The Adventure Unfolds!    

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Staying at Falmouth with my Aunty Ber and my mum (the sisters) joining us was a wonderful break and time to visit the hidden village of Helford Passage for scrumptious lunch on the very warm to hot terrace of the Ferry Boat Inn.

For Eddie in Milsons Passage, we spent time touring around and driving through places like Mawnan Smith on our way to Helford Passage around Pendennis Point and Swanpool Beach.

Then into Falmouth including the docks (massive cargo ship in dry dock).

An amazing day with brilliant blue skies and we're expecting this to last for the rest of my ride, ie, for the weekend. Set off at 8.00am with bike in excellent shape again after Ernie next door fixed the mudguard. A huge cooked breakfast thanks to my Aunty Ber and a downhill run to the ferry, what more could I ask!

The plan is to take the ferry from Falmouth across to St Mawes, leaving 8.30am and arriving 9.00am. A fairly busy run but relatively quiet for this first trip of the day (four of us and bike).

I carry the bike down the slightly slippery granite steps (seaweed growing strongly on lower steps) and settle happily for departure (on time) with mum and Ber waving goodbye. Costs eight pounds, 4.50 for me and 3.50 for my bike. As we pull into St Mawes 30 minutes later we pass my next ferry pulling up from the mooring to glide into the harbour alongside us.

There's quite a big queue for the Place ferry which is very small in size .. So I ask the ferryman if we put the bike on first or last .. First is his answer and on seeing my boxing kangaroo has a real go about "that dreadful thing… need to be careful it doesn't get damaged", I add that I have the Cornish flag too .. His retort "at least it's on top" (of the Oz flag).

This is all in good jest.. He's great fun and carries the bike on board for me. He asks the queue of people if they really want to go to Place (roughly St Anthony on the map, or Place Manor, tucked inside St Anthony Head). Oh, no.. all but two people leave .. With my ferryman mumbling about "typical, they see a boat and just expect it to be going to Falmouth, they even queue up to get on fishing boats". My two fellow passengers are keen to get back to Place to see the seal and her newborn cub who was there yesterday.

Only fifteen minutes to our drop-off point .. As we approach shore I see nothing but rocks, shale beach, shoreline bushes .. I realise we are going to be dropped on the 'beach' but not a beach a rocky clearing on shore.

 

My hero ferryman kindly takes my bike off the ferry and onto shore.

He won't charge me the fare (seven pounds) as it's for the NCI (so we will donate that for him). And my walker colleagues also give me five pounds for the charities, that's twelve pounds for that trip! I say goodbye to my fellow travelers, prepare my pannier bags and backpack, and finally haul the bike up the steps to the track.

The walkers have disappeared by now and all I can see is a muddy track to left and kissing gate to right. I'm sure someone would have said something like "how are you going to get the bike through the kissing gate?" or "do you need a hand to get the bike through the gate?" .. So I assume my direction must be to the left along the muddy track. Set off and after almost ten minutes of worsening conditions I realise I was wrong.

Back along the winding, narrow slippery path to my starting point and the kissing gate. A good thing I also did weight training for my trip .. As I once again remove pannier bags and then lift the bike over the gate .. Put it all back together and gingerly cycle along the narrow muddy track hoping I'm now heading in the right direction. Hooray, yes, but another kissing gate to negotiate before I'm on the road. The slipway and pier beside the stunning building, Place Manor, is where we normally would disembark in reasonable tides, but today it was low tide!

Now I'm on my way, panic over .. I wondered if I'd ever find my way out of those woody tracks, not a soul there. But I face a very steep climb, so not much cycling yet, just pushing. I can now pick up the directions given me by Peter Clements (Station Manager at NCI Portscatho) a few days ago and head through Gerrans, a beautifully kept village with ancient buildings and their own cricket club .. I need to find out more about this town.

 

I can see NCI Pednvadan Point (or Portscatho as it's known), so close, but I can't see how to reach it

I have to call on my mobile phone which was showing no signal but enough to exasperate Bob Carter and John Morgan who are at the lookout trying to home me in. I finally get it, I have to keep pushing on past the point and come back to it - in a car no problem, but with a bike it's not something one is keen to do, ie, travel twice the distance because there's no direct route!

This Lookout reminds me of a bird watching hut, no offence intended of course - and I've just read in fact that it was, at on stage of it's 100 years of life. It's extremely cosy. There are three stools though and I gratefully accept mine and sit in the doorway (too small to close the door and all be in the room, perhaps a slight exaggeration). No electricity (but a small solar panel), no water, obviously no loo .. No radar. However the same care goes into watching their coastline and in fact they were just logging the course of a huge freighter whose engines had failed and was being towed by another freighter (very unusual as they both told me) into St Austell Bay. And like all the other NCI lookouts they log and care for walkers and record wildlife and just as we discuss that, instinctively Bob says, "oyster catchers", as they fly past.

