24th August 2008; Mousehole and Pendeen

Mousehole is always a spot where parking is difficult, but since it is Sunday and we get there early we hoped to get lucky and find a place on the harbour, but it wasn't to be.
However on the run into the village I did spot a carpark at the cliff top that wasn't very busy, so as we left Mousehole, I doubled back via Paul and dropped back down into the viallge centre.
It turned out that the walk wasn't too bad and we were soon down on the harbour, where I took three shots to make this panorama.
We had a very nice rum and Raisin flavoured ice cream, and walking through the narrow streets spotted this young lady stroking an elderly cat that seemed quite happy to let her!
We wandered in and out of the colourful and quaint winding little streets enjoying the views and then came out onto the end of the harbour where there is a little beach
And photographed the view looking back past the beached rowing boat to the closed end of the harbour, and as we walked out along the harbour wall, we saw wet suited children ignoring the danger notice and jumping into the harbour mouth.
Once at the end I caught sight of this rather evocative schooner sailing beyond the distant rocks and couldn't resist it!
All too soon it was time to move on, and on the road out I took a couple of quick long telephoto zoom lens shots of distant Penzance and St Michael's mount.
What to do next? since further walking wasnt a good idea for Pat we went across country and stopped at Chapel Carn Brea (the most westerly hill in England) I made the long walk to the summit hile Pat devoured a magazine in the car.
A can be seen from this group I wasn't the only one to think it was hard work!
The views from the top were superb, though there was quite a bit of distant mist obscuring some details. Our final destination was Pendeen lighthouse, and we parked up and had a cuppa while I did a bit of legwork.
The cliff scenery here is superb, and in the distance you could see the chimneys of the Levant mine, where the only beam engine still working under steam in cornwall operates

23rd August 2008: Falmouth and Coverack

A nice bright sunny morning with a forecast for cloudy later: good enough! We decided to go to Falmouth, but not by the normal main roads, but using the country roads instead.
We headed first slightly north to Godolphin Cross, where the village, in fact just about everything else too is named after the family of the same name who introduced copper and tin mining onto their estates and made a great fortune.
Then across to the quaintly named "Praze and Beeble" using for directions some signs that were last painted went Noak built the ark. Some were so bad in fact that the direction arms had rusted so badly they had fallen off!
The roads are extremely narrow with often ten foot banks on either side, with traffic coming the other way up to the the size of juggernauts this is no area for the inexperienced driver!

Lots of signs were simply not there, Pat said she thinks they were taken down during the war to confuse the Germans ,and the locals still don't trust them enough to put them back!
(No wonder the German tour buses can be seen in some very odd places getting stuck!)

We eventually re- connected with the main roads at Longdowns which we have fond memories of as we used to camp at the quaintly named "Calamankey Farm" where if memory serves it always rained even if it didn't anywhere else within a mile away!
Then down into Falmouth and across the very busy town to a quiet corner called "Gyllynvase Beach" which is where the extraorinarily beautiful "Queen Mary Gardens" are.

The plants here are amazing and you can see cacti and succulents I have only seen in Crete, Cyprus and Malta growing happily here. We were told that the growing season here is a full ten months!
One plant that took my eye was the flower in a cactus that looked as if it was pink fondant icing dusted with icing sugar, it really didn't look real.
We ate our lunch here looking out with pleasure at the lovely garden then southbound to Gweek and round the estuary of the Helford river to "ST Anthony in Menege" and following the river round ; there are occasional glimpses like this one of boats and distant houses, but generally the tree cover prevents really good views.
On then to St Keverne and the final point of todays journey, Coverack.
Very pretty and with steep winding streets into and out of the village. I managed to park briefly on the harbour and took three shots to combine for this panoramic.
Then back to camp over Goonhilly downs and Helson, a really great day out!

22nd August 2008 to the Lizard!

A lovely sunny morning at last so first thing, get the chores out of the way and into Penzance shopping, before hitting the road to Helston on our way to the Lizard.
We ran into traffic jams there due to road works, and we had intended to shop and look for a chemist to get some gas refills for Pat's hair tongs, but to our surprise we didn't see a single one: chemist seem in short supply there!
Delayed by farm tractors, the short journey down to the lizard took a lot longer than expected, nd we parked on the National Trust car park and ate out packed lunch sat outside on our folding chairs, very pleasant!
The short walk down to the top of the slipway yielded the photos we wanted, and as the sky clouded over and we aren't exactly quick when walking uphill, we started back to the car.
Continuing our Journey we called next at Mullion Cove and enjoyed the walk down to the harbour , which was quieter than we had expected and all the more pleasureable for that.
Passing quickly through Poldhu Cove as the car park was absolutely full, we followed the winding coast road to Gunwalloe fishing Cove and Church Cove, once more stopping in a National Trust car park before walking down to look at the beaches.
There was a real holiday atmosphere with Surfers, Kite Fliers, kids building sandcastles, it was just like old times. We sat drinking it all in for quite a while.
Eventually it was time to move and we rejoined the main road to Helston then branched off to our last visit of the day Porthleven, which is of course the most southerly port in the British Isles, and here at lasat the found a chemist that stocked the gas cartridges that Pat so deperately needed for her hair tongues: the day was saved!
After that a gentle drive took us back to camp for a welcome snooze.

