Day 37: Truro to Praze-an-Beeble 17 miles

We get up early in Truro, Cornwall’s county town and its only city. There’s nowhere open early enough for our breakfast, so we buy instant oats, fruit and rolls, as well as our lunch, from Tesco Express and take them back to our room.

We climb up out of Truro on an unclassified road. It’s steep but not too busy on a Sunday morning and it has a pavement. We cross the A390 and head out of town, passing New County Hall on the way. This brutalist building was completed in 1966 and is the site of the county council. The grade II listed Old County Hall was bought by a developer on 2012 and has mostly been converted to residential use.

We head down a hill and under one railway bridge and over another. There are pink and white cyclamen growing in the verge walls, along with wild mushrooms. As we head towards a ford, there is a dew-covered oak apple on the underside of a leaf. The stone footbridge by the ford is damp and slippery. It rained heavily last night, so the rocks, leaves and mud prove greasy and slimy underfoot.

We continue along the unclassified road for some time, until finally taking a good path off to the left, taking us under the railway again. We continue on the path until it leads us to another road and, after a short while, we decide to cut the corner off by taking a very steep path uphill, revealing a fantastic view of yet another viaduct.

There’s another short road segment, then an excellent bridleway towards Coldwind. The surface is white underfoot and I’m reminded of the chalk on the South Downs Way, but this is a glistening quartz. Next we take an intricate route to Bargus, then the path suddenly deteriorates. It gradually becomes all but impassable from brambles, holly and tree branches, all interspersed with stinging nettles. It’s so low that Rich has to crawl through on his hands and knees for some time. When we are finally disgorged onto the road, we both decide to stop for a break, though it’s not the best spot. Unsurprisingly, Richard’s legs are bleeding again.

Once we had recovered, it was a short road section followed by another bridleway that started well but descended into a quagmire, that took us an age to negotiate safely, climbing on banks and holding on to rotten branches for support.

There then followed a somewhat welcome long road section, first to Pelean Cross, then past an industrial estate housing Duchy Defibrillators and Bleed Control Cornwall, as well as a yarg cheese shop (closed on Sundays). We then climb uphill to Trebost, where an excited spaniel abandons its training session to follow us for a while, much to the dismay of its owners. Close to the summit, we pass Pencoose Farm, evidently established in 1276, according to the sign. We reach a T junction where we plan to pick up a footpath, but a local man stops us, saying that the path goes nowhere and we should use a permissive path a bit further up the road. After our recent travails, we take the local advice.

The permissive path is a track belonging to Pencoose Farm and, although it is a slightly longer route, the ease underfoot means it’s probably quicker. We also spend time admiring a wheatear on a gorse bush. The track takes us onto an unclassified road from which we take another track further up onto the plateau and soon decide to stop for lunch.

We will spend the rest of the afternoon on the plateau between 150 and 220 metres. We carry on along the route, pass some horses in a field, unable to identify the way forward. A friendly woman points out a ‘stile’ up over a wall right into the horses’ field. The horses are fascinated by their human guests, especially Richard, who really doesn’t like horses.

As we carry on up, passing the south of Penhalvean, we can see Stithians reservoir. The reservoir, known as Stithians Lake, is the largest inland water in West Cornwall and has an activity centre, campsite and walking trails. The dam that forms the reservoir was opened in 1967, flooding of 274 acres of farmland and submerging three country houses.

We go up an unclassified road and take a track downhill off to the left. This starts well but ultimately leads us to another overgrown footpath. This one looks completely impossible to negotiate though, so we head back up to the road to pick up an alternative track later on.

The alternative route is much better although it does take a slightly different course from expected at one end. It’s clear that this is the most commonly used route, however, and we sensibly bow to local knowledge again. The paths and small roads across the plateau continue to improve as we cross the B3297 to take a track to Carthew. This seems fine until we start to see abandoned vehicles hidden in the undergrowth.

This is often a prelude to a poorly maintained path and so it proves to be. We find another utterly impassable path behind a gate and instead go round into a field. We climb a wall hidden in the undergrowth, cross a stream and negotiate the barbed wire fence on the other side. We walk through some fragrant wild mint the it’s a steep pull to pick up an alternative footpath that leads us onto the B3280. We follow this for a while and again take a bridleway off the road. This one is lovely, with fantastic views of the sea to the north, and we soon reach an unclassified road to Praze-an-Beeble. We pass a llama farm then use one last footpath to cut off a corner before arriving at the St Aubyn Arms, our stop for the night. Here I have a lovely shower which promptly floods the restaurant. It’s been that sort of day.

We have passed the 500 mile mark

Total distance: 501 miles