Day 9 - Sunday 28 July

About 26 miles (felt like 50!) from Trevaunance Cove to Porthcothan (north of Newquay)

Things didn't go quite according to plan today, I guess it had to happen sooner or later.  I got to Perranporth in good time and thought I was going to go across the sandhills but part way along the path takes you down on to the beach and a long trudge along the sand.  I saw lots of dead jelly fish at the high tide line.

After yesterday I wasn't that keen on sandhills, I now really don't like them!  At Holywell Bay I had to cross the sand dunes but could not find any coastal footpath signs so I found my own route. It involved getting sand in my trainers, some big hills and going through lots of undergrowth so my trainers got wet too.  I had also seen signs about adders in the sand dunes which made me nervous.

At Crantock I planned to take the boat ferry across the Gannell river, the only problem was that I missed the place that the ferry goes from and walked over a mile down the river before I realised.  I had no alternative but to turn round and go back (or a 5 mile trudge around the river).  Annoyingly the path that I had come down (and had to go back up) was overgrown and wet so my trainers got very wet.  One good thing was that the boat driver donated the £1.20 fare to the charity.

The ferry took me into Newquay which was then a very long trudge, it seemed to never end.  I eventually escaped from Newquay and at Watergate Bay I met up with Alan and our friends Julie and Alan.  Julie kept me company on the last 7 miles to Porthcothan.  We had a good catch up whilst walking.

In spite of all the negatives the paths were in the main good cliff top walking today peppered with a few hills.

We arrived at our B&B in Wadebridge only to find that we were not booked in until tomorrow (partly my fault partly their fault).  We ended up at a B&B in Padstow (the mother of the lady in Wadebridge).  As it is carnival week in Padstow it was difficult to find somewhere to eat, but we did eat eventually.

An eventful day - hopefully tomorrow will be more straightforward.  I am being joined by Richard from work for 2 days, we plan to reach Port Isaac tomorrow.

No time to upload photos, will try to do so tomorrow.