HELLO FROM THE CAMEL TRAIL

This is a cycle journey to be taken slow and allow your senses to savour the scenery around you. It is a former railway track converted to a bike path so you could cycle it fast but then the point will be missed.

The start is at Snail's Pace at Wenford Bridge on NCN3 just below St Breward on Bodmin Moor. Snail's Pace is a cafe that looks interesting. Being off the grid and built in wood by its owner, it sets the tone because my wife and I go in and spend an hour here before we even start cycling.  We enjoy its local food and for the first time in my life I drink camomile tea. The route lazily wanders through old woodlands alongside little fields and the River Camel that glides alongside us. We are in Cornwall and we stumble across places named Boscarne, Nanstallon and Crogley Halt. The sun peers through the trees and brings out the colour of bluebells lining the route.

We see a track turning to the left that says Bodmin and another that says The Borough Arms. We hear the hoot of a steam engine, then 5 minutes later there is a railway station with steam train waiting to leave. We peddle on and tucked in the trees we see a little tea garden. We then come across Gaff Wood, obviously a wood grown by mistake. 

After 12 miles we arrive at Wadebridge where the river opens up and trees disappear. We find almost as many bikes as cars and this is definately a cycling town. Here it is 6 miles of majesty to Padstow as the river, now tidal, continues its meander with blue waters and glimmering sand bars shimmering in the sun. We cross the restored Petherick Bridge into Padstow, the end of the line.

The journey is 18 miles each way and can be found on Cornwall Cycle Map.