Day: 103 7/8/93 Lostwithiel to Penpoll

Weather: Good

Distance:  12 km (7.5 miles)    Total Distance: 1320 miles

A short walk today to finish off the holiday.  We packed up the cottage and left by the deadline of 10.00am.  It had been a very pleasant holiday cottage adjoining Mevegissay House. Margaret and Sean dropped me off at the railway station in Lostwithiel.  They then went on to explore Polperro for a couple of hours. 

The first couple of miles walking was gentle, along country lanes and well-walked paths.  Once I was down at the river's edge in St Winnow I asked an elderly lady, just coming out of a small church, the way I should be heading.  She encouraged me to go in and have a look at the 16th century church decorated with wooden fretwork. It was well worth a visit.  She directed me along the riverbank itself as there appeared to be no path marked on the map.  Once the Great Woods began I took to the well marked out path in the wood.  There were some good views over the estuary.  The paths became much busier towards Lerryn.

St Winnow church
(Photo: David Gearing, Geograph)

At Lerryn I crossed the river on steppingstones and stopped at yet another Ship Inn for a pint of 6X sitting in their small beer garden next to the road, soaking up the sun.  The path through the next section of woods on the south side of the inlet was much less well defined.  It came out in the hamlet of Cliff, the sort of place where you get lots of strange looks because they don't expect walkers to come trundling through!  There was a path mapped out to St Veep but not much of it existed on the ground.  I ended up walking over fields and at one stage had to vault a bramble hedge and barbed wire ending up in a bed of nettles, very painful on tender sunburnt skin! The remainder of the walk to Penpoll was along country lanes.

I waited at the hamlet of Penpoll for thirty minutes for Margaret.  She had got very lost in the car trying to find such a small place and arrived feeling very frustrated.  In the meantime I sat on the bridge over the Penpoll Creek looking at the very varied bird life; a swan, ducks, a buzzard and the highlight - a kingfisher.

We stopped in Lostwithiel to get some ointment for my stings, and then in Landybrook Hall for an ice-cream.  That night we broke the journey back to Coventry by staying in a very nice farmhouse B&B not far from Launceston.  Sean enjoyed the animals including watching the cows being milked.