Day 34. Crafthole to Plymouth

At breakfast in the hotel we met the gang of four again.
It was grey, damp and misty as we set off through long grass and our feet were soon drenched.

When we got to the military range it was unclear whether or not we could walk through so we decided not to.
Second mistake in two days.
We were directed back alongside the busy main road again.
There was a path, at times, squeezed between the traffic and the wire fence of the military base, but it was overgrown and hard work.

The signage at the other end of the range was much clearer and showed that we could have walked through and saved three miles of dismal road walking.

But the road walking continued through Freathy and Whitsand Bay.
There was a great beach far below us but no sign of an easy access down to it or a walk along it.
So we stuck to the road through these two strange communities that have no centre or nucleus. There's just hundreds of cabins strewn along the cliffs and some of them have been abandoned due to the eroding cliffs.
This area is sometimes referred to as the forgotten corner of Cornwall.
The walking certainly wasn't memorable.
Some precise information or a bit of local knowledge might have put a different perspective on it.

Looking towards Rame Head

Just when it seemed that there would be no end to the road walking there was a sign sending us away from the road into the nature reserve and towards Rame Head.

Share Crabs have a very camp appearance

We celebrated finally getting off the road by sitting on the bench opposite this information board and wringing out our sodden socks.

Rame Head had been a destination marker for days and although it was close it still seemed to take an age to get there through the fern covered cliffs.

St Michael's Chapel on Rame Head

The path from Rame Head was well trodden, level and easy along the cliff edge with views out to sea to the Eddystone Lighthouse and across Plymouth Sound.
Went through beautiful mature woodlands gently sloping down to Cawsand.

The woods leading to Cawsand

Cawsand

On arrival at Cawsand there's a pub in the little square behind the beach called The Cross Keys.

Don't go there.

It was five past two and the grumpy landlord told us, curtly, that food stopped at two. Then we were charged £5.80 for two lime and sodas. I thought there must be a mistake as, for example, the Plume of Feathers only charged 80p for two but he was having none of it and argued to justify the exorbitant price.

Cawsand and Kingsand are virtually the same place but way back, Cawsand was in Cornwall and Kingsand was in Devon.

The old border

The narrow streets of Kingsand

Leaving the villages behind we walked through the well managed Edgcumbe House estate of woodlands and, eventually, more formal parkland as we got nearer to the Cremyll ferry.

Could be a David Hockney

Could be anything

The Naval College from the Cremyll Ferry

Met the gang of four again on the ferry, found our hotel and went out to have a look at Plymouth.

Smeaton's Tower

The tower was the original Eddystone Lighthouse and was moved to the Hoe when the rocks that it stood on began eroding.

Walked up a street of fine Georgian terraces to The Hoe and down to the Barbican where there was plenty of restaurants to choose from.

Sutton Harbour

The first half of the day was a bit meh and my back was aching from the road walking but the second half, from Rame Head, made up for it and I was pleasantly surprised with Plymouth.