27 June 2011

Driving today from Pentewan to Wadebridge via Bodmin with Bodmin being the coffee stop! Not far from Pentewan we went through a small village called London Apprentice – sort of makes you wonder how this village was named as I wouldn’t have thought that apprentices had money enough to purchase in this neck of the woods. We woke to sunny skies and thought oh great another lovely day but, as predicted, this soon turned to fog and then misty drizzle and by the time we got to Bodmin it was not very nice. That didn’t stop us from doing a circuit of the township though – not very much to it actually – before we headed off again. Today’s journey was only a short distance, about 30 miles but we moved so as to be able to explore Cornwall’s northern villages a little easier. Just outside St Austell there are the remains of tailings from tin mines and they have left these huge pyrymids that sort of give the landscape a weird look. We found our lodgings, a lovely old Georgian villa just up a short hill from town and left our car there while we went walking down into the township. One of the things we want to do is cycle from here to Padstow so we went in search of some information about where to hire bikes etc. we duly found a bike hire place and discovered that the bike trail is called the ‘camel trail’ which runs along an old railway and a place to hire bikes from – got that sorted and weather permitting will do that tomorrow. Wadebridge is the mid-point of the trail and from there to Padstow is 6 miles approximately. We can spend the whole day in Padstow exploring and may go across to The Rock if the tide is in. This part of the coast has huge tide changes and can be as much as 12m.
We have had two days now of fog and I can understand how in the old days the pirates and smugglers had a right time of it running ships onto the rocks and smuggling brandy ashore to save the 1 shilling excise tax.

We’ve just arrived back at our lodgings and got ourselves organised and are checking out the local places of interest before heading out again. Jannie had a bit of a headache and we read and watched a bit of the tennis. Decided to go and have a look at St Issey and Little Petherick!!

St Issey well there was nothing there but a couple of old houses, narrow road, no shops, no speed restrictions that we normally get going into villages. Jannie wanted an ice cream and told me that we would get one at Little Petherick. We pulled into the car park and couldn’t believe that it was another pay and display. I think that Marie had something to do with this carpark and pay thing as it cost 50p for the whole day - no lesser time was available but hey I paid out the big sum and we set off. The sign said that the church was open and we wandered up through the graveyard – largely overgrown but some headstones back to the 18th century. We got to the front door of the church only to see a big padlock on the door. Oh wel,l we had seen a sign telling us that the local pathway was this way. Up we went , more steps and finally a gateway. Over the fence was a plowed paddock. Marie this is your doing I know. Back to the car – we had been there half an hour.

The roads in this neck of the woods are sooo narrow that we had to stop, often, and edge over to the stone wall so that the oncoming cars could get passed. Some didn’t even bother to slow down. Jannie thought that here goes our insurance coverage.

Went off to the local pub and had an average meal and another wine, Mum. Rang and spoke with Jane and Paul who 100 miles north of us were having hot weather.
We got a couple of lovely comments on the blog site this morning. Claire and David, it’s lovely to have you on board and feel free – good to hear from you. Sheryl – glad you have got reams of paper to give Mum all of the latest stuff. Thanks. Sorry to hear that Ruby had a day off school but was keeping my chair warm. Love to all.