UK 2023: Part 7

Hello there!

You may remember Olly and I were in Liskeard.

Are you ready for the second part of my Cornwall trilogy?

I have lots more walked miles to tell you about!

POLRUAN (AND LANTIC BAY):

On the opposite bank to Fowey is Polruan. On our previous visit to Fowey, 5 years ago!, we could see the town across the water but never made it there. We did this time.

Not knowing what the parking would be like, we decided to walk to Polruna from Lantic Bay as it would include one of the other places we had on our list.

I think this was to be our most challenging hike of the trip! It doesn’t look that far on the map but the gradient was more than we’d bargained for! I would highly recommend it if you’re up for a challenge!

It’s a long way down and even longer back up again so you really have to want to go!

But…Lantic Bay was a true delight; quiet beach, crystal clear waters (I even had a bit of a paddle making sure to avoid the little jellyfish), and plenty of places to set up camp for the day.

We’d have loved to spend more time there but needed to push on to Polruan. Sadly, we never made it back!

Polruan we found was at the very bottom of another very steep hill. It’s not really built for cars so how the locals get about baffles me!

It had a cute quay and harbour area, which had a very long history of shipbuilding dating back to the 1800s, and thankfully a more recent history of selling rather good fish and chips!

that is one huge cruise ship in the background!

If you’re eagled-eyed, you’ll notice in the photo above that a huge cruise ship is in Fowey Harbour. Even the BBC thought it newsworthy! You can read their article here.

It had a rather quirky side too – someone has a sense of humour..

And it had a surprise up its sleeve! It had its own unique castle perched at the very edge of the village overlooking the sea. Wow!

With legs like jelly, we were glad to get back to the car park, and to find that the car was still there! It was another random car park and the ticket machine was cashless so we’d had to load and navigate a parking app – no small feat when there’s no internet signal!

LOSTWITHIEL:

Also on the River Fowey was Lostwithiel. We drove through it many times on the way to other places so one afternoon we spent a couple of hours taking a wander around this delightful place.

It had a small high street. Everything was closed the day we went but it made for interesting window shopping and parking was much easier!

Some interesting and beautiful old architecture.

And a scenic walk along the river.

TALLAND TO POLPERRO:

If you’ve ever been to Polperro you’ll know it’s a tiny working harbour from before the age of the motor car. Parking is limited so we chose to walk to Polperro, parking instead at Talland, which by the way turned out to be equally tricky for parking.

It was a beautiful summer’s day making Talland the perfect place for a family day out. We finally found a rather dubious parking space which left us wondering how much parking fines might be!

It’s just under 2 miles to Polperro from Talland and a relatively easy walk but there’s limited shade on a hot day.

It was surprisingly quiet and so luckily we found a table for lunch. Our meal was simple and utterly delicious! I would highly recommend stopping by ‘House on the Props’!

PAR:

It took us a while to find Par because you can drive right through and never know it – we did that several times! It’s mostly houses with a only a small shop and post office. However, it’s worth the persevering. Just a short walk from the shop there’s a small pathway leading to lovely marshland, then gently managed woodland, and then finally the beach with the curious thingamajig!

ST AUSTELL

St. Austell turned out to be a bit of a mystery. What were we missing?

For the want of a different word there was an interesting ‘high street’ and a church but where was the rest? Who can share more details about the town of St. Austell?

TORQUAY:

It takes about 90 minutes to get to Torquay from Liskeard.

It’s a large town in the county next to Cornwall, Devon, on the English Riviera Coast. It’s famous for a couple of things – Agatha Christie was born here and it was the setting for the iconic British TV show, ‘Fawlty Towers’, which is the main reason Olly wanted to go. He was very disappointed not to see John Cleese or the fictitious hotel! As far as we could tell no filming actually took place in Torquay! Now that’s funny (just not for Olly)!

It has a huge, beautiful marina and a long narrow beach. The sea looked rather inviting the day we were there but sadly we hadn’t packed for swimming!

I mentioned it takes 90 minutes to get to Torquay – getting back takes longer when there are rail strikes!

TINTAGEL:

Being thrifty travelers we rarely pay to visit places especially when there are such amazing coastal walks. However, we decided Tintagel was different and was worth seeing.

Hmmm, I think we were wrong! The town seemed very touristy with coach tours arriving by the minute.

But we figured we were here for the star attraction – Tintagel Castle. There was a flourishing community here in the 5th to 7th centuries, but it’s the legend of King Arthur’s connection to the place that has tourists flocking.

It’s quite a place packed with a sense of history but the site is much smaller than I expected and being perched on the cliff edge is not easy to get to. If you’re not steady on your feet then maybe this isn’t the place for you. Also, make sure you include a toilet stop early on because there isn’t one on site (as I found out)!