Piers and Pasties

The call of the ocean...

Packed up and caught a bus to Victoria Station and the train to Brighton. Entertained all the way down (1.5 hour trip) by an Irishman, in the same carriage compartment, who has worked and lived in London for the last 35 years. During the trip we got a world cup rugby prediction (South Africa), a run down on Brexit (a disaster), a warning that our upcoming plane trip may be affected by strike action (true, but luckily didn't eventuate), and a confirmation that our home exchange in Ireland is in a great location (which many people have been telling us).

Wheeled our bags to our Brighton hotel accommodation, 0.8 miles, then maneuvered up 4 flights of narrow stairs to our small, but immaculate, room… with a sea view (sliver).

So off we went exploring along the Brighton beachfront. It is a brown stone beach, the sea at 14 C didn’t look too inviting but there was a few hardy souls swimming and quite a few sun bathers. Found a bakery in town and lunched on the beach, pleasant with it being quite warm at 22 C’ish. Then a walk through town, very busy with lots of holiday makers and day tourists as well as locals as it is school holidays. Managed, after a bit of searching, to find the gallery where a local artist Sam Toft displays her work. Caro has some prints at home and was keen to see more, an item off Caro's list.

Oh I do love to be beside the sea-side...

Found a pub (of course) for our evening meal, Caro ordered the Whitebait special… actually individual battered whitebait slightly smaller than a sardine. Not what was expected but definitely whitebait taste and quite nice.

We wandered out onto the pier, effectively an amusement park of small proportions. A roller coaster, a log ride, a ghost train and a helter skelter (Noel was sorely tempted) and bumper cars… plus the penny arcades. A couple of restaurants, candy floss and ice cream stalls. It all looked appealing and clean, an improvement on 30 years ago when we had visited. Although deck chairs stacked up there was no sign of men with hankies on their heads...

Biking into the wind

It was a stormy night and windy this morning. We have booked rental bikes to ride the Sussex trails. Caught a bus to Hove and the bike rental shop, and with a loose description and carrying a couple of maps we were off…

Wound up out of town, past cereal fields and 3 golf courses. At the top of the hill was Devils Dyke, a glacial valley from the last ice age located on the “South Downs Way” which is a 160 km trail across southern England. The Dyke was used as a defensive site before and after the Iron Age due to the commanding views of the surrounding countryside. There is a layer of chalk stone under much of this land. The views were spectacular including seeing as far as Ashdown Forest (aka Pooh Bears ‘100 acre wood’).

It was blowing a gale up there, so didn’t linger long and took a cross country route along the ridge before dropping down to the Adur River. An easy riverside path then led us to Shoreham-by-Sea, a pretty seaside village, for lunch. Along the coast back to Hove, great to do a decent length of biking in a mix of scenery.

Experiencing full on head wind on the South Downs Way.... "Remember an airplane takes off against the wind - not with it" - Henry Ford.  

Quintessential Bathing Sheds on Hove/Brighton Beachfront

On our evening walk around Brighton we discovered many inter-connecting alleys which had shops and restaurants. Brighton would certainly been a grand town in its day with a palace, pier and large sea view hotels but is now looking a bit tired and shabby as are some of it’s people!

A voice from our past...

Picked up our rental car, bigger than booked/expected being a Vauxhall Grandland which is just slightly smaller than a Toyota Highlander... the rental company must had wanted this size transferred and hence why the free upgrade. This was a little bit of a nice surprise, although we would find as the week went on the larger size of the vehicle was interesting!. The real bonus was the fact it had a built in GPS as we had not been going to get one with the smaller sedan actually booked. BUT, Noel was very concerned after the recent fraught drop off of Pug in Paris, along with the abuse aimed at the GPS at the time, that lo and behold... the GPS in this car has the same woman's voice emerging!!! It is hoped she doesn't carry a grudge.

Our first stop was Lewes, a Market Town and site of the Battle of Lewes 1264. Walked around the town and through the castle gates, built after the Norman conquest of the 11th century. Past the castle grounds and watched lawn bowls being played on a "green" dating from 1640, which looked challenging with it's undulating surface to say the least!

Made our way south/west with a stop at Beaulieu, a cute village on the edge of New Forest, built around the tidal river of the same name. It has a castle/big house, car museum and a classic car sales/rental. New Forest is a National Park, and although not much of a forest as such there is lots of gorse and flowering heath. It is known for its wild horses and mules so the surrounding towns also get the mules wandering through. Houses either have gates, or cattlestops…. Or no garden!

We wound our way down very narrow country lanes to a pre booked pub, in the middle of no-where really, in a tiny village called Dewlish. Drove through Puddletown but gave Piddletrenhide on the river Piddle a miss! Anyway, a classic and very nice English pub with fantastic hosts, food and lodging (and ale, and cider) for the night.

Broadchurch and beyond

Stopped at the Hardy monument, built in 1844 in memory of Vice Admiral Thomas Masterman Hardy. Hardy was captain of the HMS Victory in the 1805 Naval Battle of Trafalgar, but in modern times has become more famous for holding in his arms the dying Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson who uttered his last words... "Kiss me Hardy". You can't accuse us of not telling you something you didn't know, or for that matter ever thought you wanted to know!

