St. Agnes- Newquay- Padstow- Rock- Port Isaac- Bude

It was an early start this morning, but the view from 'Ocean Cottage Crew Support Facility' was well worth it. We can't thank Nick and the others at St. Agnes RNLI enough. 

 

Five miles down the road we paused for a spot of breakfast in a small village. A somewhat unusual combination of a danish pastry and a Cornish Pasty.

 

We were heading towards the first RNLI station of the day in Newquay.... We enjoyed a great descent from the town down into the small fishing harbour tucked behind the sea wall. 

Newquay RNLI station

Newquay harbour

A couple of photos and short water stop and we were soon slogging up yet more hills (albeit thankfully not as bad as those in South Devon...)

En route to Padstow, the next station, we got a little lost in the maze of Cornwall lanes, but soon found a helpful local lad who put us back on track and we found the station at the end of the Trevose peninsula. 

The small car park and lift block which were positioned on top of the cliffs provided a stunning view down a steep flight of steps to the station below and across the bay. This was certainly one of our favourite stations, both in terms of the building (a recently built station with domed roof and ramp from the station to the water for the boat- see video below) and the setting (incredible panoramic view across the bay and rugged cliffs on either side). 

After a very welcome cup of coffee with one of the crew (and once Rad had eaten most of the station's biscuit collection...) we headed on...

Padstow RNLI station

Padstow RNLI station

Our route to the next Station (Rock) took us through Padstow town- absolutely heaving with people and frankly rather unpleasant. Reminiscent of a rugby scrum- both in terms of the pushing and shoving and the fact everyone was in blue and white striped tops.

We took the passenger ferry across to Rock but as it was low tide were dropped about half a mile down the beach from the slipway. We made the executive decision to try and cycle back up the beach to the slipway, and the firm sand seemed to hold under our fully laden bikes. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived at the RNLI station our bikes were caked in sand and making worrying noises. Thankfully, we were allowed to make good use of their truly phenomenal power hose and our bikes soon looked like new again! 

A quick photo, and we headed on up the hill to (yet another) local bakery for a pasty and shortbread before heading on to our next stop, just down the road (7 miles) - Port Isaac. 

Port Isaac RNLI station

The beautiful fishing village with steep narrow cobbled streets and active fishing industry was quite different from any of the villages we have visited to date. Surrounded by rugged cliffs and hills, and beautiful pastel painted houses that evoked real Cornish charm.

For much of the ride from Port Isaac to Bude, we took the A39- although not particularly scenic, it was the fastest route (averaging about 36km/hr) and got us to our 'couchsurfer' hosts in good time. 

We also managed to drop in on the Bude RNLI station en route to our hosts home, for a couple of pictures and look around.

Graham and Jane Eccles cooked us delicious roast pork and kindly put us up in their sitting room for the night. It still amazes me how people are willing to open their homes to complete strangers for no financial benefit. It really rekindles ones faith in humanity.

After a 110km ride today, including 950m of climb, bed couldn't come soon enough...

Porthlevan- Penlee- Sennen Cove- St. Ives- St. Agnes

Woke after a great night's sleep in the attic room of Blades and Heather's holiday cottage in Porthlevan (a huge thank you again to you both for letting us gate crash your romantic week's holiday down there...!). The sun was shining and we were soon back on the road.

We were pleasantly surprised to find only a few hill climbs on the way out of Porthlevan, enabling us to made good progress and were soon circumnavigating Penzance and shortly afterwards arriving at our first stop, Penlee.

Our arrival in Penlee coincided with the 'Penlee Fish Festival' and the place was heaving. Initially we dropped in at the RNLI boat house, (where Rad had an interesting meeting with a very strange man), but soon realised that the main RNLI station was inside the cordoned off festival area. After blagging ourselves free entry and battling our way through the crowds with our fully laden bikes, we arrived at the station, and met the crew and the Coxswain. We were given a very welcome cup of tea, and were kindly offered a free BBQ if we waited for 15 minutes, but decided to get back on road, and were soon eating our way through the miles again. Next stop... Sennen Cove, down by Land's End.

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Sennen Cove

A steep decent with stunning views over the vast sandy beach, RNLI station and on across the peninsula made for a spectacular arrival. A quick photo, refill of the water bottles (although Rad, who was struggling a bit with the hills, decided he couldn't cope with the extra weight so left his empty...) and we were away again, albeit somewhat slower than our arrival, having to climb back up the precipice-like hill which had taken down us into the bay initially!

The ride from Sennen to St Ives was truly stunning. The sun was shining, and the coastal road, although fairly hilly, provided some incredible clifftop views over the sea, and dropped down through several beautiful villages in the valley bottoms, including St. Just, a stunning village, where we stopped for a freshly made pasty and some caramel shortbread in the sun.

St. Ives RNLI Station

On arrival at St. Ives, we took a few photos of the station, and noticing the number of tourists passing by, decided to do a collection for a short while. An hour later we each had about 5 kg's of money in our collection boxes and, determined not to take this extra weight over the hills on our bikes, set out to find somewhere to change the coins for notes. A very helpful manager at the local amusement arcade offered to help out and we set about counting out the £250 of coins which we had collected, and changed them for notes.

Feeling pretty pleased with our progress on both the cycling front (having covered about 80 km already) and fundraising front, we took an hour to have a look around the Tate St. Ives art gallery. Some truly stunning (as well as some rather dubious art work...) housed in an amazing modern gallery over looking the beach- it was a great break and a very memorable experience.

Patrick Heron at Tate St. Ives

From there it was back on the road to our last stop of the day- St. Agnes. We were already running late (and with some fairly monumental hill climbs at the end this only delayed us further), but one of the crew (Nick) kindly came down when we arrived to let us into the RNLI support house where we were staying for the night. Perched just above a small cove with the most incredible views out to see and along the rugged cliff line, it really was an incredible place to stay for the night.

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The view on our way from St.Ives to St. Agnes

Having unpacked, we headed back up the hill by about 50m to the local pub where we settled in for the evening with a couple of pints of local ale and delicious dinner to re-charge the batteries.

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St. Agnes Lifeboat Station