We’ve already walked several miles from Captain Blake’s Retreat across the Rame peninsula by the time we sit down for fish and chips at Rockfish Plymouth between the marina and the National Marine Aquarium. I practice the art of staring at the gulls to put them off pinching my lunch which works!

Stopping to buy postcards (seriously) we meander from the Barbican below the imposing walls of the Citadel toward the Hoe. Rather than walking up to the Hoe we stay on the coast path to admire the Art Deco Lido, called Tinside Pool, built in 1935 and currently promoted as ‘a slice of the quintessential British seaside from a bygone era’. It sadly closed in 1992 but with much public support was brought back to life and re-opened in 2005. “Celebration” is playing somewhere nearby as preparations are being made for the opening in summer 2021.

The pathway hugs the edge of West Hoe with intricate steel grey models of HMS Vancouver and other naval subs and ships positioned along the seawall. Plymouth dock is quiet of ships – the maps say sailings are to Roscoff, Brittany and Santander, Spain but in the spring of 2021, it appears that no ships are departing Plymouth for mainland Europe.

We take a whistle stop tour of Royal William Yard, formally the Royal William Victualling Yard where food and other provisions for the navy were overseen, however no time for a Prezzo or Wagamama’s for us today, we have a ferry to catch.

Fifty or so people disembark the Cremyll passenger ferry while only a handful of us are heading over the short stretch of water with us – Cornwall bound! The tide has come in and the crossing is a bit choppier than this morning but it only takes a few minutes before we disembark at Cremyll to officially arrive in Cornwall. We’ve walked five counties and over 420 miles – now for the 300+ miles of the Cornish coast.

There is a young family picnicking and running around with their dog on the avenue up to the Mount Edgecumbe Country Park. It’s managed by the local and city councils offering free entry and even better staying open till dusk – result! The coast path skirts round the formal gardens but as a self-confessed tree geek I am inevitably dragged in at the sight of an interesting tree of which there turns out to be a great many. It is now nearly five in the evening and we have the place to ourselves to gaily bounce from cork oak to cork oak admiring the pittosporum, tree ferns, camellias and hellebores in between. We certainly have picked the right time of year to pass through the National Collection of Camellias.

We continue along the meandering coast path around the edge of the wider estate with glimpses through the trees across the harbour to the city – we even hear an announcement from one of the naval ships in the bay. The well made-up path skirts the deer park and detours around a landslide and a huge fallen pine tree. Then another detour around the grounds of Picklecombe Fort – converted to posh (or most likely contemporary) apartments in the 1990’s. They have a delightful secluded valley leading to a folly which is sadly just an amenity yard, two tennis courts and overgrown woodland – would be a perfect spot for the residents to have a garden to work and play?

A little further on a house, nestling in a valley, has yet more gnarled cork oaks growing in it – maybe the gardener from Mount Edgecumbe lived here and had spare trees? The path pops out on the road briefly opposite a teeny-weeny lighthouse in a field which turns out to be a Boy Scout camping ground.

A take a brief stop to admire the view around the bay toward Penlee Point with Cawsand and Kingsand nestled in in the valley. The red soil path is good going – at times open with wild flowers glades then closed in by the prolific holm oaks, feeling somewhat like the ‘dark hedges’ of Northern Ireland fame. It then opens right out to a very green grassy bank leading on to Kingsand. Our first Cornish village doesn’t disappoint with winding roads passing brightly painted cottages, tucked away churches, pretty little gardens, the occasional gift shop and a quite a few pubs – thankfully bustling now. We check them out for tomorrow then head inland cutting right across the Rame peninsula to our little holiday cottage on the cliff.