Tag: Padstow

Porthcothan England

May 14, 2024, Padstow to Porthcothan. (Day 2)

What a wonderful spread of fruit, yogurt, cereal, porridge, or warm breakfast! After filling up, we started our 13.5-mile walk to Porthcothan Bay from Padstow with a steep climb. It was a clear, chilly day, and the vistas were spectacular—just what we had come to see.

Leaving Padstow
Padstow WW1 Memorial
Stepper Point

We could see a stone tower on Stepper Point, built in the 1830s as a day marker for navigational purposes. Today, it is known as the Stepper Point Daymark.

We walked through sheep fields, passed many coves and inlets, a few quarries, climbed down steep ravines, and back up the other side.

Today was cold, rainy, and windy (40-45 mph). At times, I turned my back to the wind, planted my hiking poles firmly into the ground, and leaned on them to keep from being blown off the cliffs. It was a bit scary at times, but we managed to arrive safely.

Porthcoton is a coastal village known for its sandy beaches and surfing. It has legends of smuggling where fishermen claimed goods from shipwrecks and sold them to augment their income.

Porthcothan Beach and the clifftop fields nearby were used to film Poldark, especially the shots of Ross riding his horse.

After a tiring walk, we returned to the B&B in Padstow via taxi.

Padstow, England

After breakfast in Exeter, Dennis researched the best way to Padstow, where we were to begin our hike on the South West Coast Path, while I traipsed in the rain to a cash machine to get the local currency.

After deliberating about traveling by bus (cheaper but longer and arriving at 9 PM) or by train (more expensive, same duration but better schedule), we rented an UBER. The cost was the same as the train, but the 90-mile ride only took 1.5 hours, and we did not have to port the backpacks to the station. No brainer! We were in Padstow around 12:30 p.m. to stay in a private B&B on Trevebyn Road for two nights.

HillWalk Tours prepared our hike and booked lodging, a taxi, and luggage transport. They were to leave a package in our room, but they delivered the wrong map and no printout describing the trail. Fortunately, we previously downloaded the 75-page PDF to our phones and are using the Gaia GPS app.

For supper, we headed into town down a very narrow and steep cobbled-stone hill. We had to tread carefully not to step in horse poop. Coming back was difficult, a harbinger of what was to come.

Padstow
Padstow