Cornish Holiday

9th - 13th September 2001

After checking into the guest house we went for a walk along a footpath between the railway and the sea, towards St. Michael's Mount, a small island with a castle on top. On the way we saw quite a few sea-shore birds and I took some pictures of some of them. We also passed the heliport where people catch a helicopter to go to the Scilly Isles which are 28 miles from Land's End, the most westerly part of mainland England and 3,147 miles across the sea to New York. After a couple of hours we turned around and walked back. We planned to walk through the town and find a pub where we were told we could get a good meal. On the way we took a few more pictures which you can see here. The pub was small and crowded and as soon as we had finished eating we left it and returned to the guest house to plan the next days outing.

Monday 10th September.
Today we planned to go to Land's End. After breakfast we walked across the road to the travel office and found there would be a bus to Land's End in about half an hour. We got a seat on top at the front so we could have a good view. The roads soon got very narrow and hilly, some tree branches were hitting the top of the bus and a stream beside the road had lots of small waterfalls. Although it was only about 10 miles the journey took nearly an hour. As we got close to Land's End we noticed that many places are marked "First and Last", such as house, garage, post office (we saw 2), farm, etc. There is a theme centre at Land's End where you have to pay to see various things but we just walked and looked at the view and some birds. You can see what we saw in all the pictures on the left. Although the sun was shining there was a cold wind so we took a bus back to Penzance. On the way it missed a turn so we had to reverse and then travel along a very narrow road for a few miles. Again we sat on top at the front so we could see things that the driver could not see. When we got back we walked along the sea front, and sometimes the beach and rocks, and saw lots more birds. We eventually reached the harbour at Newlyn where I took more photos before we walked back to Penzance where we had dinner in a restaurant overlooking the harbour. The ferry which you can see in the last picture went straight through a fleet of sailing boats in which people were trying to learn. I bet some of them got a fright!

Tuesday 11th September.
After breakfast today we took a train to St. Ives, a holiday village on the north coast, about 10 miles from Penzance. While we were waiting for the train we sat on the rocks watching a Rock Pipit. We walked from the station past the harbour and round the headland to another beach. On the way we watched a seal and a kestrel. We then walked back through the town and caught a train to Lelant, then walked round the estuary looking at birds. As the tide had gone out we were then able to walk straight across the river back to Lelant as it was only a few inches deep. At high tide it is many feet deep and half a mile wide! By now it was getting late so we took a train back to Penzance for a meal.

Wednesday 12th September.
Today we had decided that we were going to walk all the way to St. Michael's Mount. We kept stopping to photograph birds but when we finally got almost there the tide was still in so we took a detour to a bird reserve. All we saw there were a few waterbirds, a chaffinch and a buzzard. We still had a wait for the tide to go out so we had a Cornish Tea in a local tea shop. This consists of  hot scones with lots of  cream and strawberry jam. Some people got impatient and took boat rides out to the island but we waited with a few others until the water had almost uncovered the causeway and then walked across. As we walked back it started to rain so we caught a bus back to Penzance.

Thursday 13th September.
Today we returned home but while we were waiting for the train we walked along Penzance beach where there were lots of birds searching for food as the tide was coming in. The last two pictures show the river Hayle when the tide was in as our train passed it on the way home.