Cath and Em's great adventure

I drove back down to Cornwall on Tuesday, 2nd June and convinced Cath to join me for a few days. The weather was pretty dreadful on the drive down with weather reports of unseasonably high winds. Not again. We were at the lighthouse by early afternoon so made the most of the day by going down to Lizard Point for an early seal spot and a cheeky cream tea at Polpeor Cafe. Then a quick ten minute drive over to Cadgwith Cove, by which time it had become a lovely afternoon. The weather forecast was improving by the minute so we made plans to head for Kynance Cove the next day to coincide with low tide at lunchtime. I have already learnt that if the weather is forecast to be even half-decent you make the most of it with your most favoured activity not being saved 'til last.

As you can see, the weather was glorious; the warmest day since moving to Cornwall in mid-March. Such a sexy look; t-shirt and shorts, white legs and walking boots.

We bought lunch and smoothies for the beach and found, after a couple of false starts, a lovely sheltered rock to set up camp against. I was engrossed in my Kindle when Cath suddenly announced it had gone very quiet. We soon realised why. The tide was coming in and about to cut our part of Kynance Cove off. Oh how we laughed. What with me being the local expert in tides and all. There were still a couple of people around who confidently told us we had a good five minutes yet. We were out of there in seconds, splashing across the meeting waves. Gosh, up and over our ankles it was!

This is where we had been sitting..

... so we retreated to the safety of the cliff above and carried on reading.

And then strolled home in the late afternoon sun.

Day two wasn't quite so sunny but it was still lovely for walking to Church Cove. We took a detour to the beach at Housel Bay where we had the beach to ourselves.

Then it was onwards to the lifeboat station at Kilcobben Cove. Bizarrely along the way our mobiles pinged into life. I had a conversation with a man from the insurance company about the water damage at Lowen while Cath had a nice chat with Paul!

We had a look round the newly-built lifeboat station and then blagged a ride back up in the lift with one of the lifeboat men. We'd spent so long meandering along the cliff path that we were in serious need of lunch so cut our walk slightly short. But disaster struck; Ann's Pasties had run out of pasties! We couldn't wait a whole hour before the next batch were ready so had to console ourselves with a cone of chips each from Smugglers. Then home for a cup of tea before dragging Cath out again and all the way down to Botallack to go Poldark hunting. 

In true Cornish style there were no signs whatsoever indicating where we should go, despite Botallack being a National Trust site. We found the NT car-park and the remains of old mine workings but the print-out we were clutching in our hands seemed to bear no resemblance to what we could see. Luckily we found a very nice man. A local who sort of reminded me of the neighbour from Friday Night Dinner but I forced myself away from that thought as he told us exactly which properties belonged to which Poldark and his minor impact on the set (it involved a handrail and hessian) which obviously brought him a small but triumphant satisfaction.

These are the Crown mine/engine houses which, in Poldark, belong to Francis and are called Wheal Grambler. Maybe you're thinking they look a bit derelict and different from the ones in the series; they are the same buildings but roofs were computer graphically added.

The lovely man explained that there is a very, very narrow path, literally inches wide where you can climb down to the lower building. He told us that only foolhardy men attempt it as you are nine inches from a horrible death if you slip. As we followed his pointed finger we saw that, indeed, there was a foolhardy male on the grassy lower level.

The path is right here ^ and leads around and down...

Allegedly there are handholds.

 Now we realise why the National Trust don't include the path down to the mines in its guided walk. We mused a while on why they don't just bar the access path or at least put a whacking great danger sign up and then walked back up the way and went Captain Ross hunting.

Here I am outside his place of work; Wheal Leisure, but he was nowhere to be seen. Not even a whiff of a horseman riding by. Oh, that's another book entirely.

Our slightly surreal walk put me in mind of walking around the Forum in Rome. Not a sign nor explanation of anything anywhere. At least you can refer to your guidebook when in Rome. Even having looked on t'internet there is practically no information about a site so obviously full of history.

Seeing as we were in the right part of Cornwall we decided to take a look at Lands End. Quite frankly it looked ghastly. What on earth Shaun The Sheep and a myriad of other horrid looking 'attractions' has got to do with Lands End is anyone's guess. We took the scenic route home and dropped into Porthleven for dinner. After a stroll around we enjoyed a delicious meal at The Square; Cath had corn-fed chicken with risotto and I had baked cod with crab rarebit. Unfortunately once our meal was served no-one came near us again so we had no opportunity to tell them how good it was but we both agreed it wouldn't stop us returning nor recommending.

Worn out after two days of being on the go in the sea air we headed for home and didn't even have a glass of wine, just hit our respective sacks. Next morning it was time for Cath to fly home just in the nick of time as the foghorn sounded and the weather worsened (but only briefly).

Love from The Lizard Girl