Exploring... Helford via St Anthony In Meneage

Over the last five months I have explored most of The Lizard but I tend to forget how far across it stretches and how different the landscape is in other parts. I only rediscovered this by accident last week when I was following an interesting looking sign: It was a neon pink film crew sign but it ended up going into Bonython Gardens which was closed so I carried on going and ended up going through woodland like you never see on "my" part of The Lizard where nothing grows much over 18 inches!

I had a look in the guide-books and on the ordnance survey map and decided to explore St Anthony In Meneage. I thought I must have taken a wrong turning to the village as the approach was so very narrow. How services and deliveries get down there I have no idea with hardly any passing places either. As I came into the village it looked very pretty, with a sweet little jetty and foreshore and a pretty little church and... nothing else. However, there was the ever present pay-and-display. Minimum stay two hours for £3. For some stupid reason I duly paid to park in one of Cornwall's most expensive car-parks as I reasoned there must be more to the village than meets the eye. After ten minutes of admiring the, admittedly, very scenic and unspoiled outlook from the shore and realising that the only shop sold fishing tackle, Weird Fish clothing and lollies but little else I was back in the car again. Maybe I missed something?

As I was so near I decided to drive to Helford. Last time I was here it was low tide and hard to get an appreciation of the place. If Mousehole is the quintessentially chocolate box harbour town then this is the river equivalent. It is so perfect, so idyllic, it's as if an artist has painted a perfect riverside village. The guide book describes Helford as the haunt of the rich, famous and the retired!

I had hoped to have lunch at a cafe but ended up at The Shipwrights Arms. I hate going into pubs on my own but needs must and it ended up being a great (Hobson's) choice. The barman was very friendly and when I asked if their's was the only eatery in the village he explained that the tearooms had closed down. First their business rates were increased and then they were told they were responsible for maintaining the roof (the tea rooms was housed in a chapel) so they had no financial option but to close. The barman did point out the yacht club across the river. Was one allowed in I wondered? He explained that first they ask if you're a member. Then they ask whether you're a visiting yachtsman. Then, finally, and very grudgingly they let you in anyway. Having bonded by this time I ordered a yummy platter of Vicky's bread, olives, houmus and salsa and sat outside in the sunshine. I'd brought my kindle but why would you read when this vista is before you?

Looking downstream

Looking upstream

Looking straight ahead at two little boys crabbing and... my lunch

Eventually, albeit, reluctant to leave the glorious location I took another turn around the village before heading for home.

Love from The Lizard Girl

Wednesday afternoon in Penzance and Mousehole

Seeing as I was already half-way there I decided to have a look round Penzance. I haven't been there for years and when I drive through it always looks a bit down at heel but other people seem to like it so I decided to give the place the benefit of the doubt. Crawley-On-Sea I'm afraid. Not helped that the first shop you see when you cross the road from the harbour car-park is Iceland. Who let that happen? In fact who let Penzance fall into such a sorry state? The whole place has such a down at heel feel about it not helped by the fact that Penzance has more than its fair share of drug addicts. There was a little more of a bohemian vibe once you got away from the high street. I found a huge vintage shop full of most of my childhood and some nice little independent galleries but not a lot else.

Next stop Newlyn; which is famous for two very different reasons. It is the biggest fishing port in England but also has a vibrant art scene which started back in the late 19th century when artists from all over flocked to the area and founded the Newlyn School (of art). I like Newlyn. It has a functional, practical feel to it. Very much a take us as you find us vibe.

And then onto Mousehole. By now it was quite late in the afternoon but Mousehole was still busy, busy, busy and oh so pretty, pretty, pretty.

I had a lovely time wandering around the harbour and the narrow back streets and alleyways of Mousehole. Along with many other visitors I might add. As the shadows grew longer I left this picturesque village, bypassed Penzance, and headed for home and a delicious bag of chips from Smugglers in Lizard.

Love from The Lizard Girl

Exploring... Penrose

After a terrific storm on Tuesday night, Wednesday dawned clean and fresh with a decent forecast for the next few days. I decided to make the most of it by ticking off some of the places on my To Explore list.

On Wednesday I headed for Penrose. This is a National Trust area incorporating Loe Pool and Loe Bar. I explored the opposite side of Loe Pool months earlier on an unseasonally warm March day.

Walking down from the car-park towards the stable block where there's National Trust info and a cafe run by the same people who run Nauti But Nice in Porthleven.

The lovely walk along Loe Pool

To the sandbar where tranquil Loe Pool is permanently separated from treacherous Loe Bar.

 As it was the day after the storm the waves were seriously big. I checked online - about nine feet high at their peak but difficult to get a sense of perspective from these pictures. This is a set of four capturing the wave building and then crashing. It was mesmerising.

This is an amazing National Trust holiday let overlooking Loe Bar with views up to Gunwalloe and down to Porthleven. I thought it might be nice to rent it for a week next year. Unfortunately the weekly rental is over £2,000 in high season so I shall think again!

And then back up to the cafe for a pot of tea before having a look at the work-in-progress restoration of the walled garden.

 My favourite shot of the day - the creamy froth puts me in mind of raw meringue mix.

Love from The Lizard Girl.

You've no sooner got rid of one lot...

...than another guest turns up! And this time it was Karen's turn. How very lovely. I just about had time to get the house straight before it was off to the airport again. The hideous weather hampered my journey and it took nearly two hours to drive to Newquay where, typically, Karen's flight had arrived early. I took Karen to The Seadrift Kitchen Cafe in Porthleven. The only reservation they had available all weekend was 5.45pm on Friday so we drove straight there from the airport.

