Tranquil waters: the young River Fowey (Simon
Calder)Back on the bike: turn your back on the river. The next few miles from here are unsuitable for cycling (trust
me, I have checked). So instead follow in my tyre tracks across the hills to the town of Liskeard. It is off-
route, but a train from here will take you (and your ideally pre-booked bike) in just 10 minutes to Bodmin
Parkway.
Here, resist the temptation to hop on a steam train: the Bodmin & Wenford Railway puffs north from here.
Instead, take the National Cycle Network track that begins right next to the car park. You are soon on a
curved path that flirts with the river.
At the end, turn sharp left on the second-prettiest bridge across the Fowey and head up the hill. You are
aiming for the well-signposted Duchy of Cornwall Nursery: a place where plants, not toddlers, are
cultivated. Then take the signposted public footpath veering off to the right.
Now, due to a luggage malfunction, I was navigating with the help of a 1930 Ordnance Survey map (for
complicated reasons my 21st-century version is currently in the back of a blue BMW). But it worked a treat,
guiding me across the Great Western Railway and the now-adolescent River Fowey, and then to Restormel
Castle: a preposterously circular 13th-century fortification that is now in the care of English Heritage.
Navigate carefully through the pheasants that have taken up residence along the lane south to Lostwithiel.
Those passing through are urged to pause in an “Ancient Stannary Town” (it was once home to the
Stannary Parliament, looking after the interests of tinners), though you may be happy just to let the gentle
muddle of Georgian townhouses and ecclesiastical remnants augment your happy journey. Cross the
prettiest and lowest bridge on the river, originally built by the Normans, and prepare your thighs for three
steep climbs and corresponding descents in seven miles. Unless and until GWR reinstates the railway that
runs beside the river, you have to ascend high above
Cold front: Simon Calder swimming in the River
Fowey at Golitha Falls (Graham Hoyland)