Today was another travel day from the Roseland Peninsula of Cornwall to the Western end of Cornwall. From Tregoose to Ennys B&B.
It was only a matter of time, but today we ran into a Cornish traffic jam!
After abandoning an attempt to find a launderette in Truro, we headed down to St. Mawes and walked along the Quay… the tide was out!
The Idle Rocks hotel has some beautiful benches that overlook the harbour.
I would NOT want to be a delivery van driver in Cornwall… this guy actually drove in while we were watching to deliver meat to the Butcher.
A short walk through the narrow streets showed us some very beautiful places. We picked up some sausage rolls, some local Black Bomber cheddar cheese and some sweets for our picnic lunch at the next stop.
We drove back up the peninsula to the St. Just-in-Roseland Church a 13th century church, graveyard and gardens.
This was one of Elaine’s ‘must sees’ for our time in Cornwall.
Can you believe the size of these rhubarb like plants?
We had a picnic lunch overlooking the river and had a visitor!
The cemetery was in a very beautiful setting.
A view from the top of the hill, beyond the church steeple to the river.
For fun and a shorter trip onwards, we took the King Harry Ferry across the Fal River.
This was one of those magical moments… we turned a corner and caught our first glimpse of St. Michael’s Mount and had to stop to take a pic.
Then, two minutes later we drove past our first group of Gypsies parked with their caravan and horses beside the road.
After an interesting 1 mile trip up the driveway, we arrived at Ennys, our B&B for the next four nights.
The front lawn has some beautiful gardens.
The view out our bedroom window back up the lane.
We had a wonderful dinner at the Victoria Inn in Perranthunoe.
It’s late and we’re both ready for bed! More tomorrow! Cheers!
We had another great breakfast at Tregoose and then drove over to The Lost Gardens of Heligan. What an amazing place… we could have spent a whole day there, but could only fit in about 3 hrs.
Someone is sporting her new ‘wellies’ and could swear someone was looking over her shoulder!
Built in the mid-1800’s when there was strong rivalries between the wealthy landowners to import exotic plants and trees, it fell into disarray and abandonment due to WWI. Within the last 10-15 years, the current owners have resurrected a portion of the magnificent gardens that had been lost for so long.
One of the most spectacular sections is called the Jungle, as it is filled with plants, trees and flowers that you would think would only be living in the tropics.
Enormous Redwood trees, mixed in with Palm, Ginko and the New Zealand Monkey Puzzle tree.
While the focus was mostly on flowers and plants throughout the gardens, they did have some areas to see the local wildlide and a dovecote.
Amazing view across the fields to the English Channel.
There were so many different and beautiful flowers and shrubs in the ‘jungle’, I could only include a handful.
After leaving Heligan, we made somewhat of a mad dash through tiny roads to Ruan Lanihorne, where we had 1PM reservations at the King’s Head. We had arranged to meet Bruce & Natacha Huggett here; Bruce and I have been friends since kindergarten in Dundana School, in Dundas. We have met up a few times since we were able to reconnect a dozen or more years ago.
It just happened that they were vacationing with family in Fowey, a few miles away, so they could join us for Sunday Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding. Yumm!!!
To walk off a bit of our wonderful lunch, we visited St. Rumon church in the village. One of the interesting things about this church is that there is a wing that is at right angles to the rest of the church where the Lord of the Manor sat, with a curtain between them and the masses; their view of the Vicar was through a hole cut in the wall.
We are posing in the St. Rumon cemetery.
Our next stop was the village of Veryan, which is home to five, thatched round houses… here are the most famous two!
We visited St. Symphorian in Veryan too… there was a large plaque inside with a proclamation from King Charles I dated 1643.
After Veryan, we passed through many narrow, high hedged roads til we came to the old port village of Portloe. We drove through the tiny streets down to the small harbour then back out to the car park. On our walk down, I took this view of the headlands on the East of the harbour.
Bruce is standing outside the Lugger Inn with the harbour in the background. We had tea here on the balcony overlooking the harbour… what a memory moment!
