We left St Ives at about 8am and got to Charlestown at 9.05am. Well, the bus to Fowey wasn’t due till 9.50am. We’d thought it would take us about an hour and a half to drive to Charlestown so allowed an extra 20 mins for parking, finding the bus stop and for Ann to put on her walking boots and get organised. Oh well, the best laid plans and all that?! .............Better to be too early than too late?!
We parked right next to the bus stop on the main road into Charlestown. So obviously that saved us a car parking fee. Once Ann had put her walking boots on and got her rucksack organised, we went for a little walk around Charlestown. Seemed like a lovely place with what looked like lovely cafes & pubs but obviously at 9am on a Sat morning in January nothing was opened so we just took a few photos, wandered around and then headed for the bus stop.
The bus (Greyhound 525) arrived a few mins early. It cost £3.10 for Ann to go to Fowey and I was free.
When we got off the bus at Fowey we immediately just walked down the hill to the sea thinking that the coastal path would be down there somewhere. Wrong! The Fowey Estuary looked lovely but we had to go back up another hill to get onto a road leading to the coastal path.
After we’d walked for about half an hour, Ann said we had to stop while she took off her anorak and put her gators on. Our walk was becoming increasingly muddy. Well I didn’t care. It was a beautiful sunny day.
However, Ann didn’t really know what she had to do with her gators. She’d got them for Christmas and this was the first time she’d worn them. She didn’t know if the zips went on the inside or the outside?! Though when she put them on, they somehow ended up at the back?! And what a great Christmas pressie they were. About 90% of today’s walk was through mud.
Having said that – the weather today was glorious. First Ann took off her gloves, then she took off her anorak, then she took off her ‘thin with all the warmth walking top’. She ended up just walking in a T-shirt and her winter walking trousers that are lined with fleece. Today was like summer?!
Today’s walk was about 10 miles and it would have been easy had it not been so muddy. Even on hard walks we reckon we can do about 2 miles an hour. There were no really steep up and down bits on this walk but it still took us almost 5 hours to walk 10 miles. Ann says if it hadn’t been so muddy we probably would have completed it in 4 hours. She had a real problem walking though. She was slipping and sliding all over the place.
Anyway I have had such a fab day. I don’t care how muddy I get.
However I did do one naughty thing; we were walking along the coast path and had almost reached Par Beach when I spotted a little track that went down through lots of prickly bushes onto the beach. I could smell that there was a stream down there. So what I did was – I went down the little track and had a good old wallow in the stream. Ann knew that was what I was doing because she could hear me splashing around.
Unfortunately, after I’d splashed around for a couple of mins I decided to wander upstream instead of going back to Ann.
Ann was still on the coastal path and she thought I would come running back to her. I didn’t.
I’ve never, ever run away from Ann before and she didn’t know what she should do. She didn’t know whether she should squeeze herself through all the prickly bushes or whether she should stay on the coast path. She was shouting and shouting me but I wasn’t responding to her. Fortunately a very nice man with a little girl shouted back to her that they’d seen me in the stream. The ‘very nice man’ said he’d go upstream to look for me so Ann stayed on the coastal path.
Just as she got to where the coastal path joined the stream I came zooming back to her. I was a bit wet & soggy but I didn’t know that Ann thought she’d lost me. I could hear her shouting me so I knew she was close by. I didn’t know that she was really, really upset. I’d only been playing for a few minutes.
After that I had to go back on my lead. We had to walk along the dunes by Par Beach, then we had to walk along the road in Par, and then we had to walk along this really ‘creepy’ footpath which ran between the railway line in Par and the docks.
The footpath was scary. There was a man walking in front of us and the footpath was very long. There was no means of escape as there was very high fencing on both sides. Ann whispered to me that we could be murdered on this part of the path and there would be no witnesses. Anyway, the man, (who actually wasn’t a murderer after all), stopped to let us past. He looked about mid 60’s and I think he was just some ‘old person’ out for a walk.
Once we’d emerged from the ‘scary footpath’ we were back on the coastal path which ran alongside the ‘Carlyon Bay Hotel Golf Course’. I still had to stay on my lead because there were signs saying ‘please keep your dog under control’. Apparently if I was off my lead I couldn’t be trusted not to go chasing golf balls?!
When we’d passed the hotel I was allowed ‘off lead’ again as we walked along the coast path into Charlestown.
Today has been such a great walk.
Another 10 miles of the SWCP walked – YAY!
