Friday 12 November 2010

Running the Camel Trail! (from Wenford Bridge to Bodmin to Wadebridge to Padstow)

This run's a bit of a departure... and not just because I've headed off to East Cornwall for a change.

All the video - and much of the commentary - is provided by my roving, cycling parents, convinced to come along for the trip by the promise of the UK's most beautiful cycle trail. Embarrassing comments aside, I think they do a pretty good job for a first attempt.

By dropping a car off at each end, we managed to do the whole 17.5 miles of the trail... although big chunks of it aren't captured here, as I lost my parents around Wadebridge (and/or Dad forgot to do any filming!).

Nonetheless, you do get many of the highlights... plus a sense of how the character of the river and surrounding valley changes so dramatically along the course of the trail.

One further note: if you're not going to do the whole thing, my advice is to head for the section upstream of Bodmin. These wooded valley areas are far prettier than the later bit... and, judging by the comparative lack of tourists, something of a hidden gem.



Here's the route - mostly traffic-free, and fairly faithful to the Trail itself... although there's some jiggery-pokery around Wadebridge, where the official trail signs leave the riverside, which seems a shame, so I improvised a bit.


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Sunday 7 November 2010

Carn Brea and the Great Flat Lode Trail

This run includes some of the areas I run most often - and I hope the video will show why.

Barely a week goes by when I don't spend at least forty minutes or so mucking about with the dog on the various paths and trails that climb and circle Carn Brea. It's the perfect antidote after a stressful or tiring day.

Carn Brea is a fascinating place with an amazing, colourful history - I won't recount it all here because it's easy enough to find on Wikipedia and Google. The view from the top (on a snowy day) was actually one of the main reasons I started making these videos.

Incidentally, the little castle on Carn Brea is now a Jordanian restaurant - yummy food, thoroughly atmospheric, and generally full of character (and that's just the owner!). Not everyone's cup of tea, admittedly, but we love it and if you're in the area and haven't at least tried it, you should give it a go. There aren't many tables, so booking in advance is recommended.

Sometimes, if I want to add a few miles to my usual run, I'll carry on through Carnkie and take in some of the long views and historic mining buildings on the Great Flat Lode trail... and that's sort of what you see on this 6.2-mile, figure-of-eight jaunt.

(There's a bit of a twist in the tail on this one, which is really just an illustration of the perils of exploring interesting new footpaths when you run. I never said this stuff was easy!)

Oh, and I'm sorry about not being too talkative on this one... and the... er... heavy breathing...



Here's the map for the run - although, as you can see by the end of the video, you may not want to follow it too exactly. Look out, too, for the main road crossing by Higher Carnkie - it's a fast, steep, twisty rat-run, and drivers won't expect to see pedestrians there.

Oh, and by the way... if you have any questions about this blog (or if you're just wondering why I don't run very much in the videos), there's now a page for that.

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