There are 15 qualified volunteers here and another four in final stages of training (going solo) this week. Along with needing more volunteers they need additional funds - although many walkers call in and donate that only raises around 10 pounds per month (so our bit will help). If there was one thing they'd like to do with fresh funds it would be to install and automatic identification system (AIS).

Time to go .. I leave Bob and John discussing the finer points of the forthcoming examination for Additional Declared Facility Status (ADFS) and which volunteers need their final coaching to qualify for watchkeeper status.

I'm now heading for Charlestown via inland roads so that I don't have the bad experience of Day 6 (Wednesday) with so many main roads between Penzance, The Lizard and Falmouth. But this route is very hilly .. Can't have everything I guess.. It is beautiful with narrow windy roads and many creeks and pathway walks. I arrive in Pentewan aiming to head along the promised Pentewan Valley Cycle track, from one of Ernie's maps. But the cycle hire shop is closed and I can't any sensible sign to help me know which direction to set off so I walk a little further into the village and find Len, doing some repair work to his stone hedge.. Well I find out this is Len, and his wife is Iris, Warne. When I ask if the cycle track goes through to Charlestown he first wants to know if I'm the lady in the newspaper, he recognises my boxing kangaroo flag. Yes… so he calls Iris to come out and we chat about my trip and of course he hurries off to get five pounds for me. So we've done really well today. But back to direction, no you wouldn't get to Charlestown that way, he points in quite a different direction for Charlestown to the cycle map .. That's because it's a circular route heading off for perhaps four or five miles. The way to go is up .. And over, only a few miles, by road. They both give very clear instructions about what I will see (past the golf club, the hospice, second junction, the first is just a farm one, take the right turn). Off I set full of optimism .. The hill is one of those that has two arrows which denotes extremely steep and I climb on and on. Yes, as Len said, it's a great view from the top. Good news, the instructions were excellent and once on top it didn't take long and I was in Charlestown right outside my accommodating for the night at the Rashleigh Arms who promise they have telephone socket in my room so I can connect to the internet

As I prepare to send this to my dear husband Stewart, webmaster, I find that the photos I took at NCI Portscatho of Bob and John and the lookout are in an odd format (I must have pressed the 'fine' button or similar). They're each around 7MB in size (normally less than 1MB) and are in .NEF format. If anyone has any suggestions on how read these I would be extremely grateful as I feel really sad and must apologise to all at NCI Portscatho. Please email me at lesley@maclennan.com.au if you have any suggestions.

 

I don't have to be at NCI Charlestown until 10.00am, a slow start for me but can't rest, so check out of the hotel around 8.00am.

I go to collect the bike which is stored at the back of the hotel, up some steps (as always for me) on a roof, chained to metal railings, panniers in my room of course. I am rather shocked to find the rear tyre is totally flat. Only yesterday I was thinking of the things I'd prepared for, a flat tyre, that didn't eventuate. But here we are, it's arrived! A bit of thinking .. I ask the bright and friendly lady on breakfast duty if she knows of a bike shop around .. "there's one at Bugle" (only about four miles away or so), but I need a place to repair my tyre that is within bike pushing distance. "Ah, just had to think, she says, up the hill to the roundabout and there's Steve's". Phew .. Hopefully they're open.

I put on my pannier bags get ready for the big climb out of Charlestown, passing Church Road which I know is where I head later for the Lookout, and after fifteen minutes of heavy uphill pushing I see the magical Steve Andrews Tyres and pull in like the rest of the vehicles. And I'm treated just the same too, absolutely delightful service, greeting me to assess my problem and then logging the job onto the computer and asking me to help myself to a coffee.

A little while later Steve? pops by with two fluffy wobbly blue blobs, a little advertising banner for Steve Andrews Tyres. "Don't put them in the washing machine, they spread" says Steve a bit of fun intended. They're all happy and very efficient here. But I'm a little anxious about my bike and take a look outside and it's disappeared .. My heart jumps a bit, it wasn't locked up. I look into the workshop and see it there with back wheel missing .. Thankfully, they're working on it. Luckily.. Or as planned with Nige at Bridge Bike Hire ..

We have the spare inner tube and before I know it the bike's back in one piece and Matt asks me to check tyre pressure, a few more pumps and I'm away. Seeing my camera in hand Dave nudges Matt about having his photo taken (as he was the main man) and I have them both in the shot… thanks a million.

