Camel Trail Cornwall hotels:

Recreation path 17 miles in length along the scenic Camel Estuary and Camel Valley from Padstow to Poley's Bridge. The Camel Trail, available free 365 days of the year, winds through some of Cornwall's most beautiful and little-known countryside. Cornwall County Council converted 11 miles of disused railway beside the River Camel from track bed to trail, linking the towns of Bodmin, Wadebridge and Padstow. An extension follows the river towards Camelford. It isn't a road, it isn't a path, and vehicles are banned. There are many visitors to the Trail each year; some use it daily for jogging or birdwatching, others for an occasional day out walking or cycling. Why not join them? Travel along the Camel Trail and enjoy the spectacular scenery of the Camel Valley. Being an old railway track, the Trail is virtually level all the way. Although not a tarmac surface. it is mainly smooth, ideal for wheelchair users, pram and buggy pushers and people who have difficulty in walking on uneven surfaces. The Trail provides safe and easy access to unspoilt countryside for those people unable to use woodland and coastal paths.
There is an extraordinary array of wildlife to be appreciated along the Trail. Look for signs of secretive mammals such as fox, badger, rabbit. deer and rarities like otter and greater horseshoe bat. Coppiced hazel is the home of the dormouse, and a few wild service trees have sprung up among the oak, spindle and sycamore. See foxglove, campion, mullein, madder, violets and snowdrops appear as early as December in some years. Thistle seeds provide food for the goldfinches. The River Camel supports salmon and trout, dipper and kingfisher; on the estuary live bass and mullet, curlew and shelduck; an ever increasing number of little egrets now live alongside the local herons.