We were all uparound 7am this morning. We left home at about 9:30 and headed for St Ives. The drive down was rasonable with only a few encounters with "the tractor factor" which can slow a journey somewhat with nowhere to pass.
Helen and Mike made a detour to show us Port Isaac (Port Wenn of Doc Martin fame). It was great fun to see all the familiar landmarks in real life and to hear the seagulls just like the sounds from the show.
On then to the Badger Inn at Lelant on our way into St Ives. We had a late lunch and it was fabulous. I had a ploughmans and Elaine had a fantastic vegetable sizzle, Helen a bean burger and Mike had lasagne.
Our next task was to find the Old Vicarage where we will be staying for the next few days. We did this without too much trouble by about 3pm and were made welcome after saying our goodbyes to Helen and Mike. We'd had a wonderful time with them.
Once settled in we took the local bus from the Rugby Field down to Porthmeor Beach. Then we ambled along narrow lanes full of hundreds of people and quite a few cars. The atmosphere was quite chaotic. This will hopefully calm down a bit on Monday as school holidays end this weekend.
Our next task was to find the Old Vicarage where we will be staying for the next few days. We did this without too much trouble by about 3pm and were made welcome after saying our goodbyes to Helen and Mike. We'd had a wonderful time with them.
Once settled in we took the local bus from the Rugby Field down to Porthmeor Beach. Then we ambled along narrow lanes full of hundreds of people and quite a few cars. The atmosphere was quite chaotic. This will hopefully calm down a bit on Monday as school holidays end this weekend.
Saturday 31 August
Elaine and I went down for breakfast at 8:30am and soon after Suzy arrived as arranged. After a show and tell of patchwork and a discussion of plans for the day we headed down the hill to the bus stop and decided to head for St Michael's Mount as that was top of our "must do" list. We caught a local bus and arrived to find it closed, not because of tides but because it is Saturday and it is always closed on Saturday.
We had lunch overlooking the mount then caught the 300 bus via St Ives and St Just to Land's End, the most westerley point of the Great Britain mainland.
There we found the tea room was closed! We had an ice cream and walked around a bit, killing the nearly 2 hours before the next bus arrived to take us to Penzance.
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| Narrow lanes are difficult to negotiate when buses or even tractors are encountered. Lots of backing up and squeezing past with only inches to spare. |
Then we caught another local bus which took us on a tour of the 'burbs eventually dropping us back in downtown St Ives. By then it was a half hour wait for a taxi so we decided to catch another local bus up the hill. By the time we walked to the bus stop the last one had gone so we walked up the hill!
In fact the day was a comedy of errors that were interspersed with breathtaking views of the remote, desolate, windblown landscape and hair-raising bus travel along extremely narrow, windy lanes that pass as major roads in this area. The bus travelled at no more than 10-20 kph (often having to reverse or wait fo oncoming traffic to reverse). On negotiating bends through hamlets buildings were often less than 6" from the sides of the bus.
Sunday 1 September
We started the day with a 20 minute walk down hill to the bus station where we met Suzy to set out again for St Michaels Mount. This time it worked.
In fact the day was a comedy of errors that were interspersed with breathtaking views of the remote, desolate, windblown landscape and hair-raising bus travel along extremely narrow, windy lanes that pass as major roads in this area. The bus travelled at no more than 10-20 kph (often having to reverse or wait fo oncoming traffic to reverse). On negotiating bends through hamlets buildings were often less than 6" from the sides of the bus.
Sunday 1 September
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| Breakfast at The Old Vicarage |
We started the day with a 20 minute walk down hill to the bus station where we met Suzy to set out again for St Michaels Mount. This time it worked.
We arrived in time to walk across the dry causway. Once over we had a morning tea whilst watch the causeway get inundated by the tide in about half an hour.
Elaine and I thenwalked up the hill to the castle which is intact and still lived in by its owners. It was quite beautiful with its own chapel and glimpses of old sailing ships through the windows out on the glassy sea.
Back down the cobbled paths and stone steps to find Suzy at the little harbour. We had lunch together, Elaine and I just had a beautiful ice cream each! While we had been up in the castle the tide had come in and was now full. The causeway was completely unuseable and small boats were ferrying people too and from to the mainland.
We joined the ferry queue and eventually got ashore to catch the bus back to St Ives where we met Rosemary.
Elaine and I made the 20 minute walk up the hill again after failing to negotiate a suitable bus or find a taxi. There was then time for a bit of R&R before another 20 minute walk down to town to meet Suzy and Rosemary for dinner at the Western Hotel carvery. Yum roast and scrumptious desserts as well.
We then went to a concert in the parish church (St Ia) by the St Buryan male voice choir, on of 6 in the local area! They were really very good. Unfortunately we had an unscheduled intermission when a lady took ill but once the ambulance came the singing continued.
When it was time to return home we had found the taxi rank but there were no taxis and a queue so we walked 20 minutes up the hill again. On the way we were passed by at least 10 taxis and 2 buses! We just can't win.
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