Last week, we were based in St Austell, Cornwall. Karen and I love the little fishing villages. We had to travel down to the southwest with a couple of overnight stops in Blackpool and Bristol.
Blackpool
It took me 69 years to get to Blackpool, to see the Blackpool Tower and check out some of the lights it is famous for. This place is a cross between Herne Bay, Ocean City, and Las Vegas (a little).
While we were in town for the day, it was time to do a little laundry at an interesting laundrette. Well, the people were very interesting!
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Bristol & Cheddar Gorge
Bristol was an overnight stop on the way to St Austell. On our way south, we went through the Cheddar Gorge in the morning, and no, we did not buy cheddar.
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Torpoint
I joined the Royal Navy in January 1972. I took this opportunity to drive past the gate that I walked through to sign up for 9 years of service. Had I not walked through these gates 51 years and 8 months ago, I would not have met Karen 47 years ago during the US bicentennial in 1976.
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Land’s End
On a warm, blustery, and occasional rain showers day, we went to Lands End. I would be very surprised if I had not been here before, but nothing was familiar. We can at least tick this off of our bucket lists.
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St Michael’s Mount
St. Michael’s Mount was lovely. It’s England’s answer to the French, Mont St. Michel. There is a causeway that you can walk when the tide is out. We missed that and took a boat. As the tide was coming in, we returned to another quay since the departure quay was now underwater.
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Luxulyan Valley & Viaduct
This was a local viaduct that we had to navigate single-track roads with oncoming traffic to navigate. Yep, I had to reverse once, and I think there are a few more hedge scratches on the car. A good job, we get full insurance. This was a nice ramble through the woods and trails to get up onto the viaduct.
Joseph Thomas Treffry (1782-185) used the Valley’s natural resources to create one of Cornwall’s few canals, an industrial railway, a 700-metre-long water-powered inclined plant and the spectacular granite Trettry Viaduct. It is the only known viaduct in Britain combining both a horse drawn tramway and a channel known as ‘leat’ carry water to power the water wheel for the Carmers Inclined Plane and later china stone mill.
From the information board on site.
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Lost Gardens of Heligan
Our last day in Cornwall was a beautiful day. We revisited the Lost Gardens of Heligan, which has a Lost Valley, The Jungle, and other gardens. This was a repeat visit. We were last here in 2012. We love this place, but England is now in a state of letting everything (Common areas, hedgerows, etc.) go back to nature. This is what we found here. Weeds everywhere.
When we were here in 2012, Karen photographed the head Gardner’s office with the lantern. Karen repeated this photograph. Unfortunately, the original photograph is on another archive disk that is not with us on this trip, but I will put the original photo up later.
I have no idea what many plants are, but I am fascinated by the colours and geometric images.
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Mevagissey
What a cute fishing village. I nearly lost an ice cream to a bold seagull!
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What’s happening next?
We are in Bath for three days, slowly heading East, back to Ashford. Less than two weeks before we board the cruise to return to the US.