Robyn writes: It's Mothers's Day today! Had adorable photo of Louie from Nikita and Jim, email from Cait and I rang my mum late last night which was quarter to 7 in the morning in Emerald. Bloody Telstra have still not provided the modem for Mum and Dad that they ordered before we left; Nikita is chasing up...Skype is so much better and so much cheaper to keep in contact!
I had a lovely sleepin this morning until around 8 o'clock which was amazing, slept like a log (must be the cold sea air!) Glen and Carol were packed and organised so after breakfast we decided that we would head for Tintagel and cross our fingers that the early morning sunshine would hold. Needless to say of course it didn't (this, after all, is England) and we went through rain getting there. By the time we arrived, though, the sun was shining. The wind, of course, was blowing a gale and straight off the Arctic. We parked in the village and walked down the hill to the actual site of the castle. We bought our tickets (well, as we are all members of English Heritage, we didn't have to actually pay) and went in to have morning tea (cream tea - yum! I seem to be addicted to scones here; have had more scones in the last 3 weeks than I've had in the last 3 decades in Australia! Of course is entirely possible it is the clotted cream I'm addicted to...)
By the time we were halfway through morning tea, though, it was "tipping down" again. We figured we'd better give our table once we'd finished to some of the other poor forlorn damp frozen walkers, so raced across to the shop area and watched a short film on the history of Tintagel.
In the post-Roman era, it was a Saxon stronghold and of great strategic value. Over the years, it came to be associated with the legends of King Arthur and in the 1200s, King Henry III's brother Duke Richard built himself a castle there to firmly associate himself with the legend. Man was a raving lunatic; what a place to build a castle! It's perched high on a craggy rock overlooking the Atlantic and pounded regularly by storms. Needless to say, the castle didn't last very long (had fallen into ruins by the 1300s) but it is certainly an atmospheric place. Also freezing cold, very high and subject to blustery, sudden storms! I had cleverly forgotten my raincoat so had to buy a poncho, also bought an English Heritage beanie to keep my poor ears warm. It was soooo cold up on the hill but the views were quite spectacular. Carol, whose knees are playing up, sensibly elected to remain on the lower level while we climbed to the castle level.
Glen and Carol wanted to leave by 12ish, so we bid them farewell from the shop area and I bought a few souvenirs. Then, when I realised the landrover drive back to the village right at the top of the hill was only 2 pounds, I jumped on it. The others were made of far sterner stuff and slogged their way back to the top while I rode in comfort!
Once back in the village of Tintagel, we visited the Old Post Office. This was never actually a post office as such - it's a lovely little cottage, over 600 years old and looks like a cross between Enid Blyton and the Hobbit! Upstairs was reminiscent of our house in Dover, with exposed beams and plaster walls. They had a beautiful collection of samplers dating back to the 1700s. Then we went for a walk along the street and checked out all of the tourist shops (featuring the King Arthur motif fairly heavily!) We had a delicious and huge lunch at the King Arthur's Arms Hotel, then set out to explore a bit further north.
Our first stop was the seaside town of Bude, which has a canal supported by a system of locks leading to the sea. It's really weird to be walking along and have high water next to you on your left while the beach is quite a way below you on your right! The wind was blowing an absolute gale and it was sooo cold but there were lots of hardly souls around walking their dogs and children so we walked down to the beach and then back to Bude Castle, a recently renovated building which is now the town's museum. It was very interesting and had lots of displays about the 19th century scientist and inventor Goldsworthy Gurney who built the 'castle'.
Then we headed for Clovelly village, and arrived in the parking lot at about 4.30...only to discover that there are no cars allowed in the village, and you have to pay nearly 7 pounds admission to get into the village! Needless to say at that time on a Sunday afternoon, we figured it wasn't going to be worth our while paying that much, so Clovelly's delights remain unknown to us. ( A perusal of Google has revealed that it is, in fact, still a privately owned village, and full of delightful heritage listed buildings and shops, cobbled streets, donkeys etc. Does sound most attractive.)
Having no luck with Clovelly, we decided to check out one of the National Trust outdoor sites, so headed for Sandymouth - hills, running water, and the Atlantic Ocean pounding in! It was quite exhilarating but again, freezing in the wind that was blowing a gale. We climbed to the top of one of the hills for some spectacular views.
Finally, we headed back to Padstow, getting home around 6.50. Since we'd had such a big lunch, neither of us was particularly hungry so had scrambled eggs on toast and we are snug and warm in our flat. It's more in need of a little TLC than our other flats but is the biggest we've had so far and warms up nicely with the heaters. Plenty of room for both of us :)
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