I ate there at lunchtime a few weeks ago and really wanted to share the dining experience with Karen. The menu is almost too big, especially as once you have looked at the menu and the specials board they then overwhelm you with more specials options when they take your order! But we managed. I had the trio of Cornish fish, which the chef selects, and Karen had hake. Delicious. But we were mad keen to try the dessert menu as well so made enough room for me to have pavlova with berries and ice-cream and Karen had warm figs with turkish delight ice-cream. Delicious.

I attempted to show Karen the harbour but it was a true mizzly Cornish evening so we gave it a miss and headed back to introduce Karen to the delights of Lizard Lighthouse and the fog horn.

Saturday morning was wet and foggy and horrible. I thought maybe my luck had run out and Karen would be the first house-guest to experience the bad side of Cornish weather. I went up to the village to get the Saturday papers and we settled down to breakfast and a good read.

Whatever the weather we decided to go to Polpeor Cafe for lunch as it's snug inside looking out at the sea. However, as we got there miracle of miracles we spotted a bit of blue sky and a watery sun came out so we took the plunge and took an outside table all on our ownsomes. Within fiveteen minutes most of the outside tables were taken and we actually took our waterproofs off. Fancy. In August.

After lunch we set off on my favourite walk across the cliffs to Kynance Cove. The weather was strange. It felt like there was going to be a thunderstorm at any moment but it never materialised. It was incredibly still. We arrived at the Cove to find a river flowing down the middle of the beach where normally there is a tiny trickle if anything. As we had neither wellies to wade across nor shorts to paddle across we had to leave the far side of the Cove unexplored. We enjoyed an ice-cream and watched a few brave souls splashing about in wetsuits before taking the higher track back to the road and into Lizard Village.

We had already made a plan for Sunday that, whatever the weather, we would have a lovely bracing walk along Gwithian Sands. How lovely to wake up to sun and the rainbow maker Karen gave me dancing kaleidoscope lights across the kitchen walls. We packed lunch and the picnic blanket and optimistically headed off to Gwithian.

We had a sunny stroll along the sands as the tide was going out before settling down on the blanket for a hard afternoon's reading (ahem, snoozing in my case) on an unexpectedly warm summer's day.

I tried a selfie but Karen wasn't having any of it so I took a toesie instead to add to my "toes of Cornwall" collection.

The sun came and went all afternoon but we finally decided to call it a day around 4.30pm, by which time the tide had gone right out, to give us time for a detour into Portleven to show Karen the pretty harbour  and enjoy a delicious cream tea at Twisted Currant.

True to form the rain was back with a vengeance on Monday morning for the drive back to Newquay airport. We made good time but the plane didn't. The Stansted flight was frustratingly delayed for two hours. I left Karen with a cappuccino and her book and headed for home.

Love from The Lizard Girl

The return of Cam and Lucy

While I was home Cam and Lucy decided they'd like to come for another visit so it worked out perfectly for me to drive them down and then catch the National Express coach back. Libby was meant to be in Newquay but unfortunately so many girls pulled out during the preceding weeks and then days that her camping trip was cancelled but she was quite happy to stay home. As we headed south west the weather got better and better. By early afternoon we were pulling up at The Lighthouse. After a quick lunch we headed off to the Lizard Lifeboat Open Day.

Although we arrived at the tail-end of the event it transpired we didn't miss much as when they launched the lifeboat one of the engines failed. Then the helicopter arrived but had to depart almost immediately to perform a rescue! We had a tour of Rose and then walked into Lizard where I left Cam and Lucy at The Lighthouse Bar to watch the footy. Fish and chips courtesy of Lucy for tea.

We woke up to blue skies so decided on Gwithian where I went with Libby and Annie on the first hot day of the summer seven weeks earlier. We managed to sneak into the very nearly full car-park and started the day with an ice-cream from Sunset Surf. We had a picnic for lunch. Cam was most disappointed that neither home-made scotch eggs nor French bread and pate came out of the basket but managed to somehow enjoy his lunch.

Then it was on to the highlight of the day. Emma's homemade Shepherd's Pie as requested by Lucy. I was slightly apprehensive about the pie not living up to the original but Lucy pronounced it even better than the first. Phew.

Another day of sun and we decided on Rinsey Head followed by a late lunch at Kynance Cove. The former being more success than the latter.

Cam and Lucy loved Rinsey.

The view from Wheal Prosper down to the beach (by the way Wheal means "place of work". Wheal Prosper is the engine house for the mine that would have gone down hundreds of feet and under the sea).

After duly admiring Wheal Prosper we headed down the steep path to the beach and slithered down the last bit with a jump onto the sands. Lucy had bought a racquet and ball/badminton set which they played on and off the entire time we were there while I sunbathed and went for little wanders.

Hunger was getting the better of us so we upped sticks and headed for Kynance Cove. For the first time ever I wished we hadn't. First of all the car-park was full and the approach to it was full of parked cars. This meant we had to wait in line for a dozen or so cars to exit before a similar number could move into the car-park. We enjoyed lunch in the garden of the Cafe but when we got down to the beach, well, sadly it was destroyed. A favourable mid-afternoon low tide meant it was packed and everywhere you looked there were holes and sand castles and sand writing and footprints. My beloved Kynance had been desecrated :( Thank goodness the evening tide would wash it all away. It had cooled down a little by the time we settled down and after about 20 minutes we gave it up as a bad job as it was like trying to relax in the middle of Piccadilly Circus.

We headed home to freshen-up and then had a nice meal at The Harbour Inn in Portleven. Not our first choice but a combination of circumstances led us there and it was pretty good. In fact it was very good seeing as how Cam treated me as a belated Mother's Day present.

The weather turned overnight and I drove Cam and Lucy to Truro bus station in the rain. After a quick look around town, I mean city, it was home to meh weather and the beginning of three days of continuous foghorn.

Love from The Lizard Girl