21 August 2008 Senner and St Michaels Mount

The weather looked dull, but passable so off we went to Sennen Cove and parked on the harbour car park.quiet at first, it soon became busy as a coach load of German Tourists arrived, they were having a good time, cameras everywhere and much excitement!
Eventually they all disappeared up the hill in the direction of the coast path to Lands End, and their bus drove away empty.
We had a pleasant walk and I photographed the harbour and the capstan house, but then the inevitable rain started, though this didn't spoil it for the people fishing at the end of the harbour breakwater.
Rather than go straight back to the caravan we took the wonderful and quirky coast road of a million bends, dips and hills and eventually ended up at Hayle to enjoy the world's best Cornish pasties, followed by delicious blackberry flapjack with a Yoghurt topping.
Great for the Cholesterol!
Once back at camp we rested and the sun eventually came out.
down to Marazion we went to park on the front and walk the tidal causeway across to St Michael's Mount, and for once it was low tide! I took quite a few pictures on the causeway, and once in the harbour spotted hundreds of yachts coming in at the completion of racing for the afternoon.
PAt discovered to her dismay that she wouldn't be able to walk up to the castle as it was far too steep an rough for someone with Arthritis to tackle,and we realised the tide was coming in by now.
Returning over the causeway the water had reached the edges of the road so there was a little haste indicated if we wanted to keep our feet dry.
We popped up into the village and bought fish and ships which we ate sitting on the sand looking at the beach.
Since the weather and the sea has been rough the normally spotless beach was covered in broken kelp stems, which a JCB was busily collecting to dump into the sea further up the bay.
My last shot of the day was of surfers silhouetted against the distant church in Newlyn.
It has been the best day so far this holiday!

20th August 2008 We moved to Marazion

And as the field had dried up overnight, we didn't get bogged down leaving the site, a positive plus!
Naturally it had to rain at some point, so it waited till we were setting up and gave us a good dousing then, just to make us feel welcome, I suppose!
The traffic on the way down was busy, but at least there were no stoppages,and we were on site and cooking dinner for 12 noon exactly.
To our surprise the local fuel charges were about the same as at home at £1.21 per litre for diesel, so after a bit of shopping at the local morrisons supermarket we filled up the car and drove over to the other coast to Cape Cornwall, and at last we had some sunshine! the coast there is spectacularwith a rocky island out so sea, and we watched a local fisherman bringing his boat in through rougher water than I would care to tackle.
I chose one of a previous day's batch of photos to be out postcard for this holiday, I took it a couple of days ago at Holywell Bay, and it sort of captured the holiday atmosphere for me.

19th August 2008 Tuesday, a visit to Lanhydrock House

We had rather a noisy night with the howling of the wind, though fortunately by this morning the worst of it was over, and we were rather relieved about that.
As usual it was raining first thing, and we set off to Bodmin to visit another favourite National Trust Property, Lanhydrock House, a vast stately home with over fifty rooms to visit, so a good place to go if the weather is wet!
And another bonus, they have a super restaurant too!
As usual we timed our arrival so that we were bang on time for lunch being served and we were the first customers of the day.
As we walked down to the house we passed one of the great trees that line the drive, lying broken on the ground, it had succumbed to the wind overnight and literally been torn out of the ground.
Your first viewof the house is a diagonal one taking in the very ornate gatehouse and the private chapel on the rightYou then come to the gate house itself, a strange confection, there is an upstairs gallery with a photographic exhibition on the housa and gardens upstairs.

We had a good look round the gardens first and were fortunate that the sun shone for a short while, as it rained cats and dogs while we were going round the house.
The table in the main dining room is usually set out for a major dinner but today the table was bare as ten days ago the house was burgled and all the silverware stolen!
Naturally with the weather being so uncertain, the house has been exceptionally well attended this summer and there were many foreign visitors too, predominantly Germans.

We had a little tour down through the by roads to Lostwithiel, then again using minor roads came back over Bodmin moor,not a long journey, but slow due to the narrow roads and steep hills, it was rather enjoyable though, and it didn't rain.

