Lands End Epiblog

There was steady light rain all night but it had stopped by 10:00 am. We decided to go to the Batsford Arboretum and garden centre for a couple of hours, its just up the road, before we left the Cotswolds. However it started to rain again more heavily and so we left early and had a every wet drive home.

We arrived home at 2:00pm having covered over 700 miles and stopping at 8 different sites en route. This included 4 free Britstops, 2 x CMC, 1 x CCC and a commercial site, for the 9 nights that we were away.

Cotswold birthday

We had an excellent breakfast at The Den and Rosemary shopped at the farm shop before we left. We are on our way home via the Cotswolds where we will have one more night away at the CMC site and a birthday dinner in Moreton-in-marsh.

We dined at the The Black Boar on the High St. recommended by the site wardens. It was a very good meal and I even had a candle on my lime cheesecake.

Exmouth, Sidmouth and Britstop

We left the racecourse and motored round to Exemouth where there is a quirky 16 sided NT house built by two sisters. The room layout follows the sun for maximum pre-electric daylight. The top floor gallery is decorated with shell patterns and pictures made by the sisters. Very eccentric!

We drove along the coast to Sidmouth via Budleigh Salterton for a stroll along the prom and a coffee break. Bought two pieces of chicken and ham hock pie to have with the last of our home grown tomatoes for supper later.

We have stopped in another Britstop, the 4th on this trip, near Shelton Mallet. It's  on the A37 so rather noisy but it has a farm shop with a cafe so that's my birthday breakfast sorted.

Carnewas, Padstow and Racecourse

We had a really good carvery for dinner and a good night's sleep in the car park.

Set of for Padstow via the north coast stopping at Carnewas where there are dramatic cliffs and famous Bedruthan steps down to the beach. I walked along the cliffs as far as the steps to take photos of the stacks and cliffs. It was low tide and the steps were open if you were feeling fit, but there are 125 wet steep stone stairs. Maybe a few years ago I would have been tempted, but not today.

Rosemary shopped in the NT shop and made it as far as the viewing area.

We took the park and ride into Padstow as the car parks were rammed as usual. There were queues for Rick Steins fish and chips, as usual and lots of senior visitors wandering around as usual. We joined in, as usual. Rosemary bought some new shoes for the next holiday.

We left late afternoon and put 70 miles of A30 behind us stopping overnight at Exeter racecourse. Its cloudy today with some bright intervals and wet roads, but we missed the showers.
The CMC site is actually in the middle of the racecourse with the track and grandstands just behind the site. 

Sennen, Porthcurno and Portreath​

Today we have done some coving as we head slowly back towards Leicester, as we could not go further away.

First off was the local beach at Sennen Cove where I had a paddle and Rosemary got her shoes wet taking a photo of me. We had morning coffee on the terrace restaurant and then on to Porthcurno.

This is a beautiful cove below the open air Minack theatre and the site for the original telegraph cables under the Atlantic. There are steps and a steep road to the theatre, neither of which we attempted. There was a telegraph museum/cafe, which we did, after sitting on the beach for a while. A film unit was filling half the car park, they will be filming for Poldark 4 next week apparently.

We have found a Britstop near Redruth that does an all day carvery, where we will spend the night. 

Meanwhile we are parked on the front in the evening sunshine at Portreath until dinner time.

There are small Portuguese Man of War jelly fish on the beaches around here.

Happy days.

St. Ives by bus

Today we left the van on site and took the open top bus to St. Ives along the coast road. Although it was a rather cold and cloudy day we were able to appreciate the cliffs and tin mining heritage sites. St. Ives was busy as expected with the September Arts festival and the weather brightened up a bit. We had a wander around and a Cornish pasties 'on the hoof' from the Oldest Pasty maker in Cornwall (allegedly). Rosemary found a top to buy and we picked up a cream tea kit for later.

Walked back up the hill for the 1 hour coastal journey back. It's a very narrow windy road with lots of passing problems. It started to rain and we got soaked just walking from the bus stop by the site gates. It was the last but one bus of the summer season.

Rosemary cooked the Sole Rols we bought in Portleven for supper and we had a belated cream tea for pudding.

