The West Country Way : Day 7. The end.

Sheeting rain woke us throughout the night. Which I’m grateful for, as the feeling of being warm and dry in your tent while a storm ensues outside is one of my favourites.

It continued to rain, hard, throughout the morning. Even a quick wee had you re-entering the tent soaked. We made tea, read, and and finished a pack of fig rolls. Cosy times.

Eventually we plucked up the will power to dress, pack up, swiftly strike camp, and load our bikes.

We’re only 7 miles from our finish point in Port Isaac where we had 2 nights of accommodation booked to have some proper restful times, but we can’t check in until 3pm.

2.5 miles up the road, is a café. A really lovely café. Long cafe excursions are also my favourite. I have lots of favourites. The brutal hill, aggressive wind and sheeting rain between camp and the cafe pretty much necessitated the 3 hours we spent there.

Damp Biker Sprawl (DBS) in the local café

Eventually we left, and pedalled the 5 miles to Pendoggett, just above Port Isaac where we’d booked our accommodations. It was absolutely reminiscent of a Daphne du Maurier novel right down to the pub’s logo. Which I love. It was only 2pm, so we locked the bikes and walked along the nose of the hill on footpaths, then steeply downhill and through the woods to Port Isaac and our journeys end.

An unpopular opinion I have is that Cornwall is pretty underwhelming. I don’t really understand why everyone is so mad about going there. I find the coastline impressive for a day or so, then I’m just very tired of the place. Every little town just looks the same as the last. Beach, boat, coastline, expensive shop, Atlantic Pale Ale, repeat, repeat repeat.

Northumberland on the other hand….

The West Country Way on National Cycle Network 3 is a bloody great ride. Its a perfect mix of remote wilderness while streaming with amenities. Pubs, cafes, Bnb’s and campsites a’plenty. It’s super varied and super interesting. You can easily pick and change your mileage, plan it to the letter or don’t plan it at all. Shit weather will always ruin it, but, all in all we were pretty lucky.

After a day off and a saunter along the coastline to Polzeath, a couple of hearty meals in the pub we left for Bodmin. We followed lovely minor roads to re-join the NCN 3 on the Camel trail which follows a disused railway into and through Bodmin, then all the way to Bodmin Parkway. Here we caught a couple of trains home to work hard to gain the Cats approval again.