It’s a short bus ride, via Mevagissey, from our campsite to Pentewan Sands then a short walk down through the village to the coast but we struggle to find our way across the water inlet to the main beach and the coast path – the little bridge very well hidden!

It’s a beautiful sandy beach but the caravan park dominates– you wouldn’t visit the beach if you weren’t staying. With a distinct lack of signs for the coast path we meander through the static caravans – this is a sister property to where we are staying and couldn’t be more different. We eventually find the path which takes us behind The Seahorse ‘promising lots of fun at the water flumes, soft play and restaurants’ – we just see a disgruntled teenager who looks like has been in the sun for way too long!

The path runs alongside the road for a while, separated from the cars by a large hedge, then into open countryside. Despite the low cloud cover it’s still a bright day – the green rolling hills look inviting, edged with the darker green woodland, gently sloping down to the sea. There’s a lot of activity in the sea today – paddle boarders and the rather noisier hum of the boat pulling water skiers through the sea.

Despite the low cloud cover it’s very clear looking back to Pentewan Sands and across St. Austell Bay towards Fowey where we started walking earlier in the week. It takes little over an hour to reach Mevagissey – a little bit up and down on well-made steps through delightful countryside. We pass the Trevalsa Court Hotel, which looks very tempting to stop for a Cornish cream tea but we are not long into our walk so keep going. The houses in Mevagissey all focus on the little harbour – the sea currently right out with the boats sunk into the mud, where gulls are enjoying bathing in the shallows. Two days ago, when we sat under an umbrella on the water’s edge enjoying amazing fish and chips, we saw a cormorant catch and eat an eel – it took several gulps to successfully swallow it! We grab a Cornish and ice cream and push on along a residential road out of the town toward Portmellon. It’s a lot quieter here – there is a lot of redevelopment of coastal homes, again I have mixed feelings about this, but a beautiful place to live.

We are soon out in open countryside heading toward Chapel Point – a low headland with a little group of houses and I guess a chapel, which we’ve been heading towards for some time now. The surrounding fields are newly fenced off with signs saying about rewilding of the Sensitive Wildlife Area and there is a big digger making an almighty noise. The path cuts across the headland passed the shingly Colona Beach and on to National Trust land, called Bodrugans Leap. We are in gentle rolling countryside with fields of sheep edged with gorse and wild flowers. We find a delightful rocky outcrop to sit beside for lunch, which look like they are called Carn Rocks from the OS map – bizarre how these rocky outcrops are left exposed.

For most of our walk over the last few days we have been following orange ribbons randomly hanging in trees, on fences and in the hedgerow – this comes in handy on this stretch of the coast path which are not nearly as well sign posted as they have been on the South West Coast Path, so thank you ‘orange ribbon person’.

Gorran Haven is a quaint little Cornish village bustling with just a few people on the little sandy beach, I confess to my second ice cream of the day from the Mermaid Café on the beach – too good to resist. We enjoy watching a young family – their young daughter, possibly just a year old, enjoys her first ride on a little canoe being rowed around the bay – so sweet.

It’s about another five miles from here to Porthluney Cove, the weather is still very overcast, there are few people around and there appears to be just open countryside for the whole way. We leave Gorran Haven just before 4 o clock – the going to Dodman Point is fairly easy – the path at times quite close to the cliff edge which gently rolls away to the rocky outrcops in the sea.

Hemmick beach, owned by the National Trust is nestled in the mosaic pattern of fields, hedges and woodlands. As we walk along the sandy beach the coastline in the distance is getting hazier and hazier. An hour later and we are still walking, from fields to woodland following the orange ribbons with our raincoats on and hoods over our heads. We are sodden. We are relieved to see Porthluney Cove with the intriguing looking castellated Caerhays Castle sitting in the woodlands behind the beach. We are also pleased that we have already called a taxi as there is no phone signal.

It’s just before 7 in the evening when we arrive in Porthluney. It’s a Friday night in July, the height of the tourist season – the beach is deserted, the café is deserted, the car park is deserted and we are completely soaked. Take cover under a massive bell-tent style canopy, peel off my socks and trousers, ring them out and change into dry clothes. The jolly taxi driver arrives half an hour early and whizzes us back to our campsite where the fish and chip van is still serving hot food.