Falmouth and beyond

I gambled that the 40% chance of overnight rain wouldn't  happen and my washing might dry.  I lost.  In the morning,  we played cat and mouse with the showers as we tried to dry our tents.  Every time I dried it, another shower came along, so I ended up drying the tent five times and still putting it away damp.

Falmouth & docks

Breakfast was at  Falmouth.  From there, there's a ferry across the eatuary to St Mawes, but the person who plans my routes, my alter ego sitting at home looking at maps, chose not to take it.   So it was an extra 25 miles and 10 significant "Climbs" as my Garmin calls them, crossing many tributaries of the rivers Perryn and Fal.

The first few climbs around Penryn and Flushing were very steep. My legs were lumps of jelly and my heart sank at the prospect of loads more of them, but they became more gradual as the morning wore on, and the jelly legs seemed to set.  Nice riding around the various rivers but no views of the sea.  I spotted a cafe at Loe for lunch, and was rewarded by a huge plate of macaroni cheese, correcting my lack of calories from yesterday and putting some in the bank for tomorrow.  Nice chat with a bunch of local cyclists in the cafe.  Lots of road signs to Truro, only a few miles away, so I was making progress.

Various bits of the estuary 

After lunch I crossed the Fal on the King Harry (?who?) Chain ferry, between nowhere and nowhere.  I was now on the Roseland peninsula, and visited St Just in Roseland, not to be confused with nearby St Not Quite in Roseland.  

Some rare fairly flat riding and then downhill to the up-market village of St Mawes.  After a rather grey day, the sun came out for a beautiful end to the day, quite warm when out of the keen wind, which has now gone round yo the south east, rather unhelpfully.  I was hoping for a tea stop but didn't find anything suitable, so decided to look for a campsite, finding a nice spot up the hill (of course) at Gerrans, with views over the coast to the east.

By Trelissick garden

King Harry Ferry & Cap'n Birdseye

St Mawes Castle

St Mawes

After putting my damp tent up on the hot evening sun, I showered etc and walked to the local pub, very posh ("booking essential") but they provided a lovely bar snack of pitta and hummus.  Not many miles today but plenty of hills, and an enjoyable ride.