Hi from Looe in Cornwall

Hi from Looe

We are really loving Cornwall and have been travelling around the coast for about 10 days now. Over the years many people have enthusiastically recommended visiting Cornwall and we totally agree. It reminds us of home as it is hilly, by the sea and windy. The standout place so far is the area around Tintagel. We stayed in a campsite about 1 hours walk north of the town on a cliff top. We had an amazing view and on the first night watched a sunset that Plimmerton would have been proud of. 

Walk to TinTAgel castle

Walk to TinTAgel castle, campsite - 3rd island along!

Just see part of the track back from Tintagel

From the castle westwards.

TinTAgel castle position

TinTAgel castle position

Not a bad day.

We walked part of the South West Coastal Walk to get to the town and to explore the castle, where King Arthur was said to have been born. Dramatic views all the way and the ruined castle is on such a splendid headland. Merlin's cave is below. The town also has an old post office building which dates from the 1300s.

Old post office

We learnt where the expression 'on the shelf' comes from. The main room of the house has a small mezzanine area (called the shelf) where children and single women slept to keep them away from the single men who slept around the fire below.

On the way down to this part of England we stopped at Bury near Manchester to explore some of Colin's fathers war history at the Lancaster Fusiliers Museum. 

Giant rodents near Bury! Sculpture near campsite on an old mill site.

More LoTR. this time in Lancashire

We stopped in the fascinating city of Bristol and had a great time with Marg's nephew and girlfriend and stayed in this wonderful campsite right on the city wharf. Walking into town along the water reminded us of Copenhagen. We explored Marg's father's war history at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Somerset and got to see planes similar to the ones he must have flown.

Bristol right behind the camp site. Very similar feeling to Copenhagen and Wellington!

Just helping with your spelling!

Ahhh yes……Banksie in Bristol.

Poor guy was lonely and so cold!

Tom gives Colin high lecture on the evils of climbing towers in Bristol!

My mate Cary Grant in Bristol whose birth name was…...Archibald Alexander Leach!!. Well bronzed and so pleased that the went to 'Specs Savers'!

Rain nears.

Brunel's Clifton suspension bridge. Colin's Mum was here during WWII working for the Observer Corps plotting Allied and German plane movements.

Marg's Dad flew one of these off Ark Royal. Makes you really reflect about things when you actually see one of these. Flyers were totally vulnerable to everything. 

The coastal walk is extensive going from Minehead on the North coast of Somerset to just passed Plymouth on the South coast totals 630 miles or 1014 kilometers.  We stayed in Minehead on our way to Cornwall and spent a day on the walk getting as far as Porlock and catching the bus back. Tomorrow we plan to walk the section from Looe to Polperro tomorrow.

This be Cider making county. Wonderful orchard setting, yummy apples straight from the tree for eating and making into Somerset liquid nectar!

In one of these!  Or perhaps in a slightly newer version!

Into one of these little 2 litre bottles. 

After Minehead we drove to Ilfracombe in Devon as some of Marg's family left here for NZ in the 1840's (Mary Pile, whose grandson was one of the David Scotts). Since they left it became a sea side resort for the Victorians and we visited the Tunnel Beaches where a tunnel leads from the town through a cliff to separate bathing beaches for men and women! They become unisex in 1909. We wanted to visit the Royal Horticultual Garden at Rosemoor near Great Torrington and the only campground nearby was on a dairy farm so the van was surrounded by chickens. The gardens were really interesting with lots of autumn colour and a display of heritage apples that they grow.

Espaliered apples@Rosemoor RHS gardens

Roses still great at this time of the year in RHS Rosemoor gardens.

A bit of autumn feeling at @ Rosemoor.

Our Somerset home in the country.

Beginning of the South West Coast Path.  For us …...Minehad to Porlock

Marg checks the map! 1014.3 kilometers or 630 miles we only did a small amount on this section!

Lunch under a Somerset LoTR tree.

Then it was out towards the Atlantic coast and a look at the surfing beach at Bude and down to Tintagel. After that we popped into Port Isaac (where Dr Martin is filmed) and then onto Padstow and fish and chips for lunch at one of Rick Stein's restaurants. We have been disappointed in the F&C in the UK as we are so spoilt in Plimmerton. Well Rick's F&C made the grade. We then camped near St Ives in Hayle. We only had to walk through some sand hills to the most spectacular surf beach. Very much like a larger version of the beach at Queen Lizzie Park. St Ives was really special apart from the almost £6 to park the van. For years now it has been a focus for artists and the old town is full of galleries. We spent the day seeing all this exquisite ceramics, sculpture and paintings. As with Port Issac and Padstow this town is a very picturesque old fishing village. All these places are packed in the summer and we are seeing plenty of tourists around although not enough to ruin the experience.