Lands End

The cockerel at Roskillys farm woke us at a sensible time, after 7:00am, so that we could be on our way to Lands End with time for diversions.

The first hop took us past Goonhilly Downs satellite station to a Poldark film location at Church Cove. We sheltered from a shower for 15mins at the café before the short walk from the NT car park to the tiny church and sandy cove that was used for a ship wreck scene.

Next stop was Portleven, a pretty working harbour that is also home to several gourmet restaurants including a Rick Stein. We chose the Square, no 5 on Trip Advisor list, Rick's is no 15! We enjoyed an excellent 2 course lunch for £17pp before walking back up the hill to where we left the van. Portleven seems too popular for the amount of parking available.

Next stop was a photo opportunity at St Michael's Mount. We got a good reduction at the beach car park for a quick stop, Motor Homes are normally £8 per day.

Only one more stop at a Sainsbury's just outside Penzance and we were at Lands End just after 5:30pm. All the entertainment and leisure facilities had already closed so there we just a few sightseers and ourselves to take selfies by the iconic sign post. It showed 874 miles to John o Groats, we had made it.

Just time for a few more photos in the blustery wind before we made our
way to the CCC site at nearby Sennen Cove and sunset photos, before more rain showers arrived.

Lizard Point

We left the caravan site at 11:00am and headed directly to Lizard village where we  parked on village green. It was then a 20 mins stroll along the path to Lizard Point where only to find there was a NT car park, beside the lighthouse.

However it was a nice sunny day, so not a problem. We had made it to the most southerly point in mainland Britain. A few photos and a cappuccino later we set off to visit some of the nearby coves and parked at Coverack. Shared a portion of fish and chips and a shopped before finding our next Britstop nearby at Roskillys farm. Shared a wood fired pizza, big and tasty.

The wind has dropped and there is a nice clear sunset.

Cosawes Park

We had a rather disturbed night due to the proximity of the Britstop to an industrial estate whose lorry park started moving at about 5:30am and the strong winds from storm Aileen at midnight.

We are stopping tonight at a nice semi-residential site between Truro and Falmouth, a caravan club quality site facility but without the club members. We called to see Barbara and John in Okehampton on the way and shopped at the big Waitrose where Rosemary bought some mussels for supper.

The weather is alternating between periods of blue sky and short sharp showers. Tomorrow we will drive less and start to enjoy the Cornish coast. We have not seen the sea as yet!

Britstop Taunton

Driving down the M5 to Cornwall we were overtaken by a Nuventure Moniche like ours. We both pulled in to Gloucester services and chatted. It's the first time either of us had seen another Moniche, we were all excited at such a unique event. She lived in Cornwall and was on her way home from North Wales with her dog.

We parted company and shopped in the services where Rosemary found some bargain Langustines. Now we are stopping overnight at a Britstop near Taunton. I was able to buy a much needed  replacement collapsible bucket at the leisure store nearby.
Storm Aileen is going to batter us later apparently, but hopefully not before we have been over to the Two for One pub/restaurant for dinner.

John o Groats to Lands End

Tomorrow we are off to Cornwall, to Lands End in particular, in order to complete the whole journey from Lands End to John o Groats. OK, its not all in one trip and its in the opposite direction - but at least its in the same year. The weathers not looking too warm with northerly winds forecast for the next week.

Springfield Outlet Centre

Achieved one of the objects of going to the outlet centre again in the morning, which was to do clothes shopping for me. The other objective was to do more fishing but almost every peg was taken by the time I was organised. Not a very good spot and I had a blank morning,  but only fished for an hour or so.

last night's fish

Rosemary found a Weird Fish skirt at the centre, so she did not have blank day. We took a walk round the gardens, probably better at tulip time, then we had a shared lunch and came back home via a very bumpy back road along a fen to Essendine, to see Margaret.

Spalding for Fishing and Shopping

We are just having an away day in Spalding, going to Springfield Outlet centre and Lake Ross caravan site just outside Spalding.

It was a showery day and we had a good downpour in the evening that revealed a leak in the the offside window frame again. Another job before we go to Cornwall.

It was a very good fishing lake with decent carp. The owner told me where to fish and we caught four nice carp around the 3lb mark between us in an hour before it got dark. This is Rosemary with a rod bender.