Constantine Bay to Padstow

23/10/13 A midweek drive to Constantine Bay meant another shorter trip on the A30. The last shower of the day happened as we parked the car, then it was down the road to the coastpath.

After walking across the beach and around Booby Bay, it was off towards Dinas and Trevose Head. Near here is one of the holes that seem to happen around here.

The path then went along a muddy section behind the lifeboat station as it descended to Mother Iveys.

As you can see, the sun was out now. We walked across a section of the beach at Harlyn Bay, then back onto the road at the bridge and just missed out on the pub. Then it was Trevone Bay. The path was not too difficult, but there were some hills such as this one by the Merope Islands.

The path continues towards the daymark known as the Pepper Pot. Once there, we followed a path that was going in the right direction back up the Camel estuary, but wasn't the coastpath. We ended up scrambling under a barbed wire fence and down an embankment back onto the path. This was next to the Doom Bar that we had been drinking about.

It was low tide and you can see the water breaking on it here. The path continues along the estuary, between the dunes and the fields for some distance. Eventually the low tide ferry comes into view, but we continue into Padstow, where the high tide ferry lands.

No pubs on this section, so we visit a couple in Padstow before catching the bus back to the car.

Newquay to Constantine Bay

5/10/13 It was a mild October Saturday for another trip down the A30. We parked on street near the railway station. The lack of coastpath signs continued as we headed past some of Newquay's hotels.

Newquay has a nice coastline, but the lack of clues for walkers made it seem a pretty ugly place. By the time we reached Porth, at least we knew where we were going.

The Mermaid Inn lies right on the beach. Pints of Doom (4%) and Betty Stoggs (4%) for £6.70 were ok for morning pints. It is quite a large pub, which was perhaps why they didn't have the pool table bar open. From here it was round to Watergate Bay, which is a large beach that was quite busy for October. A couple of ups and downs later, we were approaching Mawgan Porth.

The Merrymoor Inn looked like a pub from the outside. Pints of Trelawawny (3.8%) and Sharp's Own (4.4%) for £6.40. There were plenty of beaches and it was still busy as we made our way north.

There were the usual ups and downs, but nothing too strenuous. Approaching Porthcothan, there were also plenty of small islands and unusual holes in the cliffs to go with the fine looking beaches. After another busy beach at Treyarnon, we went around to Constantine Bay. We weren't sure where the path went, but we headed inland to the bus stop. Having some spare time before the next bus, we had pasties and followed another path to the beach to find the coastpath.

We were about ten miles from Newquay. The bus deviated to a few villages on the way and took nearly an hour, but more annoyingly cost us £6 each.