Day 14
Bodmin to St Ives
Planned mileage: 50 miles
Actual mileage: 53 miles (couple of minor wrong turns and re-routing)
Cycling time: 4 hrs exactly!
Average speed: 13.2 mph
Maximum speed: 32.8mph
Accomodation: Chy-An-Albany Hotel, St Ives - http://www.chyanalbanyhotel.com/st-ives-cornwall-hotel/luxury-hotel.php
When The Famous Five visited Cornwall they always stayed at a farmhouse that gave them milk direct from the cow, home-churned butter and (no doubt) home made fruit compote, yoghurt, jam & marmalade. Well, we were definitely in Famous Five country as we had all of the above. Fortunately however we didn't have any mysteries to solve.
We packed up, sorted our bikes and waved farewell to Stephen Gelly Farmhouse a bit after 10. Our route to St Ives took us along some amazingly narrow, moss-and-grass covered roads which were almost entirely car-free but not hill-free – though nothing like Wednesday's hills, thankfully!
We twisted and turned our way south-west, took a couple of minor wrong turns and adapted our route accordingly (e.g. – we missed Black Cross but instead went through White Cross). By and by we reached a railway bridge over the tiny Lappa Valley narrow gauge railway, and no sooner had decided to carry on when we heard the toot of a distant train, so stayed on until it arrived. We were rewarded by TWO little steam trains passing under the bridge some minutes later, and were delighted when the driver of one of them waved to us. How easily pleased we are!
The day had started cloudy but by this point the sun was starting to shine, and by the time we reached the coast at Perranporth it had turned into a properly hot sunny day. A mere 25 miles from our farmhouse at Bodmin, and the contrast could hardly be more extreme. Instead of a quiet, old-fashioned family house set in the middle of pastoral farmland, we now found ourselves in a thriving seaside village, packed with tourists, and with a beach so thronged you could barely see any sand.
We had been in Cornwall for about 4 days and hadn't had a pasty in that time, so Jenny bought two from a local baker, plus a couple of cakes, and we found a really nice public garden just off the main road where we ate them (they were, incidentally, very good and... extremely hot – ouch!) sitting on a nice bench in the lovely sunshine.
After lunch, we climbed up a long and fairly steep slope only to discover that we were on the wrong road, however worked out an alternative and very attractive route that avoided retracing our steps.
We paused in the pretty town of St Agnes (after getting confused by its one-way system) then carried on along the coast to Porthreath. We didn't stop in this former fishing/whaling/tin mining port, but pushed on up the hill on the other side of it. This was quite an ascent, and near the top we paused to take a photograph of the view down. There was an elderly couple sitting on a bench, who started chatting with us, and we had a very pleasant few minutes telling them our tale and hearing about themselves and the local area (it's changed greatly in the last 50 years – no more industry, lots more tourists and holiday houses). This just reinforced what we've found about the south-west – the majority of people we've encountered have been exceedingly friendly and genuinely interested in our little tour.
By this time we were going along a plain about 50 or 60 metres above the sea, and enjoyed great views down the coastline and even better, without too many hills. We were entertained by some aerial acrobatics from model aircraft practising for a model aircraft show being held over the weekend – there were two military-style planes screaming past at great speed right over us.
At Hell's Mouth (a bay in the cliffs which is actually very un-Hell like) we stopped for Cornish ice cream and ate this sitting atop the cliffs – all National trust land around here, with views down towards St Ives.
The last few miles were quite hilly and much busier, going through the rather depressed-looking town of Hayle then on up into St Ives. As this is our penultimate night we were splashing out and are staying in a grand (ish) hotel, the Chy An Albany, which was dead easy to find as it was just off the main road, with great views along the coast we'd just cycled along.
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| St Ives |
The necessary tea & biscuits over (we also ate our emergency flapjacks!) we got ourselves cleaned up, then went for a wander round St Ives – a very busy and prosperous-feeling seaside town, with clear Atlantic water and lovely golden beaches. The place was crammed with tourists and all the restaurants we saw looked very busy, so were glad we had booked a table for dinner in our hotel.
Dinner now over, and we're sitting in the comfortable sun lounge (no sun, it's 10:45) and we had an excellent meal.
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