Today we left St Austell and headed towards Menheniot.
St Austell is named after the 6th century Cornish saint, St Austoll, a disciple of St Mewan. In a Vatican manuscript there is a 10th-century list of Cornish parish saints. This includes Austoll, which means that the church and village existed at that time, shortly after 900.
The first hour or so out of St Austell was through urban areas, so a little bit hilly and pavements, but on leaving the town we hit our first big hill of the day – pretty steep and over 1km of constant walking upwards! We eventually made it to Fowey (via more hills and steepish descents) to try and find some lunch before taking the chainlink ferry across to Bodinnick. Without a long walk (we didnt need the extra steps today) the only option was a small catering van. Excellent sandwiches though and then a nice short crossing of the River Fowey.
Obviously a long hill back up from the ferry and then a long walk through farmlands and quiet country lanes. We passed the Cornish Gouda Company (made famous by Rick Stein’s cornwall series) and had a brief stop in Penylt for an ice cream before heading back into the woods and fields.
Onwards and upwards (or so it felt), even taking a wet/muddy path for a while, we eventually made our way to Menhiot and our accommodation for the evening. On the back of two tough days this was brutal in terms of hill climbing – thankfully for the afternoon the sun hid behind clouds to make it slightly more bearable.
Map of our route today and the climbs/descents