Day: 91 30/5/93 Mawgan to Helford Passage

Weather: Drizzle

Distance: 12.5 km (7.8 miles)    Total Distance:  1203 miles

We travelled down from Coventry on the Saturday but unfortunately had a poor journey.  We got badly held up all the way down, especially near Bristol where a group of travellers were protesting about freedom of movement and had blocked the road.  We took a number of detours off the motorway, the first of which involved going through the outskirts of Bristol and.  During the the second detour we had tea at Glastonbury.  By this stage we knew we were going to be badly delayed so found a phone box and contacted our accommodation in Falmouth to tell then we would be late.

The flat we were staying in turned to be part of a fairly new three story block, constructed in the garden of a hotel on the seafront.  We were relatively pleased with it, the drawback being that it was on the first floor and thus carting a toddler in his pushchair up and down was a bit of a problem.

Margaret dropped me off at Mawgan near the Post Office.  It was a day of light rain and drizzle though I never got too badly wet.  It cleared up later. She took Sean to the Seal Sanctuary but had to wait some time for him to wake up.  It was rather expensive and hilly, but he enjoyed it.

Much of the day’s walk was along minor roads. The first part was a lane and this led to a road in woods down the village of Gweek and a couple of bridges over the rivers.

I stopped at a pub for a drink at lunchtime, the Trengilly Wartha. The Good Beer Guide says it is famous for its food and beers - how about its unusual name - beats the Red Lion any day.  It was a fairly well to do pub, judging by both the decor and the clientele, some of who were assembling to go off to a cricket match and trying to decide if it would be called off or not.

The bit of road after that offered the challenge of the day - a series of ups and downs.  Once across Porthnavis Creek I attempted to cut off down to the coast but the road turned out to be well private and there was no access to anywhere at the end.  I backtracked and as I was still early I called in on an art exhibition that was being held at the turn off for Helford Passage.

I had arranged to meet Margaret at the entrance to Glendurgan gardens but unfortunately it was closed.  When she arrived we thus went back to Falmouth calling in for a cup of tea at a church hall in Mawnan Smith. Sean crawled around on the floor for a while and I signed the visitor’s book.