Tuesday 8 June 2021 - Rough Tor and Brown Willy

 

On another fine, sunny day, a fair number of us set off up Showery Tor from the car park at Poldue Downs.

We crossed the Grade-II-listed Roughtor Bridge - a fine example of a double-span clapper bridge made of granite - then headed up easy slopes to reach our first summit (see above).

After a long break and much admiration of the granite stacks and Neolithic stone walls at Showery Tor, just four of us went onwards to Brown Willy.

The name 'Brown Willy' is a corruption of the Cornish 'Bronn Wennili', which means "hill of swallows". I'm pictured on the summit with Sue, Gaynor and Gill, thanks to a chap straight out of an extreme sports magazine. He was a 5th Dan who enjoyed 24 hour obstacle races - the winner being the one who could do the most 5 mile laps in the 24 hours.

A swallow flew past, harvesting rich picking from the many insects that were congregating at the summit.

We strolled along the ridge to the furthest cairn, then returned all the way back to a small bridge over the stream that divides Brown Willy from Rough Tor. 

After another gorgeous lunch break in the sun, we headed up to the Rough Tor ridge, passing this little chap who was pretending to look like a pile of sheep poo.

Once on the summit of Rough Tor ("row-tor"), Sue clambered up some rocks and nearly got marooned on the top when she couldn't find the way back down. 

We soon found a war memorial that is situated in the foundations of a medieval chapel built into the side of one of the larger cairns.

A gentle path down saw us reach the car park soon after 2pm, after our four hour jaunt. We had covered a little over 8km, with around 350 metres ascent.

After returning home in the early afternoon,  Sue and I strolled down to a local church of great character, St Julitta's at Lanteglos. 

A long chat with the lady church warden solved many of the world's problems!

If only it was that easy ...

Then we assembled a box of goodies and took them to the Old Ambulance Station (now converted) to share with Andrew, Dave and Betty.

A very enjoyable evening - with thanks to our hosts, whose facilities are more suitable than ours for a small gathering such as this one. 

Port Quin and Port Isaac

What a lovely day for a walk!

Ten of us congregated at the NT car park in Port Quin, from where we set off on this delightful 10 mile stroll.

A high level cross country route proved to be a quick way of reaching Port Isaac, where we found some benches on which to enjoy elevenses and a mandatory helping of Sue's chocolate caramel shortbread (above).

Five of the crowd turned around, and the rest of us continued a little further along the coast path, admiring banks festooned with thrift as we went.

A very leisurely lunch was taken by a point where a side path then took us inland to a road. My planned route then took a hit from an uncooperative farmer who has effectively blocked off the path I wanted to access. So we retraced our steps and found our way past rampant foxgloves to return to the coast path at Port Gaverne.

It was annoying to effectively be barred from using some of the public rights of way around here, but now we could enjoy the splendour of the relatively quiet coast path all the way back to Port Quin.

Steep steps led out of Port Isaac, after which we were rewarded with a fine view back to the town, where a red double decker bus was plying the streets.

The coast path offered fine views and steep undulations, and took much longer than the morning's more direct inland route.

After a while, all but Sue, Gaynor and me opted to avoid the final headland leading to Port Quin. The three of us continued along an excellent path with fine views seawards.

We finally regained the car at around 4:30, having walked about 16km, with a fair amount of ascent, in a little over 6 hours.

Then Sue and I joined 'the gang of 13' at Polmear Barn ('the big house') for a sociable evening involving a bbq, and tasty desserts on the patio.

Around Camelford - A 20km Circuit

Sue and I walked on our own today. We had expected to have to spend time finding a chemist that was open on a Sunday, for a medicine issue, but a doctor's appointment at 1am in Liskeard- 30 miles away - resolved that problem. Good old NHS!

After starting off dull, with some drizzle, the weather cheered up and we finished in sunshine.

We enjoyed luxuriant views to Bodmin Moor in various directions, and of babbling streams and wild flower meadows during the varied walk.

