Armed with a weather forecast that suggested reasonable weather except for Sunday afternoon (which was our anniversary day) when some showers, possibly heavy, were forecast for the afternoon we set off from South Devon towards a small village called Carthew, near St Austell which is where our guest house was. However, we were not going directly there, we had a rough plan of places we wanted to visit, mainly places we had not been to for years. Worried about the inevitable bank holiday traffic we set off at 8.00am on Saturday down the A38 past Plymouth towards our first destination, a little seaside town called Fowey. The thing that amazed me was that the roads were empty! Anyway, some 90 minutes later we arrive and enjoy a full English breakfast and have a look round for an hour. We then head for our second destination just down coast, Mevagissey.
I didn`t take a picture in Fowey, but here we are in Mevagissey.
Where my wife took a liking to a 4` x 2` canvas print that she had to have. Did it go in the car ok? More on that later. Meanwhile, a couple of pictures of us heading out of Mevagissey towards our overnight stop near St Austell. Not a bad view.
.Ok, Sunday, and OUR ANNIVERSARY! Woo Hoo. We knew that it was supposed to rain in the afternoon so our plans today were to visit North Cornwall and Chapel Porth beach (near St Agnes) then to St Ives, then drop back down to the South coast to Marazion and St Michaels Mount. So after a full English breakfast (see a theme appearing here?) we went outside to at least get some top down action before the rain set in and.... oh bugger.
Never mind, stiff upper lip, a bit of rain never hurt anyone, but better keep the top up for now. We set off in heavy rain for our first destination, the gorgeous Chapel Porth beach. There is nothing like a walk along a very quiet beach with very few other people on it, even if the weather is rubbish.
My wife can be so romantic at times.
Oh.
By the time we got back to the car park the rain had stopped, so you know what that means.
Oh yes roof off..
..and a quick photo with the beach as a background, and off to our second destination, St Ives, where we stopped at the Local Tescos to put the roof back up. Ah well. I have no photos of St Ives as you were not allowed to drive into the village and the only car park signposted was full up. There were directions that sent you even further out of town to the Rugby Club for overspill parking, but bearing in mind it was raining and was a long walk into town we gave up and headed on towards Marazion and St Michaels Mount. The impression I got from St Ives was welcome, except if you have come by car. Heading towards Marazion the weather had started to dry up again and we stopped for a picture on the road in.
By the time we reached town it was raining again so we didn`t spend as much time there as we would have liked.
We decided (I say we..) to head to Truro and traipse round shops for the remainder of the afternoon as the weather was so bad. For our evening meal we went to a resort called Carlyon Bay which was a mistake as it was being redeveloped and was a bit of a dump. Particularly annoying as to get there we had to endure about a mile of speed humps, bad enough normally but not good in the Triumph, especially as a couple of them were larger than the rest and took a liking to the underside of the car.
However, funny story, I was followed out of Carlyon Bay by a green Renault Trafic all the way to our eventual evening meal destination in a village called Charlestown. I parked in the far corner of the car park as you do and he pulled in next to me and offered to buy the car! Extremely complimentary and said that in ten years time it will be worth 10k plus. We can but hope.
No pictures of the car here as it was a boring grey car park, but have one of some old ships with masts and stuff instead.
Monday, our final day, dawned bright and, er oh wait, no it didn`t.
Never mind, it may be wet but it`s not raining, so hood down and adios to our very nice Guest House.
Oh, and do you remember me mentioning the picture? Good job these old Triumphs have large boots (well for 2 seater sports cars they do). It went in, along with the weekend bags and all the other stuff. Impressive.
Our final visit was to Looe, a place neither of us had been to since we were kids, and what a fabulous little place it was, with no large department stores and chains, and full of independent shops.
After spending an enjoyable half a day here we headed home, back along the A38 ready for heavy outward bound traffic but nothing. Very quiet again, I was amazed. Home safe and sound after doing just over 350 miles in the three days. Probably equivalent to a trip to the shops for our Antipodean and American friends, but to us Brits, that`s the moon and back!
Thanks for reading!