On our return to the campsite we found to our surprise that the sun was shining, a rare treat these past few days!
Tomorow we are moving on to Three Ways at Marazion, a Caravan club site which has three big advantages from our point of view: mains power, proper entrances and exits that don't turn into a quagmire, and shelter from the wind.
We are hoping that it doesn't rain too much overnight, otherwise we will need the Spikes Spiders fitted to get up the slope to leave camp.
Although the view here is great, the stewards very friendly and there's a good atmosphere on site, the site is too exposed and prone to becoming very muddy and slippery at the single entrance, so if we come down here again it won't be to this site!

18th August 2008: A good day despite the weather

Once again we had clear skies at night, and by dawn it was cloudy, raining, and rather windy. Still we were determined to make the best of the day and drove down to visit a National Trust property near Newquay, called Trerice.
This is an Elizabethan Manor house in pretty original condition and surrounded by it's own gardens and orchards, well worth visiting!
The house has rather ornate masonry, and a couple of rather time worn lions on the front lawn,
Fortunately by the time we arrived the weather had imroved and there was actually a weak but welcome bit of sunshine!
At the back of the main house the barn has been converted to be used as a tea room, where we had an excellent Bacon, Egg, and spinach pie with a large salad, making a very agreeable lunch, and of course inevitably a cup of tea.
In the gardens I got a rather nice shot of a brown butterly which looks pretty good considering i forgot to turn the flash on, and also I was rather taken with these flowers.

Since the weather was still quite nice when we left we drove to the coast and visited Holywell bay, finding when we arrived that it too was a National Trust property (even though it isn,t in the book) which meant that as members the parking was free, saving us £3.50
It is a fairly long walk down to the beach, but very scenic: the sea was so rough that the lifeguards had put up red flags so no surfing today, however there is a freshwater stream that runs down into the sea and this was full of kids with boats and mini boards, where they are of course perfetcly safe.
Just as we set off back the heavens opened and we got thouroughly soaked, this young couple pretty much summed up everyone's feelings about the weather!
Back at site we fiound that the already strng wind had risen even higher so I guess we can look forward to a noisy and rocky night!

17th August 2008: Better weather than expected!

We had an amazing moonlit night, I woke at about 3 am and looked out and it was like a strange false dawn outside, the full moon was huge in the sky and there were white fluffy clouds sailing by and very define shadows of the caravans cast by the moonlight: quite spooky in fact!
by the time we got up it was dull to begin with but we set off along the coast road and to our surprise the weather improved quite a bit, and after dropping down into Port Quin, we descended the steep and narrow hill into Port Isaac where rather uniquely you can park all day for £2.
What's unique about that? simply that it's on the beach in the harbour and the high tide determines when the car park closes for the day!
We enjoyed some superb cakes at the local bakery before taking to the road again and visiting a cove we haven't been back to since the 1960's
Trebarwith Strand.
Gorgeous beach at the bottom of a steep hill and a fast running stream has carved a deep channel through the rocks on its way down to the sea. It was busy with surfers (there's a surfing school there) and all the usual facilities so we had our first pasty of the holiday and sat outside enjoying the view and munching away: good fun!
Continuing our journey we passed through Tintagel without stopping,as we had walked far enough already, and paused briefly to take some shots of the astonishing folder strata in the cliffs just before Widemouth Bay, what titanic forces are needed to twist the strata into Zig Zags like that I cannot imagine!
Pretty soon we reached Bude and began our return journeyalong the main road, taking about
a third of the time needed on the outward bound journey to return to camp along the main coast road.
The forecast for the day had been poor, but we had a good one, and the foul weather at least had the good manners to wait till after tea, right now it's blowing a gale and raining cats and dogs!

16th August 2008: and still in the grips of bad weather

Perhaps not anywhere else, but certainly here in cornwall! we had a windy and wet night and the day ran very much along the same lines!
We did go out, in order to obtain a new gas cylinder refill for the caravan and that took us as far as Newquay before we could obtain one of the correct type and size.
The recent bad weather has rather damaged the tourist trade here, and for the first time we saw vacancy signs on some of the boarding houses: unheard of in August!
Also many of the campsites are very poorly populated, on our own meet the steward mentioned that many of their group who normally stay the full month have given up and gone home early.
Ah well, we'll give it several days in the hope of improvement!
On the way back we stopped at the Bedruthan steps so I did get at least one image to post on the blog....

We did have about twenty minutes of brighter weather after tea, and the wind does seem to have turned round a little and eased, so let's hope tommorrow is better!
Just when I thought the day was over, the sky cleared for a few minutes and these shots presented themselves!