Elaine was really happy to have made it to Portloe!
This wonderful cottage is available for vacation rentals… as are many of the buildings in Portloe.
After leaving Portloe, we drove back to the port town of Fowey, where Bruce, Natacha and some of his family were staying for the week. This is the area around the main quay, where there are a number of restaurants and pubs.
The downtown is filled with small streets and shops. And I do mean ‘down’town as there are some very steep and narrow streets to get down into the town. Fortunately we parked at the top of the hill and Bruce drove us down.
Here’s the view of the Fowey harbour from the balconey of Bruce’s family’s vacation home in Fowey.
Elaine, Bruce and Bruce’s mom enjoying the view from the balconey. She recounted a story from Dundas days’ when they got a ‘beagle’ puppy from our dog’s litter that turned into more of a sheepdog! 🙂
It’s now almost 10PM and we need to pack to move on tomorrow! Our hope is for continuing good weather to go to St. Mawes and do a river walk. Then it’s on to the Penzance area.
Today started off a bit cloudy and very windy. Our hopes were that the wind would clear the clouds off and it eventually did.
Our first stop was at the Elizabethan Manor House, Trerice. A wonderful place, just the right size one could imagine living there; with a few servants of course.
I spotted this lime tree growing in the back garden.
Then a 1/2 hour drive to the north coast of Cornwall to Port Isaac, which had visited back in 1997. Here I am, a happy man, in the parking lot in Port Isaac overlooking Port Gaverne Bay.
Port Gaverne Bay
Along the seaview walk… taking in the view!
Down, down, down the hill into the heart of the village.
For Doc Martin lovers, here’s the Doc’s Surgery.
And the school house.
And the pharmacy.
Port Isaac harbour view.
Port Isaac from atop the western headlands… 125 steps up and 125 steps down.
Having a nice lunch at Cupcakes in the sun!!!
Elaine very happy after sharing a bottle of Cornish Rattler (cider)!
We spent an enjoyable time with others, doing what one should to on a beautiful afternoon… sit on the seawall and watch the tide come in.
We eventually had to leave… traveled to the little town of Lostwithiel and had a great dinner at the Globe Inn.
While waiting for the pub to start serving we took a short walk around the town and saw the bridge over the Fowey River that dates back to the 1400’s.
There’s also a 1300’s Norman church in the town.
What a wonderful, perfect day! Tomorrow we’re hoping for at least part of the day to be nice as we want to take in some gardens and do a few walks along the River Fal.
Today was another travel day… from North Bovey, Dartmoor, Devon to Tregoose, Cornwall. While it started off very nice and sunny in North Bovey, literally 5 miles away on our way across Dartmoor yet again, the mists descended and as you’ll see we got soaked again.
But, first, for those doubters of this blog, here’s a sample of some of the thoroughfares we traversed while in Dartmoor.
Before we encountered the mists and fog, we managed to get a few shots of the Dartmoor countryside and moorland.
Yesterday, we had searched in vain and in rain and in bog for the Merrivale Stone Rows. Today, still in the rain and mist, we found them. Dating back to prehistoric times, the 2 sets of double stone rows shown here were perfectly aligned so that the head stone would greet the morning sun at the spring solstice.
Also, there were several stone circles that are probably remnants of their dwellings.
While this isn’t my picture, I had to pull it from the web. Twice we drove by this on the moor road and twice I commented that it reminded me of Mrs. Tweety’s Chicken Farm from the movie Chicken Run. Turns out I wasn’t too much wrong… it’s HMP Dartmoor (the prison)!
After leaving Dartmoor, we went to visit Buckland Abbey which was originally a Cistercian abbey founded in 1278. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII, it was sold to Sir Richard Grenville for his personal residence. In 1581, it was bought by Sir Francis Drake with a small portion of the fortune he brought back from attacking Spanish treasure ships during is circumnavigation of the globe.
The great barn… incredibly large on the inside!
This is the 1300’s chapel
Gates to the grounds.
A view of the grounds.
