Fowey to Polperro

We’d continue on by taking the ferry to Polruan and picking up once again the South West Coast path. Our walk today takes us to the quaint Cornish fishing village of Polperro, notorious for, what else, smuggling in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Polperro Heritage Museum sounds like a good place to visit to learn more. Polperro looks like the type of town where it would be fun to spend a day wandering the narrow streets and harbour (no cars are allowed in the village) and visiting old 16th century pubs such as The Blue Peter and The Three Pilchards before calling it a night at the 13th century Crumplehorn Inn and Mill.

Plymouth

It is about a two and a half hour bike ride from Polperro to Plymouth. Just enough time to shake off the cobwebs from all those pub stops the night before so we can pay a visit to the Plymouth Distillery, the oldest working distillery in England, making gin since 1793. The building itself dates back to the 1400s and was formerly a monastery. The Refectory Bar, which serves as the distillery’s tasting room dates back to 1431 and is protected as a national monument. It is said that the Pilgrim’s Fathers spent their last night here before heading off on the Mayflower. Too bad it wasn’t a distillery then…they could have used some gin to loosen them up.

About the South West Coast Path

The South West Coast Path is England’s longest waymarked footpath, running 630 miles around the coasts of Sumerset, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset. To do the whole path in one go would take around 52 days. There are a number of walking holiday companies that help to plan self guided walking holidays on the path and they include the all important luggage transfer. I wish we had more walking companies like these in the States!

Book Recommendation:

I picked this up in Lancaster in December when we went to England for a dear friend’s memorial service. Le Bas comes from a Roma family and in a quest to better understand his heritage he travels Britain to visit the stopping places, old encampments known only to Travellers. I’m just starting a chapter in which he heads to the west coast of Cornwall to the village of Bostcastle, which was on my original itinerary and is still on my must visit someday list.