For our second day in Cornwall, we decided
to venture as far west as we could go.
The goal was to catch the sunset at Land’s End – which we were there
for. However, a giant cloud decided to
roll in right as the sun was setting which made for a less than spectacular
sunset. But even though we had a
slightly disappointing end to the day – everything leading up to the end was amazing.
We started our day in Marazion on the
southern coast at St. Michael’s Mount.
St. Michael’s Mount is built on an island just off the coast. But at low tide, you can walk across the
causeway to get to the island. We
arrived just before they were scheduled to close the causeway – only to find
out that the castle and gardens were closed for the day due to high winds. As in 45 mph winds with gusts at higher
speeds. That meant that the ferryboats
would be unable to run once the causeway closed and we’d be trapped on the
island until the next low tide 9 hours later.
That was a bit disappointing, but we were
able to get some good photos and had a good laugh as we were blown across the
beach.
I even took a short video of the sand
blowing across the beach just to show you how crazy it really was.
Since we had paid to park, we decided to
walk around the town a bit to explore.
And then we walked down the beach to watch the kite and wind surfers in
action. Rough day to be a tourist –
great day to be a wind surfer.
From here, we crossed to the north side of
the coast (just 20-30 minutes away) to the town of St. Ives (along with every
other tourist in Cornwall). We made
about 5 attempts at finding a parking spot in the various car parks around town
before we finally found one at the rugby club.
And first things first – I stopped to get
my first souvenir of the trip.
45 mphs winds make for excellent hairdos.
Then we stopped to pick up lunch – a
traditional Cornish pasty from Pengenna Pasties. Cornish pasties are so well known that they
are now ‘protected’ and only pasties made in Cornwall can be called ‘Cornish
Pasties’. If it’s not made in Cornwall –
it’s just a pasty.
The sun was shining, so we decided to head
down to the water to stop and have lunch (there’s no seating in the shop).
And then we set off to explore. We spent most of our time watching and
listening to the waves crash against the rocks.
The great thing about 45 mph winds is that it makes for great
waves.
The waves were so strong that Luke got
taken by surprise and ended up with very wet feet.
Between St. Ives and Land’s End is an area
called Penwith Heritage Coast. Along this
part of the coast are numerous old mines – mainly tin but other things as
well. They have fallen out of use and
most are ruins – but they make for some striking images. And after watching Poldark (see previous
post) we were in awe.
We pulled off at the Levant Mine and
parked and then walked south along the coast to take photos. Before we parked, Luke had started getting a
bit grumpy – which was understandable.
We had already done quite a bit that day, he was still tired from the
race and he now had wet feet. But as
soon as we started walking along the cliffs and we could feel the salt in the
wind from the waves crashing against the rocks, his energy levels peaked and he
was like a kid in a candy store. This
was exactly what he wanted to see during our trip. And this made me really happy.
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| If you look really closely you can find Luke in this photo. |
The power of the wind and the waves was
amazing.
And the coastline was
breathtaking.
And even along the coast, the fields are
divided by rock walls. Rock walls that
have been there so long that the plants and grasses are reclaiming them.
And once we were thoroughly windblown, we
headed back to the car to drive on to Land’s End. We took a few shots before we decided that
the sunset was a bust and headed off for dinner.
All in all – it made for a wonderfully
exhausting day. And all are places that
we’d love to go back and explore more at a future date. Hopefully we’ll be here long enough to do
just that.
Love you & miss you,
Aubs, Luke & Luther
