Friday 11th March

 

So, we drive to Portreath and park in the long-stay car park on the sea front.  Our taxi is from St Agnes Taxis and he arrives on the dot of 11.00, as arranged.  The forecast rain stops too.  We learn that he has lived in St Agnes for thirty years.  He plans to rely on his wood burning stove to beat the forecast rise in energy costs.  It won’t be long before the company has to put up taxi fares, he says.

The walk to Portreath is described as easy in the trail guide.  This is broadly accurate, but there are a couple of very steep up and downs at the start.  On one of these we meet Josh, coming the other way. He is making light of the steep climb in spite of the huge pack he is carrying.  Josh and his dog Basil started off at Poole.  They are planning to walk the entire coast line of the UK, collecting for the air ambulance service, which he says saved his life.  He is Instagramming as ‘sand.sea.basilandme’.

I plan to follow him. He reckons it will take four years.  We ask how Basil is finding it.  ‘Basil really loves it’ Josh replies.  I give him a small donation.

The path is very muddy after all the rain.  There is absolutely no one else about. I begin to realise that the large fresh boot prints next to the little doggy paw marks have been made by Josh and Basil. I reflect that we will be crossing their steps all the way to Poole – if we ever get that far.

We come down into Portreath by 13.30.  It is sunny but windy.  We eat our sandwiches sitting on a bench looking out at the breakers. Then it’s into the café for a coffee before heading back to St Agnes.