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!