Loe Bar

Loe Bar is a shingle beach where Ray and Moth found shelter during a storm after leaving Porthleven. Its importance in their journey lies in the immediacy of that refuge: after rain submerged their feet and obscured the harbour, they reached the beach at the foot of the cliff and waited out the worst of the weather.

Coastal setting and approach

The couple came to Loe Bar on the coastal route after passing through Porthleven. Their approach followed a day of worsening rain: they had bought a pasty and sheltered in a shop doorway, but the downpour intensified until the harbour wall, the harbour itself and the far side of the road disappeared from view. When the rain eased enough for them to see their feet, they set off again and eventually found shelter on the shingle at Loe Bar.

A refuge in the storm

The account gives no description of a building or permanent shelter at Loe Bar. What it offers is the foot of the cliff on a shingle beach, a place to take cover after the streets of Porthleven had become waterlogged and the couple’s feet were submerged. Their arrival marks a practical pause in a journey otherwise shaped by exposure to weather and the need to keep moving.

The morning after

By morning, the rain had passed, but cold mist covered the headland. Ray and Moth walked into it expecting to find an electrical transformer; instead, men using strimmers emerged from the fog and stopped to let them pass. The change from a night sheltering below the cliff to a mist-bound headland gives Loe Bar a place in a continuing sequence of temporary pauses, rather than presenting it as an endpoint.

Place within the journey

The visit came during the couple’s coastal walk after Land’s End, as they continued towards the southern part of the route. Their stop at Loe Bar belongs to a wider account of homelessness in which ordinary forms of accommodation were difficult to secure: a campsite had quoted them eighty pounds a week, beyond their means, while renting was made difficult by the repossession of their home and damaged credit. The beach is not described as a lasting solution; its significance is more immediate. For a short time, the cliff and shingle offered shelter when the storm had made the road and harbour untenable.