Nice views from the hilltop, including seeing the sea before travelling on to stop at the town of West Bank, a sea side fishing village. It’s more recent potential claim to fame is that parts of the TV series Broadchurch were shot here, although they were definitely keeping that quiet. Normally such an association would result in souvenir and T-shirt shops, but nothing here gave any hint to this villages re-creation as a fictional location. A very busy locals holiday destination with lots of caravan parks about, and definitely some hardy souls swimming and sun-bathing.

On to Topsham, a lovely sea estuary town, in South Devon where we briefly met our home exchange hosts. They were leaving us their (second, as they live elsewhere) house whilst they headed off for 4 days hiking on the Dartmoor National Park. After they left it immediately started raining and seemed to continue on and off for the duration of our stay so not sure how enjoyable their tramp would have been.

Rachael Walter is joining us, she is between jobs so is going to help us explore Cornwall/Devon, so we met her off the train at Topsham Station and headed to a pub for dinner…. And a pint.

Stop before we fall off the end of the world...

Today is the best forecast for the 3 days we have so we headed down to St Ives, located on the east side of Cornwall. A lovely, but very busy, seaside village. With a Cornish Pasty to keep us going we had a wander about, beautiful sandy beaches especially on the west side. The tide was a long way out when we were there with a tidal difference of around 4 metres but on occasions can be up to 7 metres.

Drove south along the coast, through very narrow roads and winding between fields and buildings. A lunch stop at a pretty village entailed our introduction to scones with jam and clotted cream, and the dilemma of what order the jam and cream is applied. Stopped at Sennan Cove, a long very popular sandy beach. Outside temps were around 22-24 C whilst the water is around 14 C, the locals well set up for the beach with wind shelters or tents along with buckets and spades.

Wandered along the beach and up the hill to the Mayon Cliff Old Coast Guard Lookout (1891) which is now owned by the National Trust. We could see Land’s End about a mile away. So walked there along the cliff tops, took the obligatory photo sneaking time between the revolving tour groups, and back again. Actually saved a bit in parking fees by doing so…. Space is tight throughout England so parking is a major industry, and very tricky when you have only recently arrived in the country so have little change. Amazingly most parking machines had only coin facility, no cards or change given, a little archaic in today’s world but good for profit levels! Because they will be asked all the time most local business are very hesitant to change notes for coins.

Next we drove to Minack Theatre, an amphitheatre carved into granite cliffs on a rocky headland of Porthcurno which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. The brainchild of Rowena Cade, she and a faithful gardener Billy Rawlings set about building a small open air theatre for a local production of the Shakespeare play ‘Mid-summers Night Dream’ in 1929. It worked so well that more productions were scheduled and the theatre structure and accompanying gardens expanded. Today it has a theatre season of May to September with over 80,000 per year coming to see a show which changes weekly. Also over 100,000 visit just to look at the site (as we did).

The show changes weekly and are put on by amateur theatre companies, the shows cancelled if there is thunder and lightning otherwise proceed rain or shine. We could imagine it could be pretty uncomfortable watching a show in an incoming storm!! An amazing place.

Getting to Minack theatre was a bit of a challenge, the roads are extremely narrow in much of Cornwall and definitely not made for 2 way traffic. Especially if the large queues coming to and away from a popular destination suddenly include a double decker bus, which happened here. A huge road blockage existed until a helpful chap worked out who had to move to allow things to free. We, along with another vehicle, ended up parked in a neighbouring field to allow some bus movement and then an ongoing juggle of one car forward/one past on the odd slightly wider bit.

Um.... sooooo??

A photo stop at Logan’s Rock Hotel (obligatory!) then on to Penzance, which we drove through to see Michael Saint Mount. In copy of, and similarly styled and named to, the French Mont St Michel it is smaller but is an island linked by a man made granite causeway passable at low tide. The island has a castle and chapel and has been home to the Saint Aubyn family since 1650. The tide was in, and we were too late in the day for the ferry so just took a picture and headed back to Topsham. Stopped at a pub for dinner on way home, luckily we had a lovely meal in a reasonable time… but there was grumpy groups all around us as they had ordered long before us and were still waiting! (time to drink up and go!)

Michael Saint Mount.... bit of a copy, but a reasonable attempt!

For all our tripping around the southern coast there is a constant reminder of past events with World War 2 bunkers scattered along the coast.

A rather large and extraordinary ecological project

Headed south to Cornwall again this morning to visit the Eden Project, something Rachael wanted to see and we had never heard of… although maybe we actually had via a TV doco sometime in the past. The project was built in a reclaimed 160 year old China Clay pit near the town of Blazey, St Austell area. The pit is dominated by 2 large plastic domes, biomes, one of which houses a collection of rain-forest plants and the other a collection of Mediterranean plants. The remainder of the whole pit is then covered in gardens of various sorts.

The initial idea came from Tim Smit and dates back to 1996 when the thought emerged over a pint in a pub and by 1998 construction had begun. With plants arriving from December 2000 it was opened to the public in March 2001. An amazing collection of plants both inside and out, a very popular place to visit on a rain threatening school holidays day.

