After an enjoyable lunch of quiche, salad and St. Ives brownie/flap jack combo, whilst listening to the rain tip tapping on the roof, we head back toward the railway station. The narrow road, running alongside the railway line, which in turn runs alongside the river’s edge, takes us up river and around the estuary. Our eyes are held by the lovely homes with pretty gardens fronting the street. At the end of the road, it bends to the right whilst we take the footpath to the left into the Lelant Salting’s Station car park. This large car park used to be a park and ride to St. Ives, a sign tells visitors that this has now moved to St. Erth and trains rarely stop here.

It’s not often I admire the architecture of new housing estates but the new-ish development on the approach to the station has been built out of local granite, the gardens edged with dry stone walls.

Coming out onto the main road we take a left alongside a couple of restaurants, overlooking the river estuary. We’d been looking out for somewhere to enjoy a Cornish cream tea but this large restaurant with signs saying Funeral Cream teas was not quite what we had in mind.

The road running over the river estuary, below the A30 flyover has a footpath for us to wander along, dodging the twitchers with their monocular steadied on tripods. Beyond the wetlands to our right, we can see large fields of what looks like cabbages.

Workers at the H. Tempest Industrial unit have such a great view of the river Hayle and looking beyond to the sea. Just beyond we turn off the road to the narrow muddy path that runs right along the water’s edge. Carnsew Pool is separated from the main estuary by sluice gates – there are some quite scary looking whirlpools towards the sluice gate.

As we come out onto the main road there’s a huge new Asda store in front of us, with Hayle Town and a large railway viaduct towering high above to our right. Following the occasional Coast Path sign, we skirt around the supermarket and walk the other side of the water. Small local shops and residential houses to our right. I’m enticed by Mr B’s ice cream shop, selecting Witches Knickers flavour! It is nearly Halloween.

We pass by Philps Pastie Shop (keeping a mental note for tomorrow), just after the bend in the road we walk over the bridge towards Riviere Towans. A new development appears to be mid-flow along the quay, starting with river-front apartments. I see no interpretation boards indicating what’s coming next?

A wood-clad café called Lola’s looks enticing but we carry on through the car park to the sand dunes to see the view.

Porthkidney sands which I so enjoyed walking along earlier are now covered over, we chose the tide just right for this morning’s walk. This area has a very homely and real feeling to it, with well-loved campervans, families enjoying the beach and little dwellings along the lanes and the edge of the Riviere Towans chalet park.

Decisions, decisions when we reach our car in the nearby car park. We opt to go back to the Lula’s Shack and are not disappointed. Choosing to sit inside the newly constructed wood and glass building we enjoy the views to the estuary, the warmth of the wood burner, and the exceptionally tasty Firecracker Chicken.