There was hardly anyone about. Just four jolly cyclists on a designated bike route (number 3), and a chap mowing his lawns at Henon - he had time to chat for a while, and to extol the virtues of the nearby picturesque ford.

Quite a bit of our walk was beside the pleasantly burbling River Camel, enhanced by continuous bird song.

Once we were back in Camelford, a pleasing field path saw us home in time for a pot of tea by 4pm.

Here's our route - about 20km with 350 metres ascent. It took us a little under 6 hours.

And here's our home for the week - Bramble Cottage, at Juliots Well. 

Camelford

After thanking Helen and Paul for their hospitality and paying our farewells to them, an hour and a half in the car took us to Camelford, where we weren't allowed into our rented cottage at Juliots Well until 5pm.

So we had coffee at the Four Seasons café then went to seek out Andrew at his 'Friday to Friday' cottage. "Hello Andrew and Lucy" (the dog).

Camelford isn't a 'picture postcard' place, but the path by the River Camel is pleasantly scenic, even in the light drizzle that had descended on us as we travelled west.

We enjoyed a 6 km circuit around Camelford before returning to Andrew's cottage and Betty's excellent lemon drizzle cake, before sorting ourselves out at Bramble Cottage.

Then, a visit to 'Peckish' for fish and chips and a reunion with old friends from the Coast Path days.

Totnes, Coleton Fishacre, and the SWCP

On this lovely sunny day, Helen and Paul joined us on a stroll around Totnes.

Then we visited the Coleton Fishacre National Trust property. Interesting house; superb garden

After lunch on a lawn, we strolled around the South West Coast Path nearly all the way to Dartmouth. Undulating but interesting, with a plethora of wild flowers. 

Room with a View

There's a castle, Dartmouth, and Hay Tor in these views from tonight's bedroom window.

Thanks go to Helen and (lost musketeer) Paul for having us to stay in their house in Totnes. 

On the Run

(not)parkruns continue on a daily basis. Here are a few images taken on these run/jog/walks during the last few sunny days. 

Spring is turning to summer. It doesn't seem like only ten days since we were battling a sleet storm in the Lake District, needing all the clothing we could find, just to stay warm.

Anyway, residents of Timperley should be able to work out where the various pictures were taken. And it's good to see that the mowing and trimming of overgrowth has been selective, resulting in a nice blend of close cropped grass and wildlife meadows.

Going on Holiday!

Here's a memory from 15 July 2006, looking towards the Sella Group from above Passo Gardena.

This year's holidays are more mundane, but at least, for the moment, they are happening.

In fact we will be having lunch with Julia, pictured above, on Thursday, and we will be staying near Andrew, in the background above, and others soon after that.

Meanwhile, there's a bit of traveling and visiting to be done, and mobile postings will now take over, starting on Friday. I hope!

Before I go - I've just noticed that this is blog posting number 4000. Cause for some celebration later. I wonder how many words that is since October 2007? And there's lots more on topwalks.com (currently needing serious attention) from about 2000.

Memories

Just a quick posting tonight as blogging is low priority on a fine summer's day such as this one. I struck at random in my picture files and this one came up. It shows Sue and Andrew on Jenkin Crag in the rain, on 3 July 2004.

You can see my Shogun bike, and the orange bike next to Andrew's is Sue's mountain bike that hasn't been used for years. But she had it serviced last week, so it's ready to roll! Meanwhile, Andrew has recently had a hip replacement, which he's using as an excuse to hanker after an electric bike.

I wonder whether the three of us will do this route again. I described our 'biathlon trip' here. I've just enjoyed reading that again.

Isabella's first visit to Timperley

Before Covid took over our lives, Sarah and Mike were frequent visitors for Sunday dinner. It's well over a year since they were last in our house, and the seed that caused Sarah to mysteriously decline wine on her last visit has now morphed into eight month old Isabella. She was very well behaved, despite an inability to control her bowels or differentiate between a spoon and her fingers.

We really do hope that the current 'getting back to normal' continues, and we look forward to Isabella's next visit.