Day 5 - Polkerris to Charlestown Harbour

Having walked 46.2 miles Monday to Thursday, I took a rest day yesterday (Friday) but was up early(ish) on Saturday to tackle another section of the south coast.

Polkerris is a traditional Cornish fishing village (pictured below) situated at the Western end of the Polperro heritage coast.

Today's walk crosses Par Beach, moves inland to get around the Imerys Minerals Ltd. Clay works and harbour nr. St. Blazey, then runs along the fairways of The Carlyon Bay Golf Club, past the Carlyon bay hotel and down into the historic harbour of Charlestown, where many scenes for the BBC drama 'Poldark' were filmed.

I worked close to Par Beach for many years (the train crew depot and station being about 1 mile away), but had never visited before today (working to hard previously!). The beach has large sand dunes at its rear and a large expanse of sand before reaching the sea. The distance between the sand dunes and the sea increases enormously when the tide is out!

At the northern end of the beach sits the imposing Imerys china clay works with its large chimney often spewing out white clouds of water vapour.

The beach is very popular with dog walkers (being one of the few sand beaches that permit dogs all year) and this does unfortunately lead to a fair bit of 'watching your step' as less considerate dog owners don't seem to bothered about picking up after their dogs.

Once I had left the beach, it was a quick wander through the streets of Par and St. Blazey to circumnavigate the Clay works and get down to the coast path above 'Spit Beach'.

Walking alongside Carlyon Bay Golf Club and up past The Carlyon Bay Hotel reminded me that I needed to get my clubs out again and spoil a good walk.

The footpath winds past the seaward side of the newer developments that have been put up amongst the older properties, ensuring that space is at a premium apart from those areas designated as council parks / greens right up until the path drops down into Charlestown Harbour.

After pausing for a while, I made to continue on my planned walk towards Trenarren, only to be greeted by fences across the coast path and signs informing me it was closed due to a collapsed cliff. The diversion was along the roads for a couple of miles, so I decided against that and turned for home.

On the journey back, my thoughts turned to the growing BLM movement and the civil unrest that had spread across the United States.

It is impossible to condone the actions of the Police Officers that have led to this civil unrest, but nor can rioting be acceptable to raise awareness of the issue.

I don't have any idea how to change the situation, but I don'y think the ideas that are being voiced by politicians in the States will help. Disbanding Police Departments and starting again will surely just recreate the lawlessness of the Wild West? Give everyone guns (as America pretty much has) and people will decide on their own version of justice / rule.

Perhaps a better approach would to be force everyone to serve as a Police Officer for one month, to help everyone understand how jumpy and cautious you become if every potential suspect might pull a gun out and shoot you, then perhaps America would get rid of guns and then the Police wouldn't have to use such extreme restraining techniques. Does that solve the racism problem? No, but then I think time is the only thing that can get rid of that problem.

Anyway, thankfully, my rather depressing thoughts were interrupted as I came across the former site of The Cornwall Coliseum - Now just a huge pile of boulders placed over the foundations of what was once Cornwall's premier concert venue. Able to hold 3,400 people standing or 2,600 seated, some of the finest bands this country have produced played here - Procol Harum, The Kinks, Herman's Hermits, Thin Lizzy, The Ramones, The Clash, The Jam, The Police, Marillion, The Cure, Status Quo, The Who, Eric Clapton, Black Sabbath, Cliff Richard, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Slade, Bon Jovi, Simple Minds, Deborah Harry, Wham and Glenn Campbell who recorded a live album there in 1981, to name but a few.

My personal experience (and still the best gig I've ever been to) was watching Paul McCartney play there in 1991.

What a shame the venue has gone, but time marches on, as do I.