Day Five - 100 Miles, 100 Years of History
Today took us into familiar territory as we got closer to home, and we were lucky with the weather again as the rain held off until we’d finished. We started at Holywell Bay, where the sun was bringing people out. To be fair this leg would see us pass some of the best beaches in the county… but no time for a dip!
We weren’t expecting too many problems today, especially passing through Newquay, but it was quite deceptive at times. We started later than usual though, based on the fantastic progress we had made over the previous few days. We made our way around Kelsey Head and into Porth Joke. I don’t know where that name came from, but would love to find out. A quick in and out to skirt this beach brought us to West Pentire and we were soon looking over Crantock beach.
Crantock had us back on the sand as we cut inland to get around the Gannel estuary. People get into trouble trying to ford the Gannel at semi-regular intervals, so we knew it wasn’t safe and went around instead, coming out and up to the tip of the Pentire Point East headland.
We indulged ourselves with a stop at the lovely Lewennick Lodge for tea and cake before carrying on towards Fistral beach. Fistral was busy with surfers at the near end and a jet ski competition at the far end, and the golf course on the other side of the path was also busy due to the good weather.
Passing Towan Head and the Huer’s Hut (a 14th Century lookout building) we passed above Newquay Harbour where our gig team trains, thanks to the support of Newquay Rowing Club. Then it was into the town centre, picking up the old tram line towards the station and then up above Tolcarne beach and Lusty Glaze. We picked up fresh water supplies before heading down to Porth beach. The sensible ones skirted around the beach, the more ambitious jumped between stones to cross the stream, and the crazy ones (well one) waded through whilst carrying someone piggy-back!
After a short circle towards Porth Island we carried on up the hill to the Sands resort and then began the last stretch to Watergate Bay. This stretch took us close to the perimeter of RAF St Mawgan and Trebelsue training area. The area of Trebelsue (or Trebelzue to some people) Big Field was used for flying from as early as 1912, but it was commandeered in 1939 by the Air Ministry for military use. It was only a satellite station for RAF St Eval at this point, which we will cover more on tomorrow, and the Watergate Bay Hotel was taken as the Officers’ Mess (sadly no longer the case).
Although used by Coastal Command initially, in 1942 it was transferred to Ferry Command and supported RAF Portreath in receiving and dispatching aircraft to and from theatres around the world. The flying conditions so close to the sea, though, were unsatisfactory and prevented the airfield from reaching its full potential, so a new airfield was constructed just slightly further inland was begun and opened on February 23rd, 1943. This was RAF St Mawgan and, yes, it’s our 75th anniversary this year!
RAF St Mawgan was primarily used by the United States Army Air Force and became one of the busiest airfields in the UK for transit aircraft, with 16,110 movements in 1944. Today we provide survival training in all environments to all members of the Armed Forces, support a Reserves squadron, host the Plymouth and Cornwall Wing RAF Air Cadets HQ, provide resilience training for RAF personnel from around the country, and support a number of other lodger and satellite units in the south west.
It only remained to walk down to Watergate Bay, which was also busy with a junior surfing competition, and meet our support team to end the walk for the day. We had now completed 65 miles of the 70 miles total, leaving only one small leg for the last day that would bring us to the community party at St Eval. No injuries and nobody unable to complete any of the legs so far, which was great to see, and left us confident of our ability to finish the 100 miles off in style tomorrow.