There were themed cafes, zip lines and rope climbing activities. Very easy to while away a few hours, a very clever use of a hole in the ground! Also thought provoking re planet sustainability etc.

Next we went to the Lost Gardens of Heligan which were close by and the restoration project here was undertaken by Tim Smit before he came up with the idea of the Eden Project. The gardens are on an estate that has belonged to the Tremain family since the 16^th century. The gardens were reclaimed in 1990 after being abandoned to the elements since the outbreak of WWI. As the gardeners went to war and man power was in short supply there after. At 300 acres it became Europe’s largest garden restoration project, and was a TV series that boosted the profile and income and allowed further work. It now has world renowned rhododendrons, roses, fruit, veg, flowers, jungle, a New Zealand section and is home to some rare breeds of domestic animals. Intriguing area of brick walled gardens with large glass house structures.

A lovely place to wander with paths leading off in all directions. We had a rain shower to dodge but managed to stay reasonably dry.

Last stop of the day was to gaze at the nearby beach of Portmellon, a lovely sandy area accessed by very narrow roads but quiet at the end of the day.

More lovely scenery, not so much the weather?

We headed to the west beaches of northern Cornwall and Devon. Heading over the hills the weather immediately deteriorated with mist and rain threatening. Stopped at Bude, a busy seaside town, the tide was out and on this coast the tide variations are very noticeable at 4-5 metres and shallow bays exposing large areas of sand which are quickly covered as the tide rolls in.

Bude is an old town set around a cove, with old fortifications on the hill opposite. It had a huge walled swimming pool area that was getting some use, and is covered and replenished by high tide.

With Cornish Pasty to fortify us, again, we drove to Appledore which is a North Devon fishing village located at the confluence of the Tave and Torridge rivers. Originally the area had a ship building industry but is now a quiet fishing village, a very arty sort of town.

 Mr Bean's nemesis obviously on holiday by the sea

With the weather deteriorating further we drove through higher hill country to Coombe Martin town, a rugged bay flanked by some of the highest sea cliff’s in England. The beach was less sand, more pebbles. The town was gearing up for their summer festival starting that evening, so lots of bunting and window displays to cheer up what was miserable weather. Didn’t stop long and ventured back to Topsham for our last pub meal with Rach.

Rachael’s train left at 9 am, and after a quick clean up we headed off towards our day's destination near Gloucester on the western edge of the Cotswold's.

Off to the north

Stopped at Bream Beach National Trust peninsula property, a huge sandy beach and although not really beach weather still a few hardy soles staking their claim with wind breaks and deck chairs. We climbed the hill and out to the peninsula end where originally a fortification existed and now WWII observation and defense buildings remain. Stunning views of Bream Beach in one direction, the town/city of Weston-Super-Mare in the other and Wales across the bay in the distance.

 Bream Beach in one direction, with sand artist busy in his work...

 City of Weston Super Mare in other direction (birthplace of John Cleese for the aficionados)....

Wales in the distance across the, obviously, wind swept bay

Drove onto Yate, just outside Bristol, and stopped at the Danbury Campervan factory, which specialises in camper conversions of mainly small vans… i.e VW and some Ford Transits. Our 1971 Kombi is a Danbury conversion of a different era. Some looked quite simple, others complex, but all expensive! Ticked another item on Noel's list of things to see.

Then onwards to the edge of the Cotswold's travelling through some lovely towns and ending up near Brockworth for the night in a cheap, but flashy in it’s day, BnB hotel. Out to a nearby country pub for dinner (and ale, and cider)

Yikes, damp but not out

A wet miserable day with storm warnings as we headed over the Welsh border for Monmouth which is a medium sized town with a 17^th century bridge and watch tower, the remains of a castle and a military museum. It was a training area for Royal Engineers for the first and second World War’s. Seemed to be friendly folk as one chap suggested we should stay till tomorrow to climb the bridge tower, two young men just wanted to talk (Jehovah Witness) and the mayor of the town (introduced himself as he recognised us as visitors!) suggesting we knock on a certain door and ask to see the "outstanding" courtroom and prison. We didn’t in case it was a scam to get more permanent citizens.

Hereford for lunch but with rain and lots of traffic we just stopped at the Supermarket. As the roads became wetter, with partial minor flooding, we stopped and toured Croft Castle. This is an 11^th century castle, church and garden near Yarpole, Hertfordshire. It was owned by the Croft family but had changed hands in between generations to then once again return to the Croft's and is now in the stewardship of the National Trust. A nice diversion.

A brief stop at Ludlow, a lovely looking partially walled 11^th century town in southern Shropshire, but with parking a problem and the wet weather we carried on through narrow lanes to reach Janet and Allan’s place in the village of Childs Ercall, Shropshire. Noel had shared office space with Janet way back in 1988 when he worked at Wye College, and we had reacquainted in 2018 when Janet and Allan had visited New Zealand. Great to see them in their patch.

Janet cooked British Lamb and presented home grown raspberries for dessert… very spoilt.

Tomorrow we are off on a 3 night canal boat trip, all rather exciting.