Two river ferries and lots of Cornish coast

Tuesday 26th September
The fog this morning was quite considerable, with hardly any boats visible on the water. We were awake early and listened to a pair of owls hooting to each other in the murk.  The clay train that we saw yesterday could only just be made out. From about 8 o’clock, the fog started to clear, and eventually, it was a bright and sunny day, which was how it stayed until later in the afternoon.
With lunch in our bags, we drove down to Fowey and parked the car, walked in to buy pasties for tea and some bread for tomorrow. We dropped these off at the car and took the car ferry across to Bodinnick. The road goes straight up a very steep hill immediately and the Hall Walk goes off to the right, a few hundred yards from the quay. To start with, it is pretty level, with frequent view points across the river to Fowey. At one of them, there was a memorial, where it looked as if someone had scattered some ashes.
It was a lovely walk, easy underfoot, wooded, with beautiful views all the way round Pont Pill, the name of the inlet. Eventually, the path dropped down to river level and we crossed over.  By now we were on a road, and heading towards Polruan. After a while, we left the road to climb steadily and straight up through woods to the Church of St Willow where we sat on two of hundreds of gravestones to have our lunch. Out onto another lane, which went down, round, up and over the headland among fields and farmland, towards the coast on the other side. Here were dramatic views of Lantric Bay, where there was a steep set of steps that we chose not go to down. Now, we were on the South West coastal path, which behaved just like coastal paths everywhere – lots of up and down. It was very strenuous, but we were heading back by then, towards Polruan. The last bit of it was hard work, as we walked round the last bit of the headland until we were looking down onto Fowey harbour. We sat and watched boats coming and going, including the pilot boat going out to bring in a large ship, which we presumed was coming to collect china clay.
Down on the quayside, we decided to go straight back to Fowey and look for tea, but by the time we got there, on the crowded little passenger ferry, we didn’t feel like hanging around. Instead, we bought ice creams, sat by the car ferry quay while we ate them, then drove home.
By the time we arrived, we were worn out and both fell asleep. Eventually, I pulled myself together and made dinner. After that, I fell asleep again and took myself off to bed soon after 9.

14,941 steps    Cornish pasties

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