Beautiful Exmoor ponies, oldest wild breed in UK

Porlock in the distance……rain about to start, and it did!

"Verity" at Ilfracombe, a very distinctive, unique and individual statue representing quite a few values. 

Sunset @ campsite near Tintagel from back window of Peedie Charlie

A few mins later……... @ campsite near Tintagel

Port Isaac / Port Wem and hot chocolate as prescribed by Doc Martin!

Port Wem / Port Isaac where  Doc Martin 'lives'! ……….. Only 20 locals acted as extras.

Padstow and fish'n'chips at????

Padstow harbour

St Ives

Another very high quality gallery-St Ives in an old pilchard factory! With external window shutters to protect from waves.

Another St Ives, gallery where 80% of all pieces sold before the opening! This piece completed in clay made up of individually fired and fitted together concentric rings - similar to the Russian doll technique….fascinating - so tactile as well.

Gwithian beach near our campsite. Mid October and about 30 surfers there on this 10Km strip of surf beach! No swimming or surfing for us that day. Locals were so informative about their bit of Cornwall.

We headed down to Lands End and a recent storm meant that the sea was rough and enormous waves were breaking against the rocks. Just around the coast is the famous Minack Theatre. We were really impressed with the vision of the founder and the hard work to carve this outdoor theatre out of a rocking hillside. Pity the performance season is over as it would be great to see a production here. We drove down to Mousehole (pronounced Mowsell or Mouwzol or similar) just because we liked the name. Well Peedie just made it as the lanes are so narrow we had the wing mirrors folded in and a lot of reversing….motoring negotiating would be the best description! A really lovely village.

Land's End, yet another calm day!!

Land's End

The absolutely and truly amazing Minack theatre, have a look on Wiki for more info'.

Mousehole or Mouwzol, mirror folding streets!! 

We had to wait a day to get out to St Michael's Mount (or in Cornish "Karrek Loos yn Koos"), Marazion, (near Penzance) as the sea was still rough. The causeway that can usually be walked at low tide was closed and all boats were not operating. The next morning we walked across the causeway to this fascinating wee island. We toured the castle and really enjoyed the unpretentiousness of it not to mention the great views. The wind got up again while we were visiting and they closed the island and took us off in an amphibious craft. On the boat (duck) found ourselves sitting next to Lord Levan and his wife who still live in the castle. They were very interested in why we had come to see their home. Colin chatted with them and offered them our house sitting services….she replied that "it seems a long way to come to house sit but they will consider it seriously"!!

Causeway out to the Mount.

Outline of the castle with no visible causeway.

Looking back to Marazion from the castle….What causeway??

Marg sold the van………….. and bought!!.

"Shall we let them house sit"?

The St Michael duck returns to the castle after dropping us off. Weather again closed off visits as the sea was certainly on the rise. About 250, 000 paying guests annually, another 100,000 walk around the castle. 

Dramatic waves were crashing when we visited Lizard Point meant to be the true southern most point of the UK. Near St Austell we visited the Lost Gardens of Heligan.  

The Lizard!! You just can't take enough shots of coasts like these.

Great coast at The Lizard.

In the 1990s these gardens were rediscovered all overgrown. It is thought that most of the gardeners had been killed in WWI and the gardens were just shut up and forgotten. They are extensive with 200 acres of formal areas, 'jungle' areas and forest. Today we visited the Eden Project and were impressed with the scope of this undertaking. Difficult to believe it was only started in the 1990s as many of the trees are very tall. The tropical dome was at 30 degrees and very humid which contrasted the 13 degrees outside. Great to be able to see sugar cane, coffee, papaya, vanilla etc all growing. The Mediterranean dome had all the grapes, chillies and olives planted. Outside there were interesting sections such as the one showing the plants from which medicines are derived. Lots of NZ flax and Cabbage trees.

Huge Rhodos everywhere in the Lost Garden

'Maid of the Mud' sculpture at Heligan Lost Gardens

 Eden project, fascinating and impressive.

Tropical biome from 50m platform in 30C and 80% humidity.

Pan view of Eden….again use Wiki for lots of interesting info'.

Of course along with the fish and chips we have been sampling the regional food and maybe because it is a bit of an alternative lifestyle area gluten free options are readily available. So we have tried cream teas and Cornish pasties, yum.