Closer to home this time, but it seemed like a world away.

Crantock is linked to my 'home' (is where the heart is) village of Llangrannog in Wales; both were settled by the same saint. Both are quiet villages with tiny lanes where the pubs and beach are the main draw.

All the way through Crantock to the Bowgie Inn at West Pentire and you begin to feel a bit more in the middle of nowhere — lovely when every young family in the world has descended on Newquay for Easter.

There was little or no surf at Crantock so I made myself happy by visiting Porth Joke (aka Polly Joke). I scored a free hour and a half's parking ticket — it ain't cheap around here — your best bet is to join the National Trust so you can park on their carparks.

I did the first part of the Cubert, West Pentire and Crantock Bay guided walk, following a .pdf from the National Trust website:
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-walks-feature/w-visits-walks.htm#sw
I didn't have time for the whole thing, but it's a fairly easy track.

I took the narrow track down from the carpark which bends left and trails around West Pentire headland. The rocks at the end of the headland drew me down the less-tromped pathways (the beach is really close if you go direct) and I was glad I did. There's a collapsed cave which might or might not be a blowhole. It was making enough noise at low tide and I bet would have been a sight to see when the storms were raging a couple of weeks ago. In any case, there are plenty of rocks to clamber about on or (hopefully) sunbathe in peace in the summer.

From there it's another ten minutes to Porth Joke. From the little bridge after the kissing gate, you'd think there was nothing much to the beach, but I followed it down to the sea and the cliffs open wide at the low tide end. There are loads of caves, although some of them are only really folds in the cliff. Plenty of climbing and rock pools to check out. One little cave goes all the way through and pops out the other end.

There was as much swell coming through as on any of the other beaches I'd seen already, which leads me to suspect that it might be a quiet enough place for the perfect summer surf and barbecue, if you can drag other people all that way.

I was keen to go and check out the Iron Age hill fort on the next headland, but had to get back for the carpark. Next time…