I suppose I would of slept well if I had not been woken by a dog sniffing outside the tent at 3.30am , then someone saying "Leave Grenard!" . It was full moon, and I could see in the green glow of the tent , Josh whispered what's that?I indicated for him to stay quiet. It was a little disconcerning as it was hardly the time for a morning dog walk.We lay still.Silence except waves on the shore. Then an on going growling sound as is the dog had got something....maybe my boots ?! Maybe that other walker! After a few mins the sound ,eerie sound ,stopped and I could hear who ever it was move off. I lay there then popped my head out of the tent but could see no one , the moon was bright though.It took abit of time for us to doze off.
I awoke an hour later to another growling , slobbering sound of a dog , it was about 4.30.A rather clipped voice said " Give it a shake boy!" , I pictured a tweed and Hunter welly chap , then realised they were rabbiting. It was still disconcerting though and I dozed until 6 then put the radio on.
There was a few light showers on the tent , nothing major , it was still and the tent outer was soaked with condensation on its inner , if that makes sense. It had been a clear night and was fairly chilly , but the bags kept us warm enough.
We had hardly any breaky stuff or fuel , but I felt I just wanted to get going , especially after last night. I woke J at 6.45 , and we got going without any breaky or tea in anticipation of getting something on route. Handling the wet tent and its poles chilled the hands but otherwise we were fairly snug in our winter wear.We packed up with head torches on and was away at 7.30.
It was about a mile to Flushing and the ferry which if we had been doing this in season would of taken us across to Dennis Head, also the tide was to high to take the stepping stones which apparently are there at low tide. It now meant a two mile hike around the other side. We licked small jam portions as we walked feeling at least we had them.
To make the day extra fun we also had a ferry from Helford to Helford Passage that was not running at this time of year , that meant a 7 mile hike to Gweek . From there we had hoped to replace the ferry with a bus to Helford Passage. I had looked briefly on line using the mobile to sus out the bus time tables. This was my first mistake . I had read that the bus would be at 11.32am from Gweek which meant we would have to get a move on, the next bus after that was 2pm!
It would be mainly road walking so we did not hang around and strode out. We both were in good humour.In Manaccan we stopped briefly to get food/breaky. This consisted of chocolate , digestive bics, crisps and a large bottle of cheap traditional lemonade full sugar. We looked longingly at other items but these small village shops really eat into our budget, and own brand cheapist is our choice for eating in bulk.
it was only about 8.40 .
The time walking was spent chatting ; Josh has a thing about Pirates and at any opportunity breaks into Cornish Pirate mode. When I messingly supped from the 2 litre lemonade bottle, with lemonade spilling down my beard he said ,in his 'Jim Lad' accent, that it was so cheap you can drink it like a drunken pirate. I could not stop laughing spilling more.
We shed layers as we warmed up , stopped to get rid of rubbish as we passed bins, and to take the odd photo. We arrive in Gweek about 11, as we walked down the road to the bus stop a bus passed us . I joked that was our bus. As it happened it was, I had read the Sunday timetable. The next bus was at 1 , which was agood thing. I toyed with the idea of walking the additional 7 miles to Helford Passage , but on discussing with J it was decided to wait and feast from the local Premier shop.
We sat in the bus stop , I made a visit to the boat yard nearby and washed the cooking stuff in the nearby river. I was getting chilled waiting and sitting. Just before 2 I stood in the shelter waiting, pack and J ready. A bus cme along and I stopped it , I did not see the number, but guessed it was ours. I jumped on as the bus driver appeared in a hurry and stopped short. I stupidly said Helston passage , and he said he was going straight to Falmouth. I thought he meant direct so got off. I looked at my watch it was gone 2 . It was our bus and I had let it go , I was stood on it , we had waited almost two hours for it. I was livid with myself , gutted that we had wasted the time getting chilled. Right Josh we are walking , we can do this.
As it happened the anger in myself fueled my determination , and I walked at a constant speed, poor J in tow.We used the Viewranger GPS phone app to navigate the ordnance survey map on the phone , a great piece of kit .... if you get a chance to use this app and do alot of walking you will not regret it.Anyway we weaved our way to Helford Passage via Polwheveral and its 'probably best pub in the world '.Sadly we did not stop for a pint to find out!Porth Navas felt inland but the sight of yachts said otherwise. We got to Helford Passage, a few folk sat around as if waiting for a ferry , I did not ask and said to J to keep going as I did not want to find out that the ferry was running.
The path now was amazingly good, fairly dry to what we had been walking on, in my cinical mind I said it was because this was an estate and therefore had preferential treatment.There was one bad bit just before Toll Point, a stream was in flood and drowned the path. At Rosemullion Head I could see where we had pitched last night just over 1.5 miles away across the Helford River mouth, yep the thing we had walked 16 plus miles around.
The going was good until reaching Bream Cove then the path disappeared and we found ourselves in brambles and barb wire, we could not find the rioute so took a dog leg inland to a road that took us to Maenporth. We phoned the Falmouth Backpackers Hostel to ensure all this effort was not in vain and there was a place for us . Yep no prob. I said we would be there for 6pm, which would mean walking the last three miles in fading and dark. We put our head torches on and walked a thankfully good path to Pennance Point , the sea was so calm and various ships stood off shore reflecting there lights into the dark sea, then onto Swanpool Point and finally into bright street lit Falmouth.
We found the hostel thanks to the mobile phone street map. It was so good to arrive, we had worked hard to get here , over twenty miles walked and my feet groaned mercy. We paid the £38 for two dorm beds , which was empty except for us so it was like a double room. We shed our smell stuff , spread ourselves out drying things, plus hand washing clothes, and ourselves in the shower. We wondered into the nearby high street, I think the xmas lights had been put on because crowds of folk mingled about. We feasted on a SUBWAY and bought a litre of ice cream each...yum!
We returned and for once I was able to use a desktop computer to do this BLOG, so much easier than a small mobile phone key board. Pleased with our determination and progress. I have the tent to repair tomorrow so I do not know the time we will get out of Falmouth. The time now is 11.20 and I will relax and watch abit of TV.
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