ahoy me hearties
by Rachael
not sure where we are – somewhere between St Just and Land’s End, England
Guess where we were going! Or where we thought we were going. Yup, Penzance. But we couldn’t find any pirates coz whole town was in party mode – and closed to traffic. All we managed was a snapshot of the boat-filled harbour from a moving van and the parade just before we were turned around.
Actually that was the third thwarted plan of the day….number one was the Eden Project, which turned out to be outside our budget (but meant the kids could spend the morning climbing trees while I blogged nonstop, so it wasn’t all bad – and Grandpa went with Aunty and they bought a book so I can read all about it, which we all know is nowhere near as good as being there, but will certainly be a good alternative. Besides, I grilled Aunty with tough questions for the entire duration of the afternoon’s travelling.)
Here’s a picture from the road (lots more pretty countryside):
Second thwarted plan was St Mawes Castle. I cannot for the life of me figure out why such an attraction would be closed on Saturdays (well, maybe they hire it out for weddings or something, but that seems jolly inconsiderate for those of us who would loved to have gone and had to go on this particular Saturday).
So when nothing had worked out, we nipped off up a side street, coz we are big and bold in our vans now and will tackle the tiniest of Cornish roads, even after receiving an email this morning warning us (and I quote), “Beware cornish country roads, very narrow and easily misjudged – what look like hedges and shrubs on the sides are often concealed solid stone banks or walls…” Yeah, well we trimmed a few hedges today <wink> Remember that photo from the other day of our van filling the whole road? It was just like that again. Only for longer! And the widest vehicle we met was a bus!! Needless to say, a spot of reversing was in order on more than one occasion. Anyway, we chose this side road, because it led to Chysauster Ancient Village, the surprisingly well-preserved remains of a two thousand year old community of houses. Having spent time recently living with fire for cooking and central meeting places to congregate, we could easily imagine how this wee community functioned. Interesting to consider people are still living similarly today.
Millions might live with no running water, but we opted for luxury tonight. Our intended location of a carpark at a beach or a layby, of which there were supposed to be plenty, did not eventuate. I don’t know if our local advice-giver had some insider information, which he was not sharing, but at the end of the day, there was nowhere for us to stay, not where we had been told to. So we travelled on towards the southernmost tip of England. Not that we got that far – en route we found a real camp ground with unlimited hot showers and that was enough to sway us to pay for accommodation for a night. The fact that it was right at the top of a cliff leading down to one of Cornwall’s most famous and prettiest beaches was a bonus. As was the sunset, which Mboy6 described as, “It looks like the clouds are burning.” And they were. Broad brush strokes of deep red splashed across the underside of clouds, and quickly turned to pink and purple. From the bright white moon on one side to the dark clouds across the other side, it was a magnificent picture, one we just couldn’t capture on film. But it will remain in our memories – standing barefoot on cold grass in a biting wind should ensure the experience lingers.
~ photo half an hour before the sky turned red ~
Oh, and just because……dessert tonight……
Time on the road: 3 hours
Distance covered: 117km
Tags: money, postcard: England, recreation
rayres
ooh… I love the look of that ancient village!
Ah. once again, nothing beats eating local!!
What an amazing place to be. The ancient village looks inviting and I was itching to head along the stony path to the beach with you 🙂
Your reversing skills must be outstanding now. NZ traffic will seem a breeze, esp in a van!
Am feeling very homesick seeing your blog & reading about your adventures ,brings back memories of family holidays ,driving on those tiny country lanes ,then we’d come across a huge haystack truck !!
Watch out for those ?
Are you going to London?