Day 6 - Kingsand to Heybrook Bay – 8.5 miles

I was a bit stressed about today as I knew I had to go around the huge obstacle of Plymouth and Plymouth Sound and all its tributary estuaries. Once the other side of it I would feel I was on the homeward straight! I was in two minds about what time to set off in the morning... I didn't really fancy hitting the rush hour for either the Torpoint car ferry or the city centre as I made my way over to drop the bike off at my proposed end point of Heybrook Bay.

In the end I left at pretty much normal time.. about 8am and set off for the ferry. This would have to be my last night at this campsite as having to go through Plymouth every morning to get to my walk is not an option for me! I come away to find peace, and going through unknown cities is not peaceful for me. On the plus point the weather was actually blue skied gloriousness this morning, though the forecast, as ever, was for it to cloud over and for heavy showers to come in by 3pm at the latest according to the postie couple.

I made it almost to Torpoint and stopped in a handy Sainsbury's for provisions for breakfast and to last me for the rest of the day. I set off from there expecting to find queues for the ferry, but there wasn't, and I drove straight on. It only cost a quid too! Bargain... and so for my first ferry crossing of 6 today.. talk about a logistical nightmare of a day! Luckily the drive through the city centre wasn't too busy either, so all good so far. I got a bit lost in the suburbs, but eventually made it out to Heybrook Bay.

On the drive over I decided I was going to do the reverse of my normal day today, in that I would cycle first to leave the bike at Kingsand and walk from there to the car, which I would leave at Heybrook Bay. My reasoning for this was that it was quite a long trudgy day and I thought I might be tired, but going earlier, I thought I might be able to make use of the various passenger ferries to get back to Cawsand right next to Kingsand, where I should be starting today. Of course this might not work out at all, because I might not be allowed to take a bike on passenger ferries as they tend to be quite small. If I couldn't, then it would be a very long ride back to Kingsand and through the city centre a lot of the way. I wanted to get that misery over and done with straight away.

So, for a change I parked the car up in a residential street in Heybrook Bay, and set off on the bike to Mountbatten to see if I could get the first passenger ferry across to Plymouth itself. It was only a short ride and when I arrived the bloke said it was fine to take the bike across for an extra 50p so 2 quid in all.. yay for me. I knew that the Cawsand ferry left from the drop off point of this ferry in Plymouth so it was all looking marvellous! Even better the Cawsand ferry was due to leave from there at 10.30am about 10 mins after we docked. Talk about working out well after all!

The Cawsand ferry was slightly larger than the Mountbatten one and the crossing all the way to Cawsand took just over an hour and was quite fun, as the sea was fairly choppy when we got out there.. it was a bit of a rollabout ride, but all good, and now it was all working to plan, I began to enjoy the adventure of it all! So that was ferry 3 of the day. We landed on the beach at Cawsand and the bloke bought my bike down the gangplank for me. I wheeled it round to Kingsand and chained it up on a railing there and set off on my walk. It was now gone 11.15am, so a very late start, but I had to keep in mind that I'd already done the 'bike ride' or in this case ferry ride today!

I set off along the westerly edge of Plymouth Sound from Kingsand through the Mount Edgcumbe Country Estate. It was a fairly level walk all the way apart from quite a few steps to take a detour above an unstable cliff section. Most of the walk was through pleasant woodland too, though most of the view was hidden.. it was only Plymouth skyline afterall.. perhaps best left hidden!!? I got lost in the myriad of tracks through the estate and ended up round by the house at some point and then took a wrong turning again to end up walking through the formal gardens, but eventually did find the Cremyll Ferry jetty. So another 1.50 to get over to the city itself.

On the far side the way took a rather pointless meander in my view, and then I took a wrong turn on a prom type path that ended nowhere other than the continental ferry terminal and a dead end, so I had to retrace my steps again.. grrrr! For some reason Plymouth had to be different about its waymarks, and so I kept missing them.. some weird compass point type affairs on walls, and red arrows.?? I eventually found my way along busy roads to Plymouth Hoe and walked around that, and at least that was a slight improvement in terms of scenery.

I made it round to the Mountbatten Ferry again and crossed over the estuary yet again....Ferry number 5 of the day. I set off on the route again on the other side and as soon as I started the walk out past Batten Bay, I began to relax and feel that I was leaving the mental obstacle of Plymouth behind, even though looking back it was still very evident. The scenery improved from Jennycliff and there were quite a lot of steps through nice wooded areas again. For some reason the waymarks on this side of the Sound were huge blocks of marble with a single National Trail acorn symbol on them?

As I walked out along the eastern shore of The Sound there were lots of warships coming in to shelter behind the breakwater for the evening and I got good views back across to my starting point for the day of Kingsand. As I drew level with the end of the breakwater I rounded Staddon Point and walked in towards Bovisand Bay with its tiny beach even though the tide was out. I was now finally leaving Plymouth behind for good and lost sight of it looking back for a while. I was quite tired by this point, but I knew of course that today it was a car not a bike waiting for me at my destination! I sat and ate a Solero and had a bottle of Diet Coke at the cafe above Bovisand Bay before continuing on my way. The walk hereafter was mainly low level right by the rocks and the waves and it consisted of lots of little rocky inlets. Much more my type of scenery!!

I had a close encounter with an adder on the path not long before Heybrook Bay and then trudged my way all the way uphill past the Edystone Inn to find my car in the residential street at the top.

I set off back to collect the bike waiting back at Kingsand. I called in at Morrison's to see if I could buy the next Ordnance Survey map, as I haven't got it, but to no avail. I'll have to get it tomorrow but it makes planning a walk around my next campsite move a little difficult. I think I saw a likely shop on my way through the city in the morning.. camp and caravan or something near Aldi so I can park there?

I tried again in a garage next to he Sainsbury's after crossing on the Torpoint Ferry, but although they had some OS maps they didn't have 202.. typical.

By the time I got back to the site it was 7.30pm and I had a shower, typed this up and went down for my last drink at the bar and to settle up for my 4 extortionate nights here!