Cornwall, Devon, and car parks!

Well finally back after eventful travels. As advised our Wednesday travels were hampered by traffic, which did not improve over the 4 days. More of that later!

In any case we awoke at Tyacks Pub at Camborne on the Friday and after a friendly breakfast we headed off to Redruth for a look around Found it difficult to stop anywhere to explore and it is quite hilly so not condusive to the Mum's walking.

Our battles with the built in Mercedes Sat Nav (to be referred to as Bitchface from now on) continued as we asked for a place of interest nearby and it presented us with 'Discover Cornwall'. We dutifully followed her to a point in the middle of a forrest, through roads built for small donkeys! Nothing to see so that was Discover Cornwall!

Our next stop was Portreath which was a lovely beach although a bit windy on the day. We wanted to visit St Ives which we found and it was packed with holiday makers. Also not a great place for the Mum's as you need to be part goat, so we drove through the old town, a nightmare drive with narrow roads. The streets were full of people literally, and we had to push through in the car.

Picked out a smaller village on the map and headed off to St Just. Beautiful countryside and on our way we were presented with somewhere to stop and enjoy the vista over Penzance Bay to St Michaels Mount.

St Michaels Mount from the hillsides

On to St Just which presented as lovely village replete with a bakery that purported to be the oldest Cornish Pasty maker in the world! Naturally we all had a Cornish Pasty and a quick drink in the local.

St Just Church

Back on the road we followed our nose and were on way to Penzance. Through lovely countryside and the village of Trethewey where Leann's ancestors hailed from. We wanted to visit Minack theatre but it was not open to visitors as there was a performance on!

Off through Mousehole, which is really the cutest little place but if I complained about driving in St Ives, well Mousehole is even tighter. We were forced backwards at one point by a van coming the other way.  Unable to find anywhere to stop we continued on to Penzance and our digs at the Union Hotel for the night.

Again the friendliest welcome. The people are great. Just an ordinary pub from road but behind contains the 2nd oldest theatre in UK! It was here in the theatre that the first anouncement of Nelson's victory at Trafalgar was announced in 1805!

The theatre

The pub cntains much memorabilia of Nelson and the old theatre bills. Also has Nelson's death mask on the wall!

Nelson's death mask

We dined across the road at a lovely restaurant where Kath and Fi enjoed lovely local seafood of mussels solo for Kath and in a chowder for Fi, then fish. Sated we retired to our rooms for our travel to Salisbury the next day.

We had plenty of time in the day so we went back to Redruth to try and see the Carn Brea Castle and monument which is a wonderfu story in its own right. Please see Carn Brea. Well the only issue is there is no easy way to get there nor signs! Well I lie! After driving through more goat tracks we did find one tiny sign that pointed us up the hill. We could not go on as it turned to gravel so our photo was from afar!

Carn Brea monument

Again disappointed we headed off for what was to be a leisurlely drive to Salisbury stopping for lunch on way, hopefully to get there in time to see the Cathedral which closes at 5.00.

So much for that plan. A car park for most of the day with traffic banked for miles around ludicrous roundabouts and merging vehicles. On the day which included our morning to Redruth we travelled 180 miles in 9 hours of driving queued forever! We saw a lot of cars and the inside of the Mercedes and not much else. Stuck for hours rest stops were at a premium and obviously the same for all other travellers the toilets were queued as well!

Missed the cathedral as we finally arrived in Salisbury at 6.30 pm. Again checked into hotel and that first drink was a welcome needed thing!

Decided to book into an old pub for dinner.

Poultry Cross Salisbury

The Haunch of Venison is over 700 years old! The pub is tiny with a small snug up 3 steps and a restaurant on first floor.

The sign!

This is whole bar area!

Well naturally they served venison and I had the triple of loin, sausages and pulled venison. Washed down later with a Drambuie it almost blotted out the days events. 

So in order to get car back to London we left early and naturally the days travel was a breeze and we got back in plenty of time to drop off the ladies then the car.

Leann welcomed and prepared a sumptuous dinner and Shirly returned from the wedding and we had a few drinks into the evening.

The crew at home

Leann, Kath, Clare, Fi, Shirley and moi!

Off to bed late and we are slowly getting things done. Last few days were memorable for all wrong reasons but the people in Cornwall and Devon are lovely.

Until next time.