This should have been written in August but I lost my notebook until now, and lost most photos when my phone got wet....
The road trip continued. Having got up early at the festival and packed up our tent, we joined the rest of the gang and went for breakfast at the village hall; tasty, delicious and efficient Full English breakfast. We went back and packed up the whole camp then posed for the annual group photo and then departed.
We had been told that the nearby footpath provided a 20 minute walk to the famed
Pandora Inn, however it took rather longer. We walked down a farm track giving fabulous views across Restronguet Creek, passed beautiful houses, an old steam ship, and past private woodland. Got to the Inn but were tired, so decided to follow the lane back to the main road and campsite. The lane was VERY steep so took us a while, but we got back eventually and played cards before going to bed exhausted.
Day 2
Woke up to glorious sunshine, and made breakfast slowly. There's nothing quite like sitting in a field waiting for a kettle to boil. We headed to the
Lost Gardens of Heligan today; we had visited about ten years ago and I wanted to see if it had changed much. The gardens had matured, obviously, and were looking well cared for and as lovely as ever. We enjoyed walking through the jungle and crossed the rope bridge there. There were two girls ahead of us in the queue who were not at all sure they would manage it, but they did, with squeals of delight and surprise. We bought sandwiches from the café and ate them in the shade of a tree on the lawn before heading round the formal gardens. I particularly liked the walled vegetable gardens - I aspire to espaliers of apples! Throughout the gardens were information boards about local men who had gone off to fight in the First World War; many of them worked on the estate, and many did not return. Sad, but interesting and showed how connected to the community the estate had been. We left in late afternoon, via the farm shop, and wended our way back to the campsite down a variety of narrow lanes.
Day 3
Another glorious day after initial cloud. This time we elected to go to The
Eden Project as we were both keen to see it, and the early cloud made us wary of the beach. When we arrived it wasn't too busy, which was nice! I blanched somewhat at the entrance fee, nearly £40 for both of us, but we did stay there for hours and had a very enjoyable and interesting time. The whole site is well thought out and well laid out, with lots of winding paths and corners you can't see round, nooks among the planting with handy benches, sculptures popping up all over the place, and, today, dinosaurs. There was also a huge sculpture based on the Fibonacci sequence, reminiscent of pine cones and sunflower seeds. Very organic-looking and mesmerising. Lovely!
We had fun exploring, playing, and learning plant and ecological facts. We also had a tasty lunch in the Mediterranean café - pasta carbonara for the teenager, and olives and bread for me - followed later on by a scummy ice cream. I haven't been to Eden Project for eleven years, and was amazed by how it has prospered and changed in that time. Absolutely stunning. We left around 7pm, having meandered along the paths up the side of the clay pit and back to the car, and then went on a grand tour of narrow lanes in order to reach the A30, while avoiding St Austell, courtesy of the satnav. Scary drive.
We stopped in Truro and went in search of a takeaway, pausing to admire the
cathedral on the way. Very impressive from outside. Truro appeared to be a pleasant town, and had a nearly full set of trendy coastal shops; just missing 'White Stuff' as far as we could tell. The Chinese takeaway was closed, but we found a
Nepalese-Indian restaurant just up the road and ordered some delicious food to take back to camp.
Day 4
After a leisurely breakfast, we headed to the seal sanctuary at Gweek; however, half of Cornwall had had the same idea so there was nowhere to park in the near vertical car park. Rather than burn out my clutch, we decided to give up and go to The Lizard instead. The satnav proved to have a dark sense of humour and sent us up very narrow, steep lanes which looked as though they hadn't been used since the dark ages. I expected King Arthur to be wandering along the road ahead of us. Much swearing occurred due to the route, to the amusement of my passenger. Grrr!
We eventually got to The Lizard and found the rest of the Cornish population were also visiting, but we did find a parking spot on the remains of the village green. We then went to the pub and had lunch and a brew. The lunch was hearty, which suited the foggy weather. Afterwards we went for a foggy walk, strolling along a footpath until we reached the coast, where we stood on the cliff top and admired the rocky outcrops around us, and the waves rolling in from the Atlantic and crashing on the beach below. We turned right and followed the coastal path for a while until we reached steep steps that led to a small patch of shoreline. Teenager declined to go down, so I left her to chill out and went and explored, meeting a party of Orthodox Jews manhandling a buggy down the steps opposite.
When I returned, we walked back nearly as far as the life boat station, following the doleful drone of the foghorn at the lighthouse, then took a steep narrow path back to the village. The whole walk was strewn with a wide variety of wildflowers, and was lovely in the fog. Once back in the village we stopped at 'Coast Coffee Bar' to have a cream tea. Very nice it was too! We then made our way back to the campsite through the fog, sticking to A-roads as far as possible!
Day 5
I woke just after dawn and lay listening to the hedgerow birds singing lustily. Eventually I crawled out of bed to find the communal part of the tent had puddles in it. Mopped this up, made hot boiled egg sandwiches for breakfast, then managed to drop my phone down the loo, hence no pictures on this entry.
We later headed for St. Erth, having been told to catch the train to St. Ives from here. However, the station was not in the village and we were directed to Lelant Saltings instead. The train ride was a short but picturesque journey along the coast, with spectacular views across the bays and beaches. Once in the town we went in search of a burger joint called
'Blas Burgerworks'. Oh. My. Goodness. We had the best burgers we had ever eaten. Ever. Wow. Blas was near a beach and art gallery, and just below the station. Go there.
After lunch we pottered about town, looked in a few art galleries, found that the
Tate was closed for refurbishment, so carried on wandering. We watched a chap balancing beach stones on top of each other to make sculptures - very clever. We walked along the harbour wall to the lighthouse, and found a crowd at the end. Everyone was admiring a big seal swimming lazily in the clear blue water. There was also a jellyfish, but this didn't get quite so much attention. We pootled back to town, stopping for a cream tea on the way, and buying saffron cakes for our expat Cornish chums on the Island. Another potter around the town followed, mostly because we got a little lost, and then we caught the train back to Lelant Saltings and drove home.
The weather was deteriorating, and a big storm was expected overnight; we decided that as the tent had sprung a leak, and we were tired and getting grumpy, that we would pack up and leave the next morning. Good job too really.
Day 6
Tent was packed up - several broken poles after the windy night - and we set off home. We were essentially in a traffic jam through most of Cornwall and Devon, and parts of Dorset, but eventually made it to Lymington and blagged our way onto a ferry two days earlier than our ticket. Drove off the ferry singing disco songs at the tops of our voices and wended our way home having had a lovely holiday.
