Walk 4: Porthcothan to Newquay

                                                                                            Porthcothan

Saturday 14th February - the first weekend of half term - was sunny and beautiful. With a week's holiday stretched out in front of me and the dry and bright weather, it made getting out of bed much easier. I drove to Newquay to meet Sarah and then we took one car up to Porthcothan and started walking. I only intended on bringing one of my dogs with me but Cocoa, my mini cockapoo was not going to let me leave without her and would have woken the whole house whining if I had.

Spirits were up as the walk began. Sarah and I hadn't seen each other for two weeks so we had lots to chat about, the views were stunning and the path was nice and level. We had a couple of quick pit-stops and then stopped to sit on the beach and eat lunch at Mawgan Porth. Here, Sarah began telling me about the celebrities that had bought homes in the area and we started to try and guess which ones. There are some amazing places perched on the hill and I'd have loved to have peeked inside them. 


The path was more challenging after Mawgan Porth. We hit some really muddy spots near Watergate Bay but, again, the views made up for it. It was also lovely to look down and see so many surfers enjoying the water. It was just past Watergate Bay that the weather started to cloud over and I began to feel tired. It was still only 2.30pm in the afternoon and I was surprised that I was flagging as on Walk 3, I could have walked further. Still, we were determined to keep going and washed the dogs muddy paws off at Porth Beach, walked through a very busy Newquay to Newquay harbour and clocked up 10.8 miles. 


In my head, I was determined to hit about 12 miles - my goal for each walk - and Sarah suggested we walk right up to the gannel to tick that off. What I didn't realise was that to walk around Newquay, across Fistral Beach, down alongside the gannel and back to my car was going to take us to 14.1 miles -result! However, that last stretch felt long and cold and my legs were starting to stiffen. Still, as I drove Sarah back to Porthcothan to collect the car, we both felt elated at the achievement - what better way to spend a Saturday. 

When I got home, the fire was on and my husband treated me to a lovely Valentines Day meal. I've definitely had worse days and this is one of my highlights of the year so far. 

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