Down South....

We hired a rental to visit Cornwall  to  check places out ourselves and to  show  Pam places she'd been before  before she left for NZ. Actually to take her some where she hasn't been before  would involve a trip to Mongolia and the rental Insurance  didn't cover that.
Off we set from Thrupp the latest  Citroen , Sebastion Loeb  rally special, which  refused  to let any one  vechicle pass on freeway or narrow country lane.
Leonie was calling the pace notes, R7,  L3, R6, L5, don't cut corner,  sort of thing but when she called  4P confusion reigned until the  recall was 4 A P then we pulled over to Parc Ferme...

After  four odd hours we  emerged from the wooded hills to view the nice fishing village of  Looe way down South on the Cornwall coast.

The temperature was 26C  which made being  by the sea very pleasant..

The water  Taxi moving  people across the harbor @  50p each...

I didn't notice until a week of  taking photo's that my camera was on a setting for  macro which is for close ups of insects etc so the photo's aren't  great...

Looking up the harbor from the sea end..

Across to  the other side..

The  harbour entrance with sea wall and very sandy beach. ... I thought there was only stones in the UK..

We crossed on the boat....  those kids brought along  a  sail  each  incase the  motor broke down..

It was back in the car and on to Fowey, another port, well after all the trip was to visit fishing ports.
We crossed the harbour  to the village on a car ferry @ 3.50 quid all up...

For all you land lubbers this is called a tall ship.... maybe a survivor from the battle of Trafalgar....

 

 

 

 

Hard to  find a fault on a day like this.....

The narrow village streets had constant traffic squeezing  past  visitors......


The word on the street was that, Paul the Croc man,  was on the Southern coast...


 




So the  locals were ready... a good colour match too...


















Back in the car and on to  Penzance. Not  such a compact  seaside  town and staying to long wasn't an option...

First sight was of  St Michaels Mount a privately owned estate. It was once a monastery type place...
At low tide  it's possible to walk to the island...

Penzance  Harbour....

And salt water baths on the promenade.......

Stayed the night in this  pub B&B at Newbridge,

If in Cornwall do as the Cornwellies do, eat a Cornish pastie... Very filling  and a lot of  fillings to chose from but  no gravy and not as good as a NZ steak, steak and cheese pie...


Headed up the West coast and the scenery was completely different, Awesome it was, with  untamed land and every village and farm building was solid stone .....






Stone walls.....






Land covered with  heather ......

 

 

 

 

 

And ruins of  mines  are common... Tin was the most  common  mineral  extracted....

Narrow roads with high banks and hedge rows... had to stop  and reverse to let vehicles by several times....

Up the coast and next was ST Ives....

Didn't drive to the  centre of town, just a look from the hills......



Next stop was Padstow. This town made famous by Chef Rick Stein. 
As with every town / village pay for parking then walk to see the sights.....

 

A nice pub with the hang'n basket theme...

And another 30 metres up the street....

More pleasure boats than fishing here...

The harbor inside the sea wall was quite small... but circled by shops, cafes, pubs etc.....

And the  tourists were building up to " get out of my face" numbers.....

The reason they come here....

Rick Stein  popularity.....   the power of TV...    His Deli shop...

Deli again..... has bottled ale in the name of  "Chalky" the faithful dog .......

He also has a fish shop, fish & chip shop, Patisserie shop, B&B, a shop shop, never found his actual restaurant.....

So on up the coast but that's  another story.....