Pentireglaze to Trebetherick - Day 9

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Today we had our first view of the spectacular  Cornish coastline as we followed the Cornish Coast Path for 6 miles.

Our bus dropped us off in the little village of Pentireglaze. For awhile we followed a country road.

It soon turned into a dirt path

and in the distance we could see Polzeath, on our route for later. 

The trail was everything I expected Cornwall to be. There were quite a few ups and downs but nothing like California.

The walk took us past The Rumps, a rocky outcrop,

and around the promontory of Pentireglaze Head.

And continued around the coast.

The trail into Polzeath was equally beautiful and a little slippery.

We reached Polzeath  about 11:30 and were surprised to see so many people surfing.  (The little black dots in the water are people.)

Apparently this is quite the resort in the summer.

From there we walked around Trebetherick Point and above the dunes of Daymer Bay to visit the church of St. Enodoc.

The church dates from late 12th century, but by the 1700s the church was partially submerged in sand.  In order to keep its charter as a church, services had to be held at least once a year. So the townspeople would enter through a hole in the roof in order to complete this task.  During the 1860s, the sand was removed and the church was cleaned and restored. You can still see how the church could be partially buried.

We ended up eating our lunch in the church cemetery.

From here a bus took us to the Camel Valley Winery in Bodmin where we took a tour and tasted their award winning Sparking Pinot Noir Rosé Brut,

The winery was started in 1989 on the Lindo family's sheep farm with 8,000 vines which they bought for $1 a piece. They now have 24,000 vines which produce grapes for white and rosé wines.

The mother (who must be my age) does all the pruning of the plants and her son says she loves it.

It was a great way to end our day.

Then it was back to hotel for dinner at 6:30 followed by a reading of poetry written by Sir John Betjeman, English poet laureate who died in 1984.