Accordingly on the Sunday morning, another nice walking day, with plenty of sunny intervals and reasonable temperatures we parked our car on the roadside at Porthtowan and were ready for the off, east this time along the coast to Perranporth, a well known holiday and surfing beach some 11 decidedly undulating coastal miles to the east.

We set off across the top of the beach passing the Commodore Inn and were soon working hard as we climbed up the first of many steeply ascending cliff sections of the day.

The path was quite steep and had suffered from rather a lot of erosion.

However it did serve to warm us up for the rest of the walk and the views looking back made the effort worthwhile.

At the top in the near distance we could see evidence of mining which of course was once a mainstay activity in the area.

The coastal area is now owned by the National Trust and the sign indicates the mining links as the area is named as Wheal Charlotte.

As we progressed along we had good views back along the sandy area below with the low tide allowing a large area of the the lovely sand in the area to be exposed.

Odd really in that below us was beautiful sandy area whilst above us just in land was an almost lunar landscape of the remnants of the mining waste which is all over the place in the area.

It must have been very very busy in its heyday to have resulted in the landscape that we found ourself walking through.

The conditions here in the middle of winter with northerly gales blowing are not too nice to think about.

Soon enough we left the scarred landscape behind us and climbed up a hill, Mulgram Hill perhaps on the map to see a most beautiful unspoilt cove below us.

The whole area including the completely unspoilt Cove of Chapel Porth is owned and managed by the National Trust and apart from the car park it is perhaps as it was a century ago.

It is a very pretty place indeed and as we descended from the high cliffs down the zig zag path we had plenty of time to admire the vista below.

We had a chat with the National Trust staff there who kindly let us have some pamphlets describing the history of the area.

We then started the climb up and away from the cove and towards some well preserved and renovated examples of the mining related buildings that once adorned the cliffs.

The building directly on the coast path is a fine example of an old engine house, used to pump water from the many mine working tunnels of the area, with many of them below sea level.

This renovated building is one of the most photographed and visited coastal mine locations in the area as it is not difficult to get to and in quite a superb setting.

We made our way on along the easy to follow coast path as it headed out passing more old mine tunnels and workings, some of them covered over with wire grids to prevent people getting too inquisitive and at the same time allowing access for the many bats which live in the tunnels below from the vertical shafts.

Once again it is difficult to envisage men walking 5 miles to start a shift at such a remote point and then having to climb down 500 feet ladders down these vertical shafts.

Walking was relatively easy as we headed towards the next major headland, that of St Agnes Head.

The photograph on the right shows St Agnes Head and Bowden Rocks an outcrop out to sea north east of the headland.

A mile east of the headland is the village of St Agnes, once of course the centre of the local mining area.

There is a national trust plaque on the coastal path indicating that the area is known as New Downs and a half mile east of St Agnes Head is Newdowns Head.

Shortly after passing Newdowns Head another cove is found just down from St Agnes, this is a very popular beach close as it is to St Agnes and in the right conditions it is a popular surfing beach.

The area is called Trevaunance Cove and it was quite full on the Sunday of the bank holiday weekend.

There is a valley leading down to it from St Agnes and immediately behind it a high cliff with plenty of evidence of mine workings at the top.

The tide was out and we had a choice of a stiff climb up over a cliff and down the other side to the next cove or a clamber over the rocks between Trevaunance Cove and Trevellas Porth, both in the same bay but two quite different beaches.

Trevaunance, very sandy and busy with holiday shops and houses behind and Trevellas only 200 yards to the east almost empty with no shops or houses other than the derelict mines up the valley leading down to the small beach.

The only visitors to it were like us, people who had clambered over the rocks at the low tide.

We made it over the rocks without event and made our way up the beach over the renovated bridge and up the steeply ascending cliff path leading east.

As we gained height climbing up the steep cliff path away from the Trevellas Porth cove and the St Agnes area, there were excellent views looking back to the beach and the mines in the valley behind it.

On the high cliffs once again there was the, by now, usual views of mine workings and as we looked towards the headlands of Pen a Grader and in the further distance Cligga Head, we could see some interesting geological features.

The cliffs were at some points stained by iron ore and at other points by copper lodes exposed on the cliff side.

At other places the cliffs were almost smooth and whitish in colour, not being specialist in geology all we could do was to admire the frissures and colour ranges produced.

Above us in the sky was a glider and then another, we soon found out why.

For a good on mile section of the land just inland of the cliffs was an old airfield. The runway was clearly visible and the tarmac remained. A gliding club was busy winching gliders into the sky. All round us was evidence of the wartime airfield, I wondered what aircraft flew from here during and after the war.

Aircraft parking bays were still clearly visible right on the edge of the cliff and the coastal path made its way right alongside some of them.

We continued along with glimpses of the magnificent cliffs in the area and gradually we approached another headland with plenty of evidence of wartime buildings which had stood the ravages of time far less well than had the old mines.

It was a strange mix of old military buildings and old mine workings and spoil tips. It was interesting to note how the business of mining had been replaced with the business of flying which in turn had been replaced by "very little really".

After a quick break to see what they could have been and failing to work out we continued on passing Cligga Head, one of the larger headlands in the area. After Cligga Head, we wandered up and down among the old mine working scree trying to follow the less than obvious coast path.

Luckily the coast path became far more obvious a little further along and we regained the track and made good progress towards our destination of Perranporth.

The map indicated that it wasn't far and the increasing number of 'walkers' many in flip flops and beach gear reinforced that view.

Shag Rock area and Droskyn Point were reached and passed and just beyond Droskyn Point we could see Perranporth for the first time with its' large wide sandy beaches and the many surfers in the water.

The coast path swung round to the right and we headed down to the town of Perranporth and its lovely beach.

We found our way down to the car park by the beach and just alongside it the 'First Direct' bus company bus areas.

A bus was in and when we looked at the destination it indicated Porthtowan, where we had left the car in the morning. What luck!!

We asked the driver when the bus was leaving, in one minute at 3PM was the reply.

The fare was under £2 single and some 20 minutes later we were driving into Porthtowan.

It had taken us 4 hrs 20 minutes to walk the 12 miles from Porthtowan to Perranporth and 20 minutes to return.

For those interested in walking this section and taking the bus back the Sunday service is on the hour, every hour and I believe that in the season the weekday service is every half an hour, on the half hour from Perranporth.

I was so pleased with the timing of our arrival at Perranporth that we just had to call into the Commodore Beach side pub at Porthtowan for a lovely couple of pints of real ale. It was one of the best real ales I had ever tasted, brewed by Skinner's of Truro and called Summer Bronze, it was a wheat based beer and a superb way of finishing a walk.

I can also recommend the food offered by the pub, a wide range and some excellent value specials.