After a full Australian breakfast with our host Noel (complete with an impromptu rendition of Waltzing Matilda... by Russ and I) at Trevemedar Cottage in Porthcothan we set off around 9:30. Light wind, sun and clouds -- shorts hiking weather. The coast this day consisted of shallow inlets around which the path wove, so there was relatively little up and down and we advanced quickly. Too quickly: we were at Mawgan Porth where I'd expected we would have lunch by about 11:15, and that was too early for hunger. So we stopped for tea and pushed on at noon, arriving in Newquay a couple of hours later.
Before I do the obligatory "Newquay puts the Key in Tacky" (well, phonetically at least) routine, I should note that the coast is really very beautiful around here. One golden sandy beach after another, backed by steep rocky cliffs and with free-standing isolated rocks that are islands at high tide scattered photogenically. Look up Bedruthan Steps for pictures of how it looks. Quite understandable that this was one of the Victorians' favorite places to visit in the Southwest.
But what is it with Anglo-Saxons that they build and, judging by the crowds, so obviously enjoy such classless places as Newquay? Think the New Jersey shore, or old Las Vegas, or any other game arcade studded, cheap souvenir shop strewn, fast-food littered tourist trap area of which there are so depressingly many examples. "Anglo-Saxons" because I can't, right now, think of comparable places in France and Germany, although I'm not quite ready to declare them totally free of similar eyesores -- it might just be that I haven't gone where they are. At any rate, we were pleased to get to our hotel on Pentire Head, in a quiet section of town on the far side of Newquay by mid-afternoon.
After taking care of a little administrative business and watching Federer dismantle Monfils, we walked over to the excellent Lewinnick Lodge on Pentire Head for dinner -- great food, friendly service, wonderful position and views -- one of surprisingly many excellent dining experiences along this hike. England has certainly come a long, long (long, long...) way gastronomically.
Someone wrote to me commenting how this hike seems much less painful (weather aside) than the H2H... and indeed it is. Shorter hikes on average than on the H2H, with much less up and down, and lighter packs due to the availability of a luggage transfer service, make for a much less strenuous experience (although still quite tiring enough for most of us!). And that is as it should be: this hike was intended to be a walking holiday, whereas the H2H was an expedition. Different beasts, different challenges.
Last note and then I'm going back to sleep (it is the middle of the night, and I couldn't sleep because my room was too hot, because I was too stupid to work out how to open the windows, and hoped the room would cool off but it didn't, so eventually I got the night receptionist and he opened them, so now I'm waiting for the room to cool and it is almost there...). And that's a wrap. :-)
