect pooch'. Actually, I think Angela still thinks I'm a perfect pooch because when she said goodbye to me she told me that she thought I was really good considering the bad start I had in life!

We got back to the car at about 4pm. Ann tried to give me some water because from Maenporth Beach to Falmouth there hadn't been any streams for me to have a drink out of, but I don't like drinking water in the car. However Ann drove us back to Angela's car and they went and had a coffee in the Ferryboat Inn. While we were there Ann gave me some water from her water bottle in a little plastic container which was yummy!

I've had a lovely day today but I'm very tired. I've been out of the house from about 9am - 6pm so I've had no sleep time. Now I'm curled up on the sofa fast asleep and absolutely exhausted.