Mobile connectivity isn’t great where Neil is in Cornwall so this is Katy blogging for him, based on the email he sent yesterday which didn’t arrive until this morning, and a later phonecall with more details.

Friday

I left Porthleven today at 7.15 but only got to Combe about 5k from Portreath.  I still hope to get to Perranporth tomorrow.

I hadn’t seen many birds so far on the walk but this morning every bird for miles seemed to get together over my tent at 4am and woke me up!

Today I was heading for the north Cornwall coast.  I had intended to use a combination of roads and footpaths, but to my dismay I found many footpaths had disappeared, been planted over with crops, or were otherwise unusable.  So I ended up doing a lot of road walking.

It was excessively hot today and I had intended to buy lunch and fill up with water in Godolphin Cross or Leedstown.  But there were no shops and the only pub had closed down.  I didn’t have enough to eat with me, and ran out of water, so it was hard to keep going.  Finally, on what seemed to be a traveller site, I managed to get water from a kind immigrant who gave me some from his caravan.  This was just as well as even with this extra water, I had pretty much run out when I got to Combe.

At Combe I decided to call it a day.  There is a good basic campsite, with a toilet block and running water – I have drunk several litres of this, and then dinner has been a lovely dehydrated meal…  I’m tired and hopefully will sleep well and be able to get away early tomorrow.