We are a retired couple who after living abroad for 5 years are now living in Levin, New Zealand. From October 2006 we cruised the inland waterways of Britain. We sold Narrowboat Gypsy Rover in July 2010 and continued our travels around the UK in our new Motorhome. In August 2011 we returned to New Zealand ahead of our motorhome which arrived in October. Although now land based we will be continuing our travels throughout New Zealand when time allows.
Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, stand outside Westminster Abbey after their royal wedding in London April, 29, 2011.
Martin Meissner/Getty Images
Prince William and Kate Middleton now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge seal their marriage with a kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
Despite it being a public holiday for Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton we opted to take one of only three buses available running a Sunday service into Ilfracombe. We decided that there would be reruns of the wedding played on TV later today. It wasn’t actually that far from the camp but just a bit too far to walk. The day started off overcast and windy but it did improve slightly during the day.
Obviously a lot of people were at home glued to their TV’s for the wedding because the town was deserted until after lunch when the crowds started to arrive. We started at the quay side and slowly worked our way around the coastline.
We climbed the hill to the Little Chapel which dates back to 1321. Originally built for seafarer's to come and worship, it had always been a signal light for seamen to locate the harbour. In 1540 King Henry VIII closed it down as he did all over the country but the lighthouse was retained. Between 1835 and 1871 a John Davey was the lighthouse keeper where he raised his family of 14 children. The Chapel had a chequered career as a reading room and a laundry where several of John’s daughters worked.
After John left it was left to the elements despite it still being a lighthouse until 1962 when the Rotarians restored it and opened it to the public The building had no services when John lived there and everything had to be carried in. It was barely a two up two down sort of building and very small for all the Davey family. These days the lighthouse is fully automatic.
The beaches around Ilfracombe were mainly small and only one was what you could call sandy. The others were fairly coarse. The old historic Victorian Tunnel Beaches and Bath House were set up as therapeutic remedies for what ever ailed you. Originally three beaches which were refreshed at every high tide, were accessed by 4 tunnels which were created by Welsh Miners.
The tunnels were very similar to canal tunnels where you can see the chisel mark’s in the rock where they drilled holes and blasted the rock away. Two beaches were segregated for male and female only and the ladies had the use of bathing huts where they changed in the huts and were then wheeled down to the waters edge out of the view of others. Water was heated and pumped up to the Bath House where the local’s took advantage of being able to have hot baths.
The Landmark theatre reminded us of the Beehive Parliamentary building in Wellington but in duplicate. Who ever designed it couldn’t have had much imagination. We had a good wander through town picking up some souvenir’s and flavoured fudge before heading back to the rather derelict bus station for the bus back to camp.
59.6 Miles. Now at the Twitchen Farm CL near Ilfracombe.
We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Cornwall but it was time once again to move on. Just an hour and a half to our next campsite just outside Ilfracombe. Tomorrow being a public holiday due to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton we are hoping that the buses will be running probably to a Sunday timetable and we can visit Ilfracombe.
Todays trip didn’t have much of any interest except the satellite receiving station on the coast near Bude. About a dozen huge satellite dishes sitting up on the horizon which you cannot help but see for miles around.
Arriving at the camp we found we were the only campers and the owner had just finished cutting the grass. He was using a ride on mower which was fitted with a miniature silage chute and high sided trailer to catch the grass and take it away. Nifty little contraption.So we won’t be traipsing grass cuttings into the Motorhome over the next 2 days.
A total of 1571 miles, since 5 March 2011
Once again the scenery around this part of the country is stunning especially when we reached Tintagel where the fable of King Arthur was born and Merlin’s Cave is located.
Unusual glass ceiling at the tourist info centre at Tintagel.
Alongside the cave is the drainage tunnel from a dis-used silver-lead mine called Wheal Heart under Tintagel Castle. Wheal is Cornish for mine. This mine was closed and re-opened between 1806 and 1873 three times and finished up with the name King Arthur’s mine.The cove was also used by ships to discharge coal and load finest Cornish slate. They would be beached on the out going tide and re-floated at the next high tide.We walked the coastal track from the Camelot Hotel around to the castle where we could see all that there was to see without having to pay to go across the bridge to what is relatively an island. With my Canon zoom camera I was able to photograph most of the castle from the track.
As we walked back up the hill to the village we walked past a stream where one of the English Heritage staff members was building a dam across the stream. It transpired there was a Brook Trout in under a rock and it didn’t have very much water in which to swim so he was creating a deep pool just for the fish. Ahh! ain’t that sweet.
Well you don’t have to go to the fun fare to ride the big dipper, you just hop on a Western Greyhound bus between Camelford, Port Isaac, Port Gaverne, Tintagel and Wadebridge. The road was up hill, down dale, narrow, twisty and in places barely 8 feet wide. The bus drivers just take it in their stride, driving as if they were on a main road. It got very interesting when we met another large vehicle with just millimetres to pass each other. Nail biting, edge of the seat stuff.
