My last two remaining days in Cornwall while ‘tidying up’ my previous omissions of not walking around the estuaries of the Fal and Helford Rivers. Today was a simple affair which involved driving through the night to Helford Passage, just south of Falmouth. Here I would park just above the Ferry Inn at the local Parish Trust car park at a cost of just £1 for the whole day! Fantastic value given the cost of other car parks in the area.
I had deliberately slowed down on the drive down as my Satnav had given my arrival time a lot earlier than expected and I would have to wait until it got reasonably light to start walking. The sun was due to rise at 07:15 and I set off at 06:45 with hi-vis jacket and head torch on.
Most of today’s walk would along quiet roads, green lanes and a few footpaths. My route would follow a broad sweep around the Helford River and its many creeks and tributaries including Porthavas Creek, Polwheveral Creek, Polpenrith Creek, Mawgan Creek and Frenchman’s Creek. Because my route took a wide track it was difficult to actually see many of these creeks, in the absence of footpaths it would see me walking predominantly on roads which I hoped would be largely devoid of traffic.
One of the worst things about walking in Cornwall is that many of the quiet roads and lanes are sunken and are enclosed by high hedgerows or embankments with no path or verge, thus making any encounter with a car or tractor an experience! Fortunately, the roads I passed along were clear of traffic at this early time on a Saturday morning. Besides being hemmed in by the steep hedgerows, these minor roads rose and fell as I entered each new creek tributary. The bottom of these small valleys were also quite cold, with early Autumnal frosts not far away. Needless to say it was cold walking until the sun finally rose and heated everything up.
By the time I got to the first bridging point at Gweek, the temperature had risen quite sharply. Here I popped into a small convenience store to buy a Cornish pasty, which was not bad. After passing through Gweek, I was now walking on the southern side of the Helford River. I occasionally got a view of the river and its Creeks, but any good views were masked by the trees and high hedgerows.
At Mudgeon Farm I came to my first obstacle of the day; as I left the minor road to take a footpath across fields my heart sank as the intended footpath was in a field of maize 7 to 8 foot tall. Normally, you simply cannot walk through a crop such as this, but I decided to check to see if a path had been trampled by previous walkers, it had! I followed the path through the maize to the next field. At the stile my heart sank again as it was full of young Friesian cattle and they were very curious towards me. I could see that I would have to get through the next two fields with them in tow. However, I could see all the border hedgerows of the filed were very tight and there were no bail-out options. Normally, I don’t mind cattle, but inquisitive cattle can get up a head of steam and plough into the back of each other maybe taking you out. I retreated back through the field of maize in search of another route. Two miles up the road near Tregithew I was about to follow another footpath through a field until I noticed a freshly painted sign of a bull in the field. Normally I ignore these signs as they are rarely taken down and remain forever, even though the bull had since paid a visit to MacDonald’s! However, I saw the bull and stayed on the road.
When I reached the village of Kestle I dropped down to a wooded path which led into the village of Helford. I headed for Helford Point where the ferry across to Helford Passage landed. To summon the ferry I simply opened a board to form a large yellow circle which could be seen across the river. After about 10 minutes the ferry appeared. I caught the ferry with an elderly lady who was crossing over to visit the National Trust gardens at Trebah. All that remained was to walk up the steep hill to the car park.
Distance today = 12 miles
Total distance = 6,321 miles
Walking the Coast of Great Britain 
Well done for completing this, and shame about the overgrown footpaths and feisty cattle. That is one huge bull! The ferry ride is memorable.
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