In May, while I was visiting the UK, I was fortunate enough to spend a few days in Cornwall with an old friend from my teachers' college days, Margaret, who I had not seen since she moved back to England with her family 30 years ago. The last I saw of her then was a white handkerchief waving at the plane window, because that was in the good old days when you could actually see people off properly at the airport, before the days of ramps into planes and strict security.
Cornwall is the most south westerly part of England and the people in Cornwall, Devon and surrounding areas have a very distinctive "West Country" accent. For a long time, the Cornish people did not consider themselves part of England. In the past, like Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, Cornwall was peopled by the Celts and the ancient language lives on in many of the place names. Many places are also named after obscure mediaeval Cornish saints and there are numerous holy wells and other sites that link back to the old pre-Christian religious beliefs. On the north coast of Cornwall, which we unfortunately did not have time to visit, are the ruins of Tintagel, rumoured to be the site of King Arthur's castle.
Margaret and I decided to stay in St Ives, a beautiful spot which turned out to be an excellent choice and the B&B we picked off the internet also came up trumps. I arrived in Cornwall the day before Margaret did, on a day which had been quite cloudy when I set out from Shrewsbury, but fined up into brilliant sunshine as I made the last leg of my train trip, from St Erth to St Ives, where I was staying. The beauty of this short train trip was incredible, with spectacular views of blue skies and ocean, steep cliffs and beautiful sandy beaches which are the equal of anything we have in Australia. Don't believe all those stories you hear about all the beaches in England being shingled or rocky!
Upon disembarking from the train, I made my way to the B&B after asking a couple of people for directions. The B&B was lovely, very homelike and run by two gay guys, as it turned out. The main one who ran it was called Howie and he was really lovely and gave me orange juice and biscuits on arrival, something no other B&B offered during my two months overseas. He was also very entertaining and had Margaret and I in stitches as he cooked our breakfasts each morning we were there.
Although it was about 6 p.m. by the time I got settled, there were still hours of daylight left so I set off for a walk down to the harbour to get something to eat, which was - of course it had to be, in Cornwall- a very delicious Cornish pasty! I sat overlooking the harbour and ate my pasty, while closely observed by a number of seagulls, which I was later told have a habit of snatching food from people's hands. The seagulls in the UK are about three times the size of the variety we have here in Australia and have voices to match. I would not want to tangle with one!
St Ives has a typical Cornish fishing harbour as this was its principal industry for hundreds of years. These days, tourists are the main source of income as it is such an attractive little place with narrow, cobbled streets, lovely restaurants and art galleries, as well as several lovely, wide sandy beaches. The water might be a bit cold, but that doesn't stop the keen swimmers and surfers!
The next day Margaret arrived and it was wonderful to see her again after so long. After a short time, we were chatting away as if we had never been apart. We went for a walk around St Ives and later had dinner at Porthmeor Beach Cafe, a lovely restaurant overlooking Porthmeor Beach. We enjoyed watching a beautiful sunset and a young boy on a boogie board who must have been freezing.
Unfortunately, that was the end of our good weather in Cornwall and the next few days were rather windy and showery, and at times it rained rather heavily. But that didn't stop us and we still managed to see a lot, including these highlights:
- Beautiful coastal and country scenery
- Penzance, where we looked around the shops (but did not see any pirates!)
- Land's End, the most south-westerly point of England
- The city of Truro, including the Cathedral and some of the streets where my ancestors used to lived. We couldn't find the house where Margaret was born in Truro, however.
- Feock, a small but very attractive ancestral village of my family, near Truro.
- Falmouth, where we visited the National Maritime Museum and saw Pendennis Castle, built by Henry VIII.
- Lanhydrock,near Bodmin, a stately home with many sumptuous rooms on display, which used to belong to the Earls of Radnor.
- The ancient, quaint little fishing village of Mousehole (pronounced "mouzle")
- St Michael's Mount, a small island with a castle perched on top. We couldn't go out to it as it was high tide and you can only walk out when the tide is low.
- Surfers on a freezing cold, blustery, rainy evening ( 12 degrees max. that day) making the most of the wild surf near Falmouth.
- People walking along the waterfront near St Ives Harbour being splashed and soaked by huge waves crashing in at high tide. This was a source of amusement to all those watching, including us!
- Beautiful sunsets and peaceful evenings down at the harbour.
- Countless mine chimneys, relics of the old tin mining days when Cornwall derived much of its income from this source.
- Driving through the moors and seeing Jamaica Inn, on which Daphne Du Maurier based her novel of that name.
- A delicious meal at a centuries old, traditional country pub called the Lamb and Flag, where there were huge fireplaces, low ceilings and a wonderful atmosphere.
Cornwall is such a wonderful place, steeped in history and encompassed by nature's beauty and I hope one day I can go back there. There is so much to see and do, yet so many peaceful , out of the way places which are so alluring.