I ask the 'office' (forgot to ask their names, they're all so friendly here) how much .. As it's for charity, and we're committed to supporting charities, no charge, is the answer. I ask how much it would normally have cost… around five pounds, so there's another five pounds in the kitty - Lesley and Stewart will do that on behalf of Steve Andrews and team.

For me it was such a relief to have quick and friendly unquestioning help to get back on the road. Relieved I make it to NCI Charlestown Lookout slightly ahead of schedule to find Gerry Stockwell (Station Manager) waiting for me on the end of the path to the Lookout. "Why did you come that way?", he asks (after his first greeting) I look blankly and we realise I must have missed the earlier turning which would have saved me a significant bit of pedaling!

We take the one minute walk down the lane to the Lookout and meet Penny Ford on watch. It's quiet this morning largely because of season (getting into Autumn) but also because of the low tide which means fishing boats (or any boat) can't get in or out of Charlestown or Parr harbours. In the summer this area is extremely busy on the water with kayakers from the Outbound Centre across the bay, sailors from the Porthpean sailing club tucked away around the headland as well as walkers potentially being cut of with the rising and falling tides and fisherman loving the rock fishing around here. The style of lookout is similar to most, smaller than many but with an upper deck for the lookout and lower deck for kitchen or galley and, yes, compost loo (and I check who 'managed' this and again it was the Station Manager, like John Davis over at Boscastle). NCI Charlestown uses wind and solar power generation and can run their VHF, radar and Davis weather station from this with no problems. They have enough volunteers to rotate watches of 3 x 4 hours in summer and 2 x 4 hours in winter but as with all stations, new volunteers are needed and very welcome all the time.

Gerry chat's about the origins of this lookout from an auxiliary coastguard station back in the 1930s to total abandonment and vandalism, completely 'buried' in the bush (largely thriving gorse and bramble) when volunteers lead by Captain Peter Waters and supported by Gerry and others took on the huge task of rebuilding it in 2002/3 (official reopening was October 2003). There was nothing but a vandalised shell so with donations from the community around here (who continue to be extremely generous with support for the Lookout), like the kitchen cupboards, a backhoe driven all the way from Liskeard and nothing charged for it, the relatively new aluminium steps, and the hard labour of volunteers in particular Peter and Gerry (carpenters and painters when needed). It is now in extremely good shape.

 

 

However, next on the list of needs is to replace the windows and improve the access path from the main road, quite costly but hopefully with the help of some of the funding raised here and local support all will be achieved soon. Gerry was just off to get his hedge cutter to make a start as I take my leave.

Ernie, my map maker, joined me at Charlestown and after checking I seemed to have a reasonably good grasp of where I was going next, we parted again and will catch up in Wadebridge for a complete debrief and check mileage for history's sake.

Ernie sent me an email this morning, before I left the Rashleigh, saying that probably it would have been better to have taken the road and not the ferries from Falmouth yesterday .. But then I would have missed a great adventure!

I have a very easy cycle into Fowey which is a fabulous town dear to my heart. For some reason I remember with love my time in this area, Lanteglos by Fowey, which I left when five years old! So why I always have a hankering for this area I don't really know .. I remember so much about it.

I have one small step to take until my final day, across on the foot ferry from Fowey to Polruan and there I stay the night with Ray and Liz Rigg before my visit to NCI Polruan in the morning followed by Rame Head in the afternoon. I'll update my final ferry trip tomorrow ..

They say they take bikes, and the tide seems fine, I'm sure I'll be OK!

Evening of Day 9
I finished my diary for Day 9 in Fowey and about to board the ferry to Polruan for my overnight with Liz and Ray Rigg from NCI Polruan. Before leaving I walked around the harbour town and couldn't miss the huge hullabaloo coming from the Royal British Legion and Working Men's Institute (the bold brown brick building) .. I asked a red and white t-shirt clad chap, standing in the crowded room at the doorway, what's the score? "Australia 10 and England 8 but a long way to go." Half an hour later I heard a huge roar, loader than any of the other moans and cheers, and yes, Australia went down 10/12. My email messages confirmed this later that evening, Steven from NCI Penzance was very happy to tell me the result with a "Yippeeeee Dippy Dooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I made it safely across the river by ferry, only 7 1/2 minutes, and a few strides later I was at the Crumpet Tea Shop run by Liz and a few steps further, up the hill, inside Ray and Liz's beautiful Cornish cottage-style house, my home for the night. There's a rooftop deck perfect for watching the sunset and Fowey and Polruan boats running forward and back but tonight is a busy one with Ian, Pam, Jean and Marjorie to dinner. Liz and Ray seem to like to keep themselves very busy, having just said goodbye to relatives from Australia, then Holland .. And now another Ozz (me). I have a wonderful evening as you can imagine with Liz being a superb cook and Ray who made sure we were all very well fed and 'watered'.