Day 2, Jul 14, 2024
From Looe to Par

Another fine sunny day, and we made the most of it, starting out around 8 after attempting to dry tent and sleeping bags that were wet from the heavy dewfall. Today, the trail was mostly off roads and took us up and down hills hugging the coastline. We passed some pretty bays and cute beaches, and in the heat of the early afternoon, the clear water looked cool and inviting.

The villages we pass are quaint with well-kept whitewashed cottages and flower boxes overflowing with geraniums, poppies, and other colourful flowers. These coastal towns bring in almost half of the fish consumed in the country. As well as the fishing boats, you can see pleasure craft – sailing boats, motor boats, row boats, surf skis, and stand-up paddleboards. There are a few people in swimming, but apparently, the water isn’t warm enough yet to tempt most of the summer visitors.

Dogs here are welcome in most of the cafes, and most of the summer visitors seem to have at least one dog with them. Missing our own dogs, we often stop to give the dogs a pat or ear scratch.

In the afternoon, we decided to check out camping opportunities on the trail ahead. Options were few, and we settled on a campground some way off the track. We headed up to the main road and saw that a bus was scheduled to pass soon after we arrived at the stop. The driver was friendly and helpfully agreed to drop us off near the campground. I am not sure that he understood where we wanted to go because he dropped us off half a mile too far. We started back along the road but quickly abandoned that plan as the road was narrow, there was no footpath, and the traffic was very fast. Instead, we headed down another road towards the beach. On the way, we checked places that we passed for availability, but all were fully booked,  and most cost more than we hoped to pay.

At the nearby beach we looked again at options of places to stay. One possibility is to wait until nightfall and then stealth camp. This is apparently officially not allowed but still done, but you need to be up early and move on soon after sunrise. We looked at the weather forecast, and it seems likely that tomorrow will be rainy. We found a room, just a little back from the path, which will suit us and is available for 2 nights. Apart from the bathroom being in a separate building,  the room is nice, and we can use it for 2 nights, giving us shelter from tomorrow’s rain. We had a short 2 or 3 km further to hike to get here, and we have now washed, done laundry, and bought a few supplies from a nearby supermarket.