Boscastle to Bude

24/5/14 Three weeks since our previous walk, so we decided to risk the showery forecast. It was an early start for the drive to Bude. The A30 was busy as you'd expect for the school holidays, but the A road to Bude wasn't. We arrived in time to find a street parking spot and were at the bus stop for the first bus of the day to Boscastle.

Some sausage rolls later, we were on our first ascent. Pentargon with its waterfall was the first bay.

The shale rock looked even darker in the overcast conditions. It wasn't raining, but the ground was wet. Soon we came across the imaginatively named Gull Rock.

On the descent to Rusey, we came across a new born foal.

At the bottom of hill, we chatted to someone whose other half had gone back to check the health of the new born. The next big hill led to another clever place name, High Cliff.

Quite a tough climb, this one. The hills kept coming and shortly after we came across some of the locals enjoying a rest.

The geology at Cambeak looks interesting, but signage is confusing.

After a lap of the headland, we headed down to Crackington Haven.

The Coombe Barton Inn is the large white building near the front. We had pints of Tribute (4.2%) and Arthur's Ale (4.4%) for £6.40 and a couple games of pool. On leaving the pub, we met the party that were looking at the ponies earlier. "Brutal" was how he described the next section. Walking past the pub on the road, we found path signs again and ascended on past the above photograph point. The ups and downs kept coming.

Above is the slightly unnerving descent towards Stoneivy Rock. The climb out towards Dizzard Point nearly finished me off.

It does get gradually easier from here on, but had there been a bus stop in Millook, I wouldn't have completed this section on that day. At Black Rock, the cafe was just about to close as we dragged ourselves in. A pint of cider and some chocolate later, we decided to press on. It started to rain for the first time and, at last, we were glad that we had carried our coats up those hills. We rounded Compass Point and descended into Bude feeling a lot better than we had an hour before. The lack of coastpath signs in the town made us wonder about the correct route, but I think that is a way for the town get you to wander into their shops etc. We returned to the car. It took me another ten minutes to get in though, as cramp was my body's way of telling me how "brutal" it had been.

Port Gaverne to Boscastle

3/5/14 Free car parks in Camelford, so it was the bus to Port Gaverne from there. It started with a steep climb going away from the coast, which set the tone for the next couple of hours. Here is the descent towards Barrett's Zawn.

It wasn't hot, but jumpers were off now and I was happy not to need the cap. Near Dannonchapel, we could look down towards what might have been part of an old quarry.

After this came the valley at Jacket's Point. The steps down here disappeared over the cliff, but fortunately they are now fenced off. You might be able to make them out from the picture below.

There was only one more valley at Tregardock before the last big descent to Trebarwith Strand.

The Port William is the first building below this picture. I think we deserved our pints of Tribute (4.2%) and Spring Brew (4.4%) for £6.98. It has the feel of an eating house and is a hotel, but was nice. We had our pasties from one of the shops though.

The old slate quarries became more conspicuous between here and Tintagel. The ships used to moor alongside the quarries themselves.

On arrival at Tintagel Castle, there was a sign saying 4.5 miles to Boscastle. This was a little further than I thought, so we tried to speed up in order to get there to catch the bus. I thought we made it just in time, but I guess it was early. So we killed some time with another pint, pasty and leisurely stroll around the harbour, which made a change from rushing through the resorts. Then it was the last bus back to Camelford.