Arriving in Port Isaac we were informed that some area’s may be closed off as they were filming another series of ‘Doc Martin’. We did see Martin Clunes aka Doc Martin from afar outside his house but got very close to his girlfriend Louisa ( Lisa Glasson) before she was whisked away in a chauffeur driven car. Funnily enough Martin appeared on the local TV news just after we arrived back at the van.
65.8 Miles. Now at the Valley Truckle Club site at Camelford.
It was a fairly relaxed start to the day with the usual servicing of the tanks. Once underway we headed for Tesco’s at Penzance who were very conveniently along our route. Again we struck lucky with plenty of parking space. Shopping done and stowed away we were on the move once more.
We hadn’t been going long when my phone rang and it turned out to be a distant relative who had contacted me through the website/blog. We knew she lived in this neck of the woods but when we rang her last Thursday there was no reply so assumed she had gone away for Easter. How wrong we were, she had been working out on her farmlet somewhere but didn’t check her answer phone until today. Anyway she was on her way to Camborne to collect some animal feed. She gave us instructions where we could meet up as we would be passing by Camborne. The instructions didn’t quite work but we finished up in a coach park where we finally met up for a good long chat and a cuppa about 20 minutes later.
Back on the road and it didn’t take long to reach our next camp site where there are only 6 other vans in residence. Once set up we walked into the village to check on buses and timetables for tomorrow. The local information centre is in the local museum where we had a good long chat with the museum curator.
As we are about 6 miles from the coast our view tonight is 4 very large wind turbines on the horizon with 3 working and one feathered and idle.
A total of 1511 miles, since 5 March 2011
Decisions, decisions. Where to go, what to see. With it being Easter Monday public transport was on Sunday service so this restricted our movements some what. We eventually caught a #300 open top tour bus to Lands End where we took some photo’s from the top deck. We only had 10 minutes and we were on our way again through Sennen where the bus went down hill into the village OK but struggled coming back up.
It was then on to St Just and Botallack where the road was so narrow through the main street passengers on both side of the bus could touch the buildings simultaneously,scary. Onto our final destination which was Geever Tin Mine. We had 4 hours before the next bus and thought we would be bored stiff but that was far from the truth.
A walk through part of the old mine with barely five foot headroom in places and only wide enough for one person to get through at a time. We were shown how the mine boys of about 11 or 12 years of age would hand drill a work face of 6 feet wide in steps of four feet high to the height of 48 feet. One boy on each step would drill 3 holes 4 feet deep in a 7 hour shift using just a lump hammer and 3 different length iron spikes with a tempered chisel end.
Once this was finished a miner would come along and charge each hole with gun powder, insert a fuse consisting of about 10 goose feather quills trimmed on the sides and ends and inserted end on end. These were then filled with gunpowder and inserted in each hole and then plugged with clay. The miner using the candle on his helmet then started lighting the fuses at the bottom and then scrambling up the steps lighting more fuses as he went. If he was nimble enough he would be at least 4 steps up before the bottom step exploded followed all the way to the top.
All the rock was then shovelled down shafts to another working below where it was loaded into boxes with handles to be carried away by 2 boys to where it could be hauled up to the surface for the next process. This was carried out by women who were known as Balmaids (often only 12 or 13 years old). Their job was to pound the rock into powder using a tool similar to a 5lb sledge hammer with a broader head. They had to swing this hammer for 7 hours a day and were paid by their output. They were the only women to earn their own income in the 19th century. At home these women were the boss because their menfolk dare not argue with them as they might come off second best. Needless to say deafness was a way of life among Cornish mining families.
The mines around Cornwall yielded about 7% tin from the rock mined so there was a very high wastage which was just dumped over the cliffs. Some mines extended miles out under the sea bed where water entering the mines was a problem until the invention of Beam engines which could keep the mines water free by pumping it out. The end of tin mining came to an end in 1990 when the price of tin dropped from £10,500 per ton to £3,500 making it unprofitable. Tin is now mined overseas where it’s possible to use open cast mining and is cheaper to produce. There were also by products of Copper and Arsenic but Tin was the mainstay for the miners.
Between 1880 and 1890 130,000 Cornish miners and 40,000 family members emigrated to America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand in search of a better way of life. They mined for precious metals and stones and those lucky enough to strike it rich returned to their birthplace to retire or take on a less strenuous form of work.
It transpired that 4 hours wasn’t long enough and we had to miss out on some of the displays or we would have missed the bus back to camp. We did contemplate going to Lands End and taking the cliff walk back through Sennen, onto Sennen Cove and then up the hill to camp but we thought this might be taking on too much so left the bus at the camp gate.
