Cornwall

Sorry everybody, haven’t had internet for a week so no blog! Some of the smaller camping grounds don’t have wifi. The last one we stayed in was really hard case – just a paddock, only allowed to have 5 campers – one toilet and one shower to share. Luckily we have our own but we do usually use the camp facilities if they’re good (almost all of them have been) to save on gas and water. The farmer came over to collect our money and must have thought we were very friendly (with big smiles) because we were finding it very hard not to laugh at his accent. No doubt he was having the same problem with us but he really did sound like a comic stereotype farmer – with his tractor!

Anyway to have some cohesion, I’ll start where we left off. We had another day’s drive through Dartmoor, but this time there were ponies! Heaps of them, and not terribly afraid of us. I made Gus accompany me accross the wild moor, into a freezing wind and some rain, when I first spotted them to get a distant photo of the wild Dartmoor Ponies. Of course around the next corner there were heaps of them right beside the road, no challenge whatsoever! Also visited Dartmoor Prison, went to the museum there. What a bleak place! Is still an functioning prison but not as many prisoners as in its heyday and now low security. Don’t know why Dartmoor Road in Puketapu is named after it. There were also lots of narrow lanes, pretty streams and stone bridges.

Woke up to sunshine! Went for bike ride down steep hill to two tiny villages near our campground at Veryan. Unfortunately down steep hills means climbing back up afterwards. My bike just doesn’t do steep so I had to get off and walk – Gus’ bike is much better at hills. Once we got to the top we decided to go down again – this time to an extremely pretty fishing village – still lots of fishing boats and a variety of stone houses, some whitewashed, some built on a slope so that the windows at the top of the slope are almost at ground level. Drove on down Cornwall, stopped off at Penzance for a wander – a bigger town but still lovely, narrow cobbled streets and a dry dock for fishing trawlers. The best icecreams in the world; licorace and blackcurrant comes highly recommended by Gus. Spent the night at Sennen Cove, near Land’s End. Weather still good, even a beautiful sunset.

Woke up to sunshine again, yay! Went down to Land’s End early, had it pretty much to ourselves, rugged, eroded, granite bluffs. Gus got a bit close at times but I could see perfectly well from several feet back. There are no trees in the area, apparently they used to burn gorse for fuel. Next drove up the coast to St Ives, really lovely! Such a contrast; white sandy beach, fishing boats, cobbled streets, even a man painting on the beach. Unfortunately involved more bike riding down and up steep hills. The Enterprise (our mother ship) is not too good at narrow winding roads with traffic coming the other way so got left in a supermarket carpark.

Now onto Padstow – happened to park next to a cycle trail Gus had been talking about for a few days – nothing for it but to get the bikes out AGAIN! So glad we did, an amazing ride down a converted railway line, complete with railway viaduct and views all the way of the estuary – could see Padstow across the water at the start. Made it to Waybridge, rested my buttocks for a short time then had to make the return ride – I’m sure they lengthened it in the interim! Stayed night at Bude, basic camp but had a view and got our second stunning sunset.

First stop in the morning was Tintagel Castle ruins – this is the mythical home of King Arthur and more recently of some Earl – who actually built the castle that now remains. He was Richard II’s brother so still a good few years ago. Some of the remains are from the Roman era, some from the Dark Ages, and the rest of the Earl’s Castle. Amazing coastline here, we arrived at low tide so went down onto the beach. Walked through ‘Merlin’s Cave’, actually a natural tunnel that goes right under the island; also a waterfall falling onto the beach; and sheer cliffs. The castle itself is built on an island/peninsula that you cross onto via a thankfully solid bridge, then climb up the side on steep winding stairs that cling to the side – also nice and solid and modern but still pretty spooky for some! One of the remains is a longdrop (as Gus is demonstrating in photo) that drops straight over cliff, plunges about 100m straight down – I wouldn’t have made use of THOSE facilities.

Oops started day by setting off van alarm at 5.30am! How to make ourselves the most popular campers. Drove longer today, up the M5, first time we’ve done a motorway, almost ran out of diesel! Via Lynmouth, another fishing town, had a steep railway going straight up a cliff. Walked along the river there. Finished up trying to find our way down narrow country lanes (the narrowest yet), such a contrast from the M5!! Our camp was near Bradford-on-Avon, this was where we met the farrmerr. It was a real challenge for Shady (our TomTom Satnav), she was seen to consult with Puke – the knitted travelling mascot. Went for a bike ride down the towpath of the canal – was a lovely ride except got our shiny new bikes all muddy – really interesting with lots of narrowboats, have never seen these before. I was a bit surprised that some of them looked quite shabby, some lovely ones too, I guess those are the ones you see in pictures and on the tele. We were fascinated by the way the canal went over a viaduct above the river and a railway track!