After an interesting drive through the fog and twisty roads, we made it to A30 and buzzed quickly down the rest of the way to Tregoose. Yes… is was still raining when we took a walk to see the beautiful gardens here.
That’s all for today… hoping tomorrow we see the sun so we can tour the Roseland peninsula.
Today was our day to visit Dartmoor… we started with a wonderful breakfast in the dining room at the Ring of Keys Inn. Then it was back through the little moorland roads to Moretonhamstead to begin our tour into the moors.
No sooner had we crossed over the cattle grid into Dartmoor National park, we met our first group of Dartmoor ponies beside the road!
The glorious heather was in bloom as far as you could see!
At Postbridge we stopped at took a few snaps of the “Clapper Bridge” and the bridge over the East Dart River.
One of the real highights of today was our walk into Wistman’s Wood, a very ancient stand of oak trees… about a 4 mile round trip. This was the sign post near the start of the walk.
Off into the mists up the moor towards the wood.
Wistman’s Wood is a truly magical place… I expected to see Frodo and Sam walking through the mists.
We did it! We did it!
Back across the moors on the way to Widecombe, we met some sheep…
… and some more ponies
There was a baby pony amongst the group and a very curious mother!
Our last stop of the day was to Widecombe in the Moor, where we walked about the town and visited the church.
Haytor Rocks
We finished our day back at the Ring of Bells for another great dinner.
Today was our big driving day! After another nice breakfast, we said goodbye to Caroline at Hope Farm and headed out.
Our first stop was at Reigate Hill, where we stood where Mom and Dad met over 70 years ago. Was very emotional… was hard to leave the spot.
We buzzed along the M3 for quite some time then onto the A303. There is a magical moment when heading west on the A303 when you crest a hill and there in all it’s glory is Stonehenge… and you can’t see the fences, the car parks and the hordes of tourists.
We stopped at Berwick St. James and had a wonderful lunch at the Boot Inn.
We had a long and frequently very interesting drive along Dartmoor country lanes with 4′ high stone fences on each side of the road… we could have put our hands out of the windows and touched the walls with our elbows still inside the car! And then we met a small truck… that was an interesting moment!!!
Finally after giving up on Google Maps suggestions, we asked a lady on horseback to help us get the last 1/2 mile into North Bovey.
A couple of Advil and a half of Strongbow, Elaine was good to go!
We are staying at the Ring of Bells pub in North Bovey. Our room’s windows are on the second floor just visible on the right.
This is part of the North Bovey village green and the view over the house tops to the hills beyond.
The old stone cross on the village green… that’s the grey one on the left! 🙂
Within St. John’s church in North Bovey, there are some very old stones in the floor… this one was from 1665.
Another view of the beautiful thatched roofs of the cottages.
A quick walk down the road took us to the bridges of the Bovey River.
This was one of the wider roads we traveled this afternoon!
We had a great dinner at the Ring of Bells and am currently sitting in the bar, where there’s WiFi and sending you all this Post… Cheers!
A brief primer on the British road system. The M highways (e.g. M25)are BLUE on the map and are major restricted access highways, like the 401 (on steroids). The GREEN highways (e.g. A3) are primary highways a bit smaller than the M’s. The RED highways and YELLOW roads are smaller still. Then there are the WHITE roads that could be no wider than 4 meters or 12 feet wide. An excellent example of such a WHITE road is Sandy Lane, shown to the left, on which our B&B is located. Looks beautiful, but can be very exciting when you meet another traveller going the opposite direction! If you notice the excellent trimming job on the right hedges… that wasn’t done with clippers!!!
Today was our day in Caterham! We had arranged with Father Jerry at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church to visit the church and see the bridal registry. As he was now on vacation, he asked the Church Warden, Mrs. Carole Ridley to help us out. What a wonderful experience! She and her husband, Lance, hosted us for coffee at their house before driving us to the church.
We were able to take some lovely shots of the interior of the church, but it was too wet and windy outside to get a good exterior shot.
