Land's End.

*THE PHOTOS CAN BE SEEN FULL SIZE BY CLICKING ON THEM*

The following day was still windy but at least it was dry and some patches of blue sky to be seen.

We decided this would be our day to visit Land's End. Our plan being to catch the bus there and return the three miles back, walking over the beach from Sennen and climbing the steep path up to our site.

We waited in the lane for the bus, it's always a bit hit and miss with the buses around there but the bus turned up, pretty much on time and off we went.

As we approached Land's End the skies started to clear and it looked as if we were going to have a good day.

Walking across from the car park, I noticed a bird I didn't recognise, so zoomed in with the camera and took a photo. When we got home, much later, I was able to identify it as a Stonechat. Fairly sure I've never seen one of those before. Beautiful little bird.

All the commercial bits were still closed as the season hadn't started. This didn't worry us in the slightest, as the Hotel was open and we were able to sit right at the end of the country and have a drink in the sun.

Having fortified ourselves, we started walking back towards Sennen. It was a lovely cliff-top walk and incredibly became so warm and as there was no one else about, I took my jumper off and was walking in jeans and bra for some time!!!

Luckily, I have a sixth sense for when people are approaching, so was fully clothed when a gentleman popped up from the opposite direction and said, "If we walked over to the edge of the cliff, we could see a wreck. It's the Union Star."

This rang a bell in the recesses of my memory and was sure it had some major significance but couldn't, at the time, think what it was.

Mike can't cope with heights but I went over to have a look and take some photos. It was a sad looking, quite small ship and it was still puzzling me as to why I knew the name.

We carried on with our walk, going down onto the beach at Sennen and walking across to where we needed to climb up to our Site.

The site is up near the white house, to the left of centre. Those rocks on the beach were about to become a far bigger problem than anticipated, by the time we reached them.

The rocks covered a far wider area than we anticipated and were also far, far taller than we had imagined when we'd seen them from a couple of miles away. The tide had come in and by now we were both feeling hot and slightly exhausted. The rocks blocking our way didn't look like much and the sea had only just started to reach them. 

Rather than go back across the beach and take the longer road route back we started to clamber over the rocks nearest the sea. This was the narrowest area to cross but the tide was moving further in, every time a new wave broke and we were getting pushed further inland into really large slabs of barnacle covered rocks, with water rushing in below our feet, as we leapt from one rock to another. 

It took us a good ten minutes to clear them and land safely back on the beach the other side and we realised halfway though, we really were putting ourselves at risk. It was getting pretty scary. Another, younger couple were doing the same thing as us and I was quite proud that my remembered, childhood, rock climbing skills got us over the rocks several minutes before them.

There were some cables on the beach, running out into the sea. Mike guessed they were services of some sort to The Channel Islands.

Finally the climb up from the beach was a killer, with several pauses to get our breath. To the one side of the path was a fenced off area, with a notice on it.

I don't need telling twice!!

Much later, when I was able to get onto the Internet again, I looked up the Union Star. The feelings that gave me were hard to describe, the failure of her engines were the cause of the loss of the Penlee Lifeboat. Of course I knew that name, it was a tragedy that should never be forgotten. If anyone is reading this and doesn't know the story, well, you need to know. The crew of Solomon Browne, showed bravery far and above that which any of us can begin to imagine. It's a heartbreaking story and should, according to some, never have happened, had the Union Star accepted a tow before things got so out of hand. The documentary, when the radio of the Lifeboat goes silent...well, I just don't have the words to explain my feelings.

Documentary on the Penlee Disaster

Wikipedia entry about the Penlee disaster.

If you go back now and look at the photo of the wreck, it's hard to imagine the tragedy played out on that rusting hulk.

  

St Michael's Mount

Rather than sit in a wet field, with little to do, we decided to brave the weather and drive down to St Michael's Mount.

The rain eased off and we decided to pay £6 day rate for a Motorhome and park on the official beach-side car park. That turned out to be a good decision, as we were then able to make lunch, Crab Sandwiches again for me, with a glass wine and a walk on the beach with Rowley.

After lunch we walked over the causeway to the Mount. it's not for the unfit, that is quite a climb up there!

We were glad we made the effort though and as a National Trust property, we had free admission, due to our complimentary annual membership for work done for The National Garden Scheme.

The missing doors below faced onto the harbour, so you'd expect them to be quite sheltered but were smashed in by the winter storms, which must have been frightening for the residents here.

April Fool's Day

So, April the First and we moved to our next Site, a farm near to Land's End. As we left St Ives, we stopped at a farm shop and took a photo of one of the many fields of daffodils in the area.

On the way to the new Site we stopped off at Newlyn, as we hear it mentioned so much on the Antiques Roadshow, for the Newlyn artists. It wasn't what I expected. I was thinking small village but it was just an addition to Penzance and not really very pretty at all. Maybe it was the wrong Newlyn?

You can just see St Michael's Mount in the distance, in the photo above.

The Site we moved to was a bit basic, to say the least. We'd been mislead by the photo of their cafe and reception area, which was attractive, modern and nothing like the toilets and shower facility. Unheated, damp and an old outbuilding, which didn't even manage to muster up hot water for a shower. It was windy, very windy, so no telly, as the satellite dish would have been damaged and no Wifi, as it had been knocked out in November, in the storms and wasn't going to be fixed until Easter! Errr, WHY????




 

St Ives

A long walk from the Godreavy Site got us to the bus stop on the edge of Hayle and from there we could travel into St Ives. We were told there is a bus that goes by the site but only in season and as it wasn't even Easter yet, we had to make the near mile walk. 

St Ives is pretty but was starting to look confusingly like many other places in the area.

This street name made us laugh, what a thing to be caught doing!

Below is a 'Ship Called Dignity' cue for a song?

Other photos taken around St Ives.

These young fishermen were just walking out to their boat, we were amazed how fast the tide came in as ten minutes later their boat was afloat, as can be seen in the bottom photo. 

Godrevy

Godrevy was our next site, not far from St Ives and just yards from sand dunes onto some lovely beaches.

The site we were staying at didn't provide daily newspapers but there was another campsite just over the road and they had a proper, little shop. So Mike went into order his Daily Mail. Not because he reads it but because he is addicted to the Crosswords. When he gave his name to the lady behind the counter, she recognised him from his long career in local radio and both her son and husband had worked with Mike during his time at the BBC.

It's a small world!!

Mothering Sunday was 30th March and after some cards and phone calls, we  decided on a long walk towards the Lighthouse. What we didn't know was, when we walked to the headland, there was a cover,  think it was Mutton Cove, which has a colony of Seals. I was thrilled to be able to see and photograph them, from our position on the cliffs. On the walk back a stop off in the village pub seated by the blazing fire was just what we needed.