Cornwall

Spent three nights down in Cornwall exploring some of the more popular spots. First day we went to Tintagel to see a Castle there. Unfortunately, tickets all sold out (probably due to mid-term break in the UK). So we had to be content with a walk up the hill to view the peninsular and the bridge.

Walking around the village of Tintagel our nostrils were being bombarded by the delicious smells of Cornish pasties (link for our non-colonial audience) from various shops and restaurants. It being almost lunch time, we eventually settled on what looked like a nice restaurant to have an authentic Cornish pasty … unfortunately they were filled with mainly gristle and fat 🙁

Next stop was Port Isaac – after walking around for a few minutes, I thought the place looked very familiar … said to Jarrah that I thought it may be where Doc Martin is filmed (another UK TV series I used to watch), enquiries with some of the tourists confirmed that it is! Like I said, never far from a filming location in the UK it seems.

I quite like Port Isaac, very picturesque little spot … if it wasn’t for all the bloody tourists! 🙂 It was an overcast, drizzly day so the sea doesn’t look quite as stunning as it usually does when the sun is out (apparently).

The next day, we were off to St Ives (also the name of the suburb I used to live in, in Sydney) but found it overrun with people and not a single car space to be found. Jarrah was ready to throw the towel in and give it a miss but we decided to pull in at a Tescos at the top of the hill (the UK is very hilly!!) about a mile and a half from the town to strategise when we found, to our delight, that there was a bus leaving from there in 2 mins going down into town.

So glad we persevered because the sun came out for an hour or so and Jarrah was able to get some amazing pics of St Ives and its blue sea.
Temp was around 15C, so of course, all the English holidaymakers were swimming! 🙂

Next stop was Land’s End, where we quite unexpectedly found there was a “Grand Experience” by Aardman, who I’m sure you all know, is the creator of Wallace and Gromit (our favourite from Kye & Jarrah’s childhood), Shaun the Sheep and Morph (from my childhood).

After the short distraction of the Aardman experience, we went to see what we actually came here for … to see Britain’s most south-westerly point and the views of the English Channel and the Celtic Sea from its 200ft-high granite cliffs.

The next stop was St Michael’s Mount (Not to be confused with Mont-Saint-Michel in France, but same-same). It is an island completely surrounded by sea at high tide, but accessible by car and foot via a causeway during low tide. Too long to explain in detail – you can read more here if you want. Only one pic as the sun was in the wrong place to get any more.

Last stop of the day was Kynance Cove – which we almost didn’t go to due to the late hour. Got there just before sunset and WOW! We’re so glad we went. Absolutely stunning coastline with rock stacks and dramatic cliffs plunging into the bluest sea (even though completely overcast and close to sunset). AND, just around the corner from Lizard Point, the most southernly place in Britain.

You can see pics of Kynance Cove when the sun is out here.

Fun Fact:

Cornwall has it’s own language (I did not know this). If you’re interested in learning to speak it, you can start with the basics here (scroll to bottom of the page)

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