Important Info

Planned kilometres: 26 (cummulative 98)

Kilometres walked: 23 (cummulative 102)

% Completed: 5.0%

Weather: Overcast, Sunshine

Pubs visited: The Blue Anchor

Pints: 2 (cummulative 7)

Kms per pint: 14.6

Blisters: 0 (cummulative 2)

 

Truro to Fraddon

Another great weather day for walking and as today was a shorter day, I decided to have a late start and so didn’t leave the hotel till after 10am. I didn’t have breakfast at the hotel, so decided while in Cornwall that a Cornish Pasty would make a good brunch and it was a good filling meal to start the day.

 

Today I decided that I would avoid the A roads and take smaller roads and paths, even if that meant doing more km’s. I decided to start the day walking through Idless Woods and to get there had to walk under the main town train viaduct which was very impressive from below. Walking through Idleness village, I discovered another book exchange in an old red phone box. I could have just swapped my book every few days instead on getting kindle.

In the village of St. Erme (where there wasn’t even a pub) there were multiples signs advertising Fish & Chips takeaways on Thursday nights. I decided that it was too early to hang around 5 hours for fish and chips at the community centre, however when I walked past the community centre it had a sign on it saying it as part of a First World War field hospital from 1914. Small villages must have a special takeaway night, as I saw multiple signs in Perranwell yesterday advertising that artisan pizza would be at the community hall on Wednesday night.

 

In St. Erme I saw my first thatched cottage and loved the thatched dog that they had put on the roof, as from a distance I thought it was a real dog.

Below are photos of the types of roads/paths that I am taking or avoiding today.

A Road

Lots of cars/trucks all driving 100+ kms and not much walking space on the side of the road and definitely not very scenic

B Road

Small country roads that are normally only one lane, so when 2 vehicles meet, one has to pull off the road to let the other pass. On these roads I tend to meet quite a lot of tractors. The photo below is of the best B road I have been on as the road had recently been resurfaced, so no cars where allowed on the road, so I had 4 kms walking not having to worry about any vehicles.

Public Footpath/Right of Way

These are paths/tracks that go through farms and the public have the right of way to walk across their fields. The condition of these paths in the fields depends on the farmer and in some areas where the field has been plowed the farmer has left a grass verge to walk along and in others they plow right to the edge and this makes crossing very difficult. Many of these paths are muddy so today my hiking boots and walking poles where critical.

It was during crossing one of the right of ways that I had my first slip and ended up on my butt in the mud. I decided to take a selfie but thought that you wouldn’t want to see a selfie of my mud-covered butt, so took one of me resting in the flowers. I had trouble taking the selfie, so should have probably got some instruction from Olivia the selfie queen before I left. (Please note that 200 flowers were crushed in the taking of this selfie)

Due to my late start, by the time I arrived in Mitchell and the first pub I had seen for the day, it was closing time. Most village pubs I have seen open from 12 to 3pm and then reopen at 6pm. I arrived at Mitchell at a few minutes after 3pm and asked directions from the first person I saw who just happened to be the barman from the Plume of Feathers pub which had just closed. He gave me directions of go down past a specific house (can’t remember the name), go left, cross bridge, turn right and keep going. He walked along with me for 50 feet or so until he got to his named house where I had to turn left and its then I discovered it was his house. Not a bad commute having to walk 50 feet to work.

 

In the village St Enoder, I came across a small church surrounded by a few houses. I decided to have a rest stop here and has a look around the grounds and most of the grave stones where from the early 1800’s. There was no one at the church, but the church door was open.

I arrived in Fraddon and was staying at Premier Inn (cheap hotel chain) and hotel was on side of the A road. The hotel was surrounded by a service station, McDonalds, Starbucks and a large Next department store. I decided not to eat at the hotel restaurant and as I hadn’t been to a pub I found The Blue Anchor for dinner and a couple of pints.