June 26, 2017
A Year Older
Falmouth and St Keverne
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It’s my birthday. Ruby celebrates it by leaving Alan and the boys to travel in the van and dons her cycling gear for a ride with her dad. Alan has all the panniers in his van.
It’s already a warm day. It promises to be special.
Soon after cycling out of the camp site the road climbs yet again, along a narrow route hemmed in by high banks and one that that veers past a large castle.
We're near the sea and just up the road we pause to take a group shot, posing in a sloping field that overlooks it.
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Climbing another hill we see a loaded bike ridden by a cyclists wearing a broad-rimed hat about 100m ahead of us and guess it’s the female cyclist with the dog. It takes a while for us to catch up, only to find it’s a guy.
We get the chance to chat to him not long after as we all brake at a small junction which has a bicycle route sign that seems to point down a farm track. This rider has a map showing the bike routes and says it’s the way to go, so we follow his lead.
After bouncing down the rough, gravel path we reach an old farm house. There isn’t any obvious place to ride any further and the farmer says we have to go back.
After about 20km we spot a National Trust place advertising cream teas. We would have stopped even if it wasn’t my birthday, but at least we have an excuse.
We pull four chairs into the cooler shade of overhanging branches and enjoy some yummy scones with jam and cream, washed down with tea, as a robin flits between our bikes and the crumbs which fall on the ground.
There’s a panic on when we hear the day's low tide means the last ferry to St Mawes is leaving in just a few minutes. It’s a mad dash along a grass track between hedges and then over some seaweed-covered rocks to a small concrete jetty. The boat is just docking and the man on it says if we'd been two minutes later it wouldn’t have been possible to sail, and we would have been stuck for a few hours.
It’s just a short hop on his ferry from St Anthony over to St. Mawes, where we have plenty of time to scoff some hot pasties before getting a second, bigger ferry to Falmouth, which takes about 40 minutes.
We're joined on board by the guy in the floppy hat. His bike is loaded beside ours and he’s noticed Dave's Rohloff hub, pointing out his own. I ask him what the small, smooth wheel fitted at the back is for, but he doesn’t know. I thought he would after spending a few grand.
Alan is waiting for us once we get on dry land and we wave Ruby off and say we’ll rendezvous somewhere after Helford. It doesn’t seem too far.
We venture along Falmouth's old High Street, just around the corner from the quay, and do a bit of window shopping before cycling southwest. We go up a steep hill.
The road is hard work, with long climbs. At least they seem long.
We ride via Mawnan Smith and by the time we reach the ferry across Helford Sound we’re ready to call it a day. The village is dinky and the pub doesn’t have a B&B, but we’re lucky that we’re just in time to get the last ferry of the day – at around 5:00PM.
The man on the boat says it’s beer o’clock when the lady in the small ticket cabin asks about another trip over the phone. His pint is already poured and waiting for his return as we set off in his tiny vessel.
The Shipwrights Arms in Helford doesn’t do B&B either, so we ride on, along narrow lanes that go up and down and give our legs a real test. After some slogging, it’s a relief to find two pubs doing B&B in St Keverne.
We opt for the first one we ask at - The Three Tuns. The room is nice and smells of fresh paint.
Ruby is camping close by and drops in for dinner. We sit outside in the warm evening air. Inside, it's quiz night and crowded. As it’s my birthday, I have a wedge of crumble. I would have had it anyway.
Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 215 km (134 miles)
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