Yesterday around Lands End was all sunshine, today the Lizard was overcast with rain forecast by the afternoon. So we drove to Helston start point to save time then set off, semi-unwittingly in reverse of the Gravel Rides South West guidebook’s 57km lap, following a trail around the east side of Loe lake. With the poor light and my packet camera, I wasn’t going to get any great shots today.
The book’s suggested route along the Lizard’s west side had a loop at each end joined by a there-and-back section in the middle. These were said to be the best gravel trails on the peninsula, tracing part of Cycling UK’s 230-km, EU-funded, West Kernow Way bikepacking route (below), as was much of yesterday’s ride around Land’s End. Cycling UK’s book of the WKW is out of print, but you can download a pdf version here. It’s well worth a look.
I reckon more than half the people you see walking outdoors these days are exercising their dogs, but all are very agreeable if not sometimes apologetic as you pedal past while they restrain their slavering pooch.
After a diversion around a collapsed boardwalk across a marshy arm of the Loe, a steep climb led to the signed junction for the return loop across Loe Bar which we’d do later. My breakfast must have been skimpy because somewhere around here I exclaimed to no one in particular, ‘I don’arf fancy a cheezununyan paastie!’ Just few minutes later, like a desert mirage, a comely cafe-shack appeared by the Mullion golf course at. Inside a young girl put down her book.
‘What’ll it be me ‘ansom!’ she might have said had this been a sketch by The Kernow King.
‘Well I don’arf fancy a cheezununyan paastie!’ I repeated.
She took a fiver and handed me a flavoursome baked pouch of savoury delight, helpfully wrapped in a faraday bag.
With pasty crumbs and dribbles wiped away, the route took off up across the golf course. Behind us, tucked below the dunes by the beach (below) was St Winwaloe ‘Church of the Storms’, said to be one of the oldest in Cornwall and with a separate storm-proof bell tower sat at ground level.
We dropped in and out of sandy Poldhu Cove where in 1901 Marconi transmitted the first trans-Atlantic radio signal to Newfoundland. Then from Mullion village (shops) a thin trail followed the perimeter of Predannack airfield. Soon after we came across the route’s only gate – so odd we both remarked on it because yesterday at Lands End we’d not passed one, but on Purbeck the gates are maddening. It lead onto a rough heath where I got into a tangle with the nav despite having the tracklog right under my nose.
The geef located the right way – sometimes you can’t see the helpful waymark posts for the fences – but after yesterday’s sunny ride and the promise of the same tomorrow, we were losing interest in the Lizard. It was another 5km to Lizard Point so, keen to not get out cags wet, we turned back.
Once bcktracked to Loe Bar junction (above) we took the route’s seaward loop over the shingle bar which the book made out to be an effort. As it was, much of the bar was grassy enough to e-ride until it wasn’t, and then it was a short push on fish tank gravel to the undercut ramp on the far side. To our left the whipped-up sea was as grey as Truro slate while red signs warned under no circumstances to swim in the sea.
A coastal track led to Porthleven (below), an arty ‘south coast St Ives’ with holiday homes jammed against the sea wall. Then it was back along doggers’ trails in the parkland surrounding Loe lake which popped out right at the car park.
It’s good to explore and maybe it was the dreary weather, or is the Lizard less interesting than it seems? Like Lands End yesterday, it probably deserves another try in the right direction. Tomorrow: back to Dartmoor.
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