As you can see, today was very wet! Even in Summer a good waterproof jacket is a must – thank you to Gordon Balfour for mine:-)
I started the day at Earlshall Road, past a very nice house,
and up the lane to Tentsmuir Forest.
Tentsmuir Forest is lovely! A great place to go for the day when the weather is nice. There are loads of different trails to follow, a place to have a picnic, a Crepe Shack (what more could you want:-) ), toilets and the most massive expanse of beach I have ever seen. Apparently seals are often seen there on the sandbanks but I never saw any unfortunately. A lot of people go there for the walks but also to cycle with their mountain bikes.
The problem with Tentsmuir from my point of view was that the Fife Coastal Path signs were not very visible! I was hardly in the forest five minutes and there was a junction of two possible routes but no sign posts!
So, I just took the one straight ahead. I walked for quite a while and eventually came to a sign (phew!) leading onto the beach.
Now, there was still a path through the forest but there was no arrow on the Fife Coastal Path sign so I assumed I was to go onto the beach although that’s not what my map was telling me! Anyway onto the beach I went (you can’t go wrong on the beach I thought).
And what a size of a beach! It went for miles,
and miles!
I passed a few people on the way – a man flying a kite as he sang ‘Let’s go fly a kite, up to the highest heights…’ that was nice:-) (He did have a child there somewhere but I think the kite was for him really:-) );
and a couple with five collies racing up and down!
The rain (that had stopped for a while) started to come down in earnest so I headed off the beach where I saw some people coming in. A nice lady told me that was where the car park was – the centre of Tentsmuir, so I made my way towards it in hope of finding some definite signs for the route I should be following.
The car park is where all the amenities are – the routes for walking/cycling, the toilets and Crepe Shack etc. so I stopped there under a shelter to have lunch and check where I was going next.
You can just see the pointy roof of the shelter in the photo (above the white car) where all the walkways are displayed. Luckily one of the walkways is also marked as the Fife Coastal path route so I was happy that I finally knew where I was going and set off after lunch determined to get through the forest and onto Tayport.
I started at 12:30 on the fir cone trail:
past the ice house that was used in the 1800’s to store Salmon (so far so good),
then I’m not sure what happened because there seemed to be an awful lot of paths and trees for what was supposed to be a half hour walk!
Eventually, at about 2:20pm I reached the exit gate, hurrah (thought I was never going to get out of that forest:-) )!
And on to the pretty harbour of Tayport.
A family I met in Tentsmuir car park had told me I must go to the Harbour Café in Tayport and I’m glad I did! A cosy café with lovely cakes and coffee. The staff were very welcoming too and left me alone on my laptop to use their wifi (I still needed to find a place to stay for the night – I’d decided to do the seventh day instead of trying to squish the walk into six days). A lovely place to dry off and rest for a while.
The walk from Tayport to Newport-On-Tay takes you through a tree-lined lane,
then out onto the coast offering nice views over the Tay and of the Tay Bridge.
As they are only three miles apart it isn’t long before you can spot Newport-On-Tay,
with its lovely old stone houses, most of which were built before world war 11,
with their views over the River Tay to Dundee.
I also passed a very colourful bandstand,
and a war memorial for all the people from Newport who had lost their lives in the second world war.
There is a chip shop in Newport-On-Tay called The Silvery Tay which was highly recommended by my daughter Lisa who swears it’s even better than the one in Anstruther.
Newport-On-Tay was the end point for Day 6. I was very lucky to get hold of the number for a luxury B&B in Newport – The Lillian Bay B& B – owned by a lovely lady called Jackie who gave me a special rate for the night. The accommodation was huge and extremely comfortable so I was very lucky. Thank you Jackie!
Another lovely day was had walking the Fife Coastal Path with its diverse terrain and interesting landmarks. Only one more day to go – who knows what I’ll see tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
Carol Jones' Stories 