However, we did get a great picture of the Bridal Registry, showing the the entry for their wedding, July 12, 1941. It was quite emotional to actually see their signatures, as well as Lorna and Tom’s there! They were married by the Regimental Chaplain.
Then Carole and Lance offered to drive us to the address listed as Mom/Gramms residence, 77 Monkleigh Road, Morden. We thought no one was home, but we noticed some movement in the house and the lady came to the door when I knocked. After telling her my story and trading some names, it turns out to be the house in Morden where she had boarded with the Elliots all those years ago.
We took Lance and Carole out to lunch at the Woodman pub in Woodmansterne and spent a couple of wonderful hours talking and sharing life stories. It was marvelous!
After we left the Ridleys, we went by the house at 35 Markfield Road, Caterham, which is where the happy couple in the picture we’d all recognize lived after the wedding. I had arranged with the current owner, Paul Ajuwa, a gentleman of Nigerian heritage, to be able to take a picture from the same vantage point as the wedding picture. He graciously asked us into the house and showed us about… offered us a shot of Brandy as per their custom for visitors! Here’s us standing where Dad & Mom stood on July 12, 1941… 70 years ago! I also have a great shot just like the one with Joan, Dad, Mom and Lorna looking up the road to the highway at the top.
Today was a true memory day! We had a great dinner at the Harrow, just down the road. We’re hoping to visit Reigate Hill tomorrow on our way to Devon if the weather is better.
Next post will be coming from our next B&B at the Ring of Bells in North Bovey, Devon. Cheers!
Our Air Canada flight Sunday night left on time, but not without drama. When the gate staff started calling the Waitlisted Executive Class upgrades, my name was 2nd on the list. So when I ran up to the desk to claim our upgrades, I was told that I could get a seat, but that Elaine couldn’t because she doesn’t have Elite status like me and there were other Elite passengers in the list!!! So either I turned it down or one of us could get 1 seat… I turned it down so we could be together. The attendant called the next guy up and it was the same with him, so when he went to discuss it with his wife, the attendant said that if he turns it down she’d give me both seats. But he gave it to his wife! So we were scuppered.
Once we were in the air, we turned on a movie only to find that Elaine’s audio jack was broke and they couldn’t fix it! So we picked a movie we both liked… started them at the same time and shared my audio jack with 1 ear bud for her and 1 for me. Worked, until the whole system in bunch of rows went down. An to make it worse, you couldn’t put on the reading light or turn off the cabin lights, so it was too dim to read and too light to sleep.
Final straw was when we picked our meal, chicken with rice pilaf, the rice pilaf had a peas in it! Actually the real final straw was when we arrived over Heathrow 1 hour early due to strong tail winds only to circle the airport for 30 minutes til 6AM.
Well, they gave us an express pass to get through Security and we got our car early. As we were waiting for our Avis shuttle, I grabbed a shot of a London Black Cab pulling up to the cab stand… to prove we were actually in England! We had a little trouble getting out of the airport onto the M4/M25, but that’s another story!
We ran into lots of traffic on the M25, but Caroline at the Hope Farm B&B at Ightham had our room ready for us when we arrived. That gave us some time regroup and ‘nest’ a little in this fabulous building.
Some pretty scary wildlife at Ightham B&B!
We unpacked a bit, caught our breath, and drove through the teeny, weeny roads to a local pub, The Plough, for a bit of lunch.
After lunch, we spent most of the afternoon visiting Ightham Mote and the beautiful grounds.
Well… our long awaited return to England for vacation has finally arrived! Our last trip was taking Mom/Gramms back home in 2000.
We arrived in Toronto yesterday afternoon and met up with Don & Michelle at the Delta Chelsea… had a great dinner at Frascati on Elm St behind the Chelsea.
Then we went to see “Billy Elliott” at the Canon Theatre on Yonge St. It was fabulous!
Today we’re taking a late checkout and heading up to the HP offices near the airport to leave the car. Our flight is on AC 856 at 6:15PM arriving at 6:30AM at Heathrow!
More tomorrow night from Sevenoaks B&B in Ightham, Kent.
