Journey of the Hosteller

The view onto the beach from the top of the (inaccessible) steps of Bedruthan. Eagle-eyed readers may notice the subtle clue in the title of this post that would indicate that this is a revisit. Many of the locations I mention here are indeed also accounted for in my post on my September 2023 trip . Such readers might rightly, if unkindly, question the wisdom of retreading old ground while there are so many YHA hostels languishing, unvisited (by me - poor things), on my list. To that, I say: it's YHA Treyarnon Bay. The location is lovely in itself, but it's what can be found nearby that makes this such a prize. And so, like a favoured piece in a collector's gallery, I return to it once again. The view out to sea from the South West Coastal Path. On this occasion, my partner and I were camping with a tent and airbeds - none of your fancy landpod business this time! The process, barring some worryingly strong winds on a couple of nights, was a heartening success, and much-nee...

  The view over Treyarnon Bay, 30 paces from the door of the hostel. It’s a Cornwall double feature! With a week in between! Wow! Just when you thought the season of spooks was over, art - by which I mean this blog - imitates life as I talk about a second Cornwall jaunt but a simple year after my stay in YHA Coverack. What a chilling parallel! OK, enough frippery. The summer of 2023 was less overwhelmingly hot than that of 2022, and my trip to YHA Treyarnon Bay in September 2023 was met with weather more familiar to the Cornwall-bound holiday-maker. YHA Treyarnon Bay was likewise more familiar ground to me, having spent very happy holidays both in Padstow to the east and in Mawgan Porth to the south. The hostel itself is right on the coast, overlooking the beach and the breakers. I had begun my hateful gentrification transformation at this point and was staying in a landpod, a decision for which, again, I remain unremittingly unrepentant. It was perfect. Wine Cove, as viewed from t...

The magnificent view between Coverack and Kennack Sands along the South West Coast Path. The nights are drawing in, the frosts are clawing ever closer, the leaves are vacating the trees. Old Man Winter walks among us, and by God he’s feeling ornery. Time, I think, for some sun and sand. Join me in my fantastical imaginarium! Leave behind the chill of encroaching winter for the heady summer of 2022. In the UK, this was a scorcher, with a record temperature of 40.3°C reached in July*. In August 2022, I had the yen, as I often do, to go down to the sea again. John Masefield and I are of one mind on this one. In heeding that wild, clear call, there is one destination that for me rises above all others: Cornwall. I have spent many of the happiest moments of my life on the Cornish coast. From babe, to boy, to man, it has been a source of constant joy. Although my childhood stomping ground was the north coast of Cornwall, around Padstow, I felt sure that the south coast was its equal. So it ...