15th August 2008: Cornwall at last

After another B Awful day on the road! We set off in fine style in bright sunshine, in theory it was going to be a breeze, 200 miles and motorway and dual carriegeway all the way...
First problem cam when we got to Cheltenham and the powers that be simply posted a notice "Road Closed" on the A4o, less than two miles to the M5.
No diversion had been arranged or signed, so we covered a total of 24 miles on traffic congested back roads before reaching the M5 in Gloucester!
Ok, a little less than an hour wasted through official incompetence, so we settled down to contine, and stopped to have lunch at the next services.
Lunch over we travelled 1.5 miles only to hit stationary traffic, which was stop start for the next twenty miles!
Another hour wasted. This time the cause was a car so throughly burned out that even the tyres were melted, one can only hope the people got out!
We continued with the usual mix of road works etc, and arrived to find the weather had changed to driveing rain and the field was to say the least somewhat soggy underfoot.
Needless to say when we rang home the weather has been perfect, and were we have a week of bad weather forecast now (changed from this m,orning!) the forecast for home is for prety near perfect weather!
I believe the expression is "Oh bother!
Anyway here we are on site!

14th August 2008: On the road again!

Here we are in bourton on the water overnighting on our way down to Wadebridge in Cornwall, we had a terribly slow journey down due to accident problems between junctions 29 and 27 on the M1, and ur diversion probably took longer than if we had carried on with the traffic!
So there's only one picture of Bourton today!

2nd August 2008 Our last full day here: And variable weather to say the least!

Thought I'd start off with last night's sunset, which was up to the usual standard for Northumberland, ie superb!
It really looked as if the sky was on fire, and it lasted for ages.
This morning started well with a sunny dawn, but rain soon started and lasted upto just before 9:00 AM.
We looked at the sky and decided that we would stay for the day as the traffic is lighter on the way home on a Sunday morning , and went for a short inland tour to pass the time.
The lighting was very variable and I took this landscape with the threatening sky with the Nikon D60, then took a 300mm telephoto shots with the S9600 bridge of a small section of the scene, a farm on the distant hillside.
We had lunch in Rothbury the came back via Alnwick stopping to take this landscape (and a few others )on the way.
The afternoon weather was a mixture of sunny periods with sudden and violent heavy showers, enough to keep us close to shelter!
Ah well our last day already, seems as if we've just arrived! the weather has been very variable, but the area remains a great one to visit, and i'm pretty sure that all being well, we will come here another year!

1st August 2008:After a bad start....

It rained non-stop for 15 hours, then suddenly at 10 AM the skies started to clear and it was a lovely sunny day from then on.
First we stopped on "The Wynd"in Bamburgh for our mid morning cuppa and I took a shot of the Farne islands still partly obscured by mist
And a distant view of Lindisfarne castle and the nearby light beneath a threatening sky
We drove to Lindisfarne and parked briefly near the toilets in the village: a new sign has appeared a the village entrance banning cars and motor cycles unless they require access to off road premises.
Since we have been parking there for over thirty years this wasn't well received, especially as the alternative is to park (and pay for the privilege) hundreds of yards away down the road.
I didn't mind paying to park when you were permitted to do so at the waters edge, but being fleeced and made to walk a distance that is quite simply too far for Pat (or anyone with arthritis, even if not disabled) before getting where you want to be is simply being greedy and anti social on the part of the local authorities, who no doubt will claim "they are trying to protect the environment" or some other such tosh, when in fact they are simply ripping off the visitors the village needs to survive.
In future we wont bother going again.
I stopped at the bridge on the causeway to take some pictures and a passing car created such a draught that my hat blew off and disappeared under the bridge, sinking as it went.
The hat is no loss really, but my Camping club 25 year veteran badge went with it too!
This is the shot I took from the steps of the refuge: somewhere under there my hat lies!
I then walked out onto the soft sands to take this shot of the original pilgrims causeway, that pre dates the road by a thousand years or so!
Ah well, easy come, easy go!
We had a superb lunch at the Oxford Farm shop then drove over the border for a walk round Eyemouth, always worth a visit with it's still active fishing fleet, especially poignant if you come from Hull, like me.
At the end of the harbour is a wet fish stall a little more versatile than most, he offers such delicacies as "Hot Kipper Rolls" and sells "2 fish halves for a pound, five for £2 to feed to the seals"
And sure enough, there below his stall are five grey seals "no doubt in his employ"
eager and waiting and enjoying the easy way to make a living in the tourist trade!
By now it was late afternoon and the sky was getting cloudy, so we hightailed it for home!