So we head off for Cornwall. Lovely place they say. We woke in the morning to overcast, raining,
blowing winds (+50kph), 10c, and quite a bleak outlook. The girls were asked what we should do for the
day. Lisa wanted us to head forth and brave the elements while Alex told us it
could be a rest day. I wasn’t
particularly fond of the rest day idea, as our accommodation was without power.
Once Peter was dragged out of bed he
then complained there was no power for his toast and at that point all I was
hearing was blah blah blah. I’m starting
to think, that where ever we are, so will the cold weather. Every country we have been too, has turned on
the crap weather. I’m starting to think
For this part of our trip we have hired a
Peugot 208. The hiring lady wanted to
put us in a more comfortable and bigger car for an additional £45 per day. The car I had chosen was £15 per day,
so no thanks. Couldn’t see
the value of a bigger car especially since it didn’t sing dance and make me a
cup of tea!
The drive to Cornwell was interesting, but
frustrating. The speed limit on the dual
carriageways is 70mph (I hope, as that’s what my navigator told me after
consulting Dr Google), and 60mph on open roads.
The problem is you are cruising along at 70mph and suddenly there is a
roundabout or a town. Haven’t they heard
of bypasses?
The drivers love to flash you even if you
are not in the fast lane and you are doing the speed limit, some even got as
far as finger gestures. I get the
feeling that the speed limit is optional unless you are 10mph above it. I don’t plan to donate any additional money
to the Police Service. It’s like most drivers in all countries who think they know
best!
For the last 30kms to our accommodation we
were stuck in traffic. Not sure if that
is normal at that time of the day, but we eventually made it. I don’t remember that
but I’m guessing I was asleep. Still
sick!
Back to the hire car lady, they
wanted £11 per day so I could be an extra driver! Extortion!
Our Cornwall sightseeing was interesting
with the cold and wet. I still can’t
fathom why the English go walking in the rain, particularly when it is windy
and cold as well. They are a strange lot… My theory for the walking in the rain, is that they would
never get out of the house and smell the fresh air!
The sightseeing included looking for pirates
in Penzance (none found), checking out St Michael’s Mount (from the car for me
as it was raining and I’m not English), driving the coast roads/tracks to
Land’s End and back. The coastline has
some amazing scenery, particularly with big swells. At one stage we had large amounts of seaspray
hitting the car (or was it a wave?), so I’m glad it is not my car. I couldn’t believe that the locals park their
cars where they get waves/seaspray over them every 30 secs. How long do cars last here?
At one stage Denise wanted me to stop the
car to take a photo, but I chickened out (he does that
a lot) with the size of some of the waves coming in and how close we
were to the shore, I headed a little further away from the water.
We stopped at the Minack Theatre which is an
amazing place. Just looking down at it
hurt your face with the wind blowing water straight at you. I braved the elements and went all the way to
the bottom where I found a little sheltered spot. Took a few pics and headed back up for a much
deserved hot chocolate. The rain was like having nails thrown at you! Mind you I have no idea what that feels like
but it is what I imagine.
Next it was on to Land’s End which was a even
more windswept and wet. We braved the
elements again fighting headwinds, sidewinds and tailwinds together with water
drops (not sure whether they were seaspray, rain or both together). I almost lost my
phone, it was almost blown out of my hand.
The roads are narrow in these parts, but fun
to drive on. Getting through some of the
towns was interesting with blind corners and room for one small car, but all
part of the fun of driving experience. I
was glad we took the smaller car. Good thing Pete can reverse, cause a couple of
times he had to reverse down a lane way for some time.
The following day we decided to head back to
civilisation, a little, to Someset as the forecast was for worsening weather. On the way we stopped in to Portwenn from the
TV series Doc Martin (real name Port Isaac). He had to reverse the
car in places there too. We then
headed to Yeovil where we caught up with relatives of friends (That are family) in Oz. It was great catching up with them and we
promised to come back. The next morning,
we visited Fleet Air Arm Museum which was close by. It was supposed to take a few hours – we took
4. Afterwards we headed north to get
away from the coming storms.
First stop was just out of Gloucester and
the next morning we headed off once more to Morecambe. In Gloucester we went to the Jet Age Museum. We were able to sit in
a Trident cockpit and were told of the automatic landing gear that had been
developed for aircraft. Then we sat in
the cockpit of a Vulcan jet that was used in the Falklands war. Bit of a tight squeeze but I was going to be
pilot! On the way we had
occasional heavy snowfalls and continual strong winds. Three times the traffic just stopped for no
known reason. Just as quickly as it
stopped we were off at the 70mph speed limit.
The next morning, we headed to Glasgow amid
warnings of snow and ice. We found snow,
but luckily no ice. We were going to
drive through the Lakes District, but as there were snow and ice warnings we
erred on the side of caution and stayed on the motorway. Further on we called in to Lockerbie, but
couldn’t find any memorials, so continued on our way North. Dreadful tourist Peter The idea is to now spend some time in Scotland
before heading back to London to meet up with a Navy person we know.
So as you all can hear I’m on the improve in
health, thankfully! I must have improved enough that I gave the brother of our
dear friends the same sort of talking that I give our friend! You know the
usual, have you been good and look after the family!!
Happy Birthday to Denise. Ooww Thanks Pete! We had a lovely day and he actually fed me
dinner that had two beers with the gourmet burger! Beers were Joker.
Just a final thought to all our friends and
relatives in the Bega/Tathra area and hoping everyone is safe. It looks like the bush fires missed them all,
but only just.
Must away and rattle his cage!
Much love the Bee’s
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