Saturday 31st May 2003 - Day One, St Austell, Charlestown, Par Next

I took the train to St Austell so that I pick up the path from Charlestown again. At the change in Exeter I got chatting to a girl who was a student coming to the end of her exams which were finishing on the following Wednesday. She was dressed in hawaiian style and I think she had been to an all night party and hadn't slept. Apparently her sister had left her crutches on the train and had phoned ahead because the same train went through Exeter by coincidence. Quite how you can leave your crutches on a train is beyond me, it's the sort of thing you would notice as you tried to walk away.

The day was dry and sunny and although the clouds increased as I got closer to Cornwall there was no danger of rain this time. The walk down from St Austell to Charlestown was straight forward and relatively easy, I had learned the lesson the previous year about getting an easier access point back to the path.

Charlestown has an ancient nautical theme and in the harbour is a 3 masted tall ship and museums. I picked up the path at ten past 2 and started up the hill on a well made stretch. It got a little less well made as it wound through bushes, trees and hedges, never far from the backs of houses until it emerged on to the edge of the Carlyon Bay Golf Club that I had seen from the train earlier. I was feeling a certain trepidation that I often feel when starting the next part of a walk but it soon goes once I get back into it.

Out in Carlyon Bay were several long boats with about 4 rowers and a cox doing what looked like an organised course around 2 points, probably an annual event for the Carlyon Bay rowers or something. At one point there was something like a seal playing near them although it was difficult to tell at the distance.

Shortly after Carlyon Bay there is a massive works complex that processes the china clay that is mined to the north west, and Par Harbour with a couple of large boats that presumably take the processed clay away. Here the path is diverted inland right through the works and is bounded by wire mesh except for the bridge you cross over the roadway. When it finally emerges from the works it comes out next to the road and you then follow the pavement to Par.

I am finding more and more of the south part of the path has urban stretches and I don't enjoy these so much, give me the open grassy hilltops in the sunshine with a warm breeze anytime. Halfway through Par I saw the caravan and tent park I was looking for and headed into it. I was going to be sensible and do only about 5 miles for the first day. Hopefully I have learned my lesson. Even so I was getting a few aches and pains as I hadn't walked for a year.

I stayed at the Par Sands Holiday Park. It seemed busy but well organised and power kites could be seen by the beach including the surfing ones with inflatable ribs, and the pitch was flat so I didn't slide to one end of the tent.

As it was a short day I lazed in the tent and read the novel that I had bought in Exeter earlier, and read and read. I should have bought a couple of books on their 2 for £10 offer. I wrote my diary and planned the next stage of my walk. All being well I would make Polperro Sunday evening, Seaton/Downberry Monday or maybe a campsite beyond Freathy, and Plymouth/home on Tuesday. Seems a bit quick but it's a shorter stretch and the next bit is a mega extension which looks like the best part of a week in itself.

Evening and then night came, and I fell asleep where I was.

Next Page Day two, 1st June 03, Par to Polperro.

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