We walked along the cliffs above the long stretches of sand at Whitsands bay
And walked amongst these really cute holiday cabins dotted around the cliffs. This is where the SWCP became a little too much for Curt to bear. Once I had explained to Curt that the SWCP was originally made by the HMS coastguard to patrol the coast for smuggling, he seemed to accept it's nonsensical trip around every headland and it's visit to every cove. But this path across the cliffs went out of the way to visit almost every one of those cute cabins using steep steps up and down, up and down, up and down the cliff face. "You can't tell me they were looking for smugglers in each one of these cabins?" says Curt with yet more expletives.
I ignored him.........
..............You can't tell by this picture below but I found them so very sweet and this one had a matching sweet little car in the driveway. It reminded me of walking through Beaconscott model village as a kid.
We left the little cabins behind and walked out onto Rame head to a medieval chapel with lots of charm
Very windy too
Pondering from the chapel window
As we rounded the corner of Rame head, Plymouth bay came into view with a busy naval vista of large battleships cruising the channel, doing whatever battleships do when not at war. Onto Cawsand for yet another pasty/cup of tea/flapjack and then along a very flat stretch of the path as it wound it's way around the perimeter of Mount Edgcumbe Country Park, through wooded areas, deer parks, idyllic ponds, green rolling hills, historic gardens and eventually a glimpse of Mount Edcumbe House itself, nestled in the hill and looking splendid up this big green, tree lined pathway.
I would have liked to explore this place a little more, perhaps visiting the main house but it was late and we had to catch the ferry over to the city of Plymouth - home to the royal navy and a maritime wonderland of docklands, harbours, yachts and great seafaring pubs.
That's how I remembered Plymouth anyway when I lived here about 26 years ago. I thought Curt and I would find some great accommodation in one of the historic pubs in the barbican. The barbican is old Plymouth with skinny cobble stoned streets and original buildings predating the pilgrim fathers voyage from here to the New world in 1620. Unfortunately it now seemed seedy to me and any of the decent pubs were full.
Herein Curt gets a little upset with me as we traipsed around the city fully laden - exhausted from a long day of ups and downs - trying to find the perfect accommodation, until I eventually rung a default guest house 'Seabreezes', located at the other end of the harbour and decided to trek off there. It was expensive but another couple of SWCP followers had booked it for the night and I knew they had done their research.
Once curt had showered and had a beer in hand, all was good again and our room turned out to be the pent house suite. Way too nice for us and not enough of the evening left to take advantage of it but it was definitely preferable to the scary pubs we had visited earlier. Had a lovely drink down at the Waterfront bar with our two new friends (David and Mary) the fellow walkers and exchanged stories of the path, discussed the weather, ferry crossings, blisters, calories consumed, sausage sandwiches verses veggie breakfasts and agreed whole heatedly about the health benefits of this long distance walking lark.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Beaconscot Model Village is still lovely and well worth a visit, even as an adult. They have added to the village and now have a playground and a mini train ride. Millie and I were regular visitors when she was a few years younger.
ReplyDeleteSharon