I've dubbed it the "Ryan Air" of the UK's "fast food industry" and even that rating might be a little too generous for Honiton's franchise !
Wetherspoons are a UK chain of Pub / Restaurants that provide supposedly fast / cheap meals & beer for those on a budget. Trying to save a quid or two Kev and self had got into the habit of visiting Wetherspoons which turned out to be one of crappiest dining experiences H and I have ever undergone - and that's saying something !
Having driven back from Penzance H and I engaged in two days of feverish hunting for appropriate sized bike boxes while spending our evenings desperately trying not to fall ill at Wetherspoons.
The bike box hunting was eventually successful after having scoured most of Devon but our nightly Wetherspoons ritual was becoming less and less appealing.
Tonight's viewing was a classic when one of the waiting staff going too quickly exiting the kitchen dropped 2 large fried Onion rings on the floor and seat of a nearby table. Despite knowing that he'd dropped the onion rings the waiter not only didn't replace what he'd dropped but decided on not picking up the Onion rings despite walking straight past them on his return,
It took the seats owner on return from the bar to remove them no doubt wondering where the hell they'd come from.
A quick view behind the opening kitchen doors showed a mess of plates and waste in the kitchen most of it on the floor (no room) nearly matched by the mess and waste on surrounding tables.
We'd thought that it might just be worth putting up with all of this for the sake of our regular fresh fruit and ice cream intake (some fibre at least) but decided that after being informed 3 nights running that they'd run out of fruit that this whole painful process was not worthwhile.
It was time to go searching for a real fast food joint in town .
Sent from my iPad
Saturday, August 10, 2019
Thursday, August 8, 2019
The Mont
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| The Mont |
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| Looking back to Penzance |
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| The tide slowly recedes revealing the causeway |
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| The crowd "commeth"! |
Goodbye Aussie Friends
It was our last day in Cornwall with dear friends Viv and Linton, as we set about enjoying the afternoon sunshine of Penzance at nearby St Michaels Mount closely linked to Mont Saint Michel which we collectively visited on our France End to End ride in 2017.
With H still exhilarated from yesterday's Ashes first test victory we walked the 4+ kms along the foreshore to catch Viv and Linton at the beginning of St Michaels causeway only uncovered twice daily during low tide. Mont St Michael has a history going back many centuries and is a former monastery, military bastion and private residence and part time swimming pool when the tide comes rushing in !
With Viv and Harro still shell shocked after coming head to head earlier that morning with a double decker bus on the narrow streets of Mousehole they elected to boat across to the Mont while "cheapskates" Henley and Litchfield waited for the tide to recede enough to allow us to walk on the causeway with hordes of other fellow cheapskates & holidaying Brits !
Once over H did what any self assuming Aussie would do when faced by such a beautiful national monument - he simply picked out a place on the enormous grass lawn and promptly went to sleep in the sun !
Viv and Linton at least showed some historical interest by paying to tour around the private estate while I took up position overlooking the sea looking for a reported whale while watching a couple of playful seals in action
With V&L's Mont tour over and H well toasted on both sides, we retreated back across the now completely visible causeway and drove into the centre of Penzance for a lovely and mostly healthy lunch of soup, quiche and cake - H surprisingly had the cake !
Once completed we thankfully knocked back Harros offer of a lift back to our hotel after embarrassingly finding that it was just around the corner.
After 6 days of travelling together it was appropriate to finish our time by sharing a cultural experience, an outdoor theatre production of a very funny Noel Coward play complete with fabulous actors and period props.
After sharing sad farewells following the show H and I got down to considering the serious matters at hand a) where were we going to find a sandwich at this time of night and b) where should we start begging for bike boxes to aid our imminent return home !
Sent from my iPad
With H still exhilarated from yesterday's Ashes first test victory we walked the 4+ kms along the foreshore to catch Viv and Linton at the beginning of St Michaels causeway only uncovered twice daily during low tide. Mont St Michael has a history going back many centuries and is a former monastery, military bastion and private residence and part time swimming pool when the tide comes rushing in !
With Viv and Harro still shell shocked after coming head to head earlier that morning with a double decker bus on the narrow streets of Mousehole they elected to boat across to the Mont while "cheapskates" Henley and Litchfield waited for the tide to recede enough to allow us to walk on the causeway with hordes of other fellow cheapskates & holidaying Brits !
Once over H did what any self assuming Aussie would do when faced by such a beautiful national monument - he simply picked out a place on the enormous grass lawn and promptly went to sleep in the sun !
Viv and Linton at least showed some historical interest by paying to tour around the private estate while I took up position overlooking the sea looking for a reported whale while watching a couple of playful seals in action
With V&L's Mont tour over and H well toasted on both sides, we retreated back across the now completely visible causeway and drove into the centre of Penzance for a lovely and mostly healthy lunch of soup, quiche and cake - H surprisingly had the cake !
Once completed we thankfully knocked back Harros offer of a lift back to our hotel after embarrassingly finding that it was just around the corner.
After 6 days of travelling together it was appropriate to finish our time by sharing a cultural experience, an outdoor theatre production of a very funny Noel Coward play complete with fabulous actors and period props.
After sharing sad farewells following the show H and I got down to considering the serious matters at hand a) where were we going to find a sandwich at this time of night and b) where should we start begging for bike boxes to aid our imminent return home !
Sent from my iPad
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
The Lizard
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| Beautiful Coastal Walk |
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| Kynance Cove is teeming ! |
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| Wild coastal scenery |
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| Beware of the Bull ! |
An Adventurous Day on the Lizard !
It made the Da Vinci Code mystery and the Indiana Jones adventure look like 2nd rate events as we set off on a day of high suspense. Could we discover the rumoured beauty of Kynance Cove on the nearby former smuggling dominated landscape of the Lizard Peninsular, could Henley's now crusty jocks make it 2 more days back to Honiton and Henny's washing machine and most importantly could we finally find uncover the legendary but yet so far elusive Cornish clotted ice cream !
With a mixture of excitement and nervous trepidation Viv, Linton, H and self took to the roads driving 40kms to the supposed isolated Kynance Cove car park on the Lizard.
I suppose we should have expected the unexpected as the Lizard was teeming with holiday makers making the narrow roads and lanes just a tad more challenging. None the less our collective jaws dropped as we drove into the Kynance Cove car park to be confronted by vehicular and pedestrian traffic that resembled the approach to Bondi Beach on a hot summers day.
The only problem was that this was not Bondi Beach, it was overcast not hot and the supposed beach was a collection of wild looking rocks superimposed against an even wilder looking headland.
We paid an exorbitant 8 pounds ($15) to park and watch astonished as a long snaking line of adults and kids traipsed into the distance carrying all things "beachy" including spades, buckets and blow up mattresses.
A small walk and a few pics soon confirmed that the secret of Kynance Cove was out with seemingly 1/2 of Cornwall picnicing at what could be a magnificently beautiful location.
We turned around and picked up the Coastal Walking trail and made our way on a now sunny morning to Lizard Point some 5kms distant along a section of spectacular trails albeit shared with numerous holiday makers.
At the Point we took in a cuppa overlooking the rugged coastline while H made himself popular with the locals rejoicing every time the Poms lost a wicket on the final day of the first cricket test in Birmingham.
A little more coastal walking and some failed drone flying (there are so many exclusion zones in the UK) and we headed inland to the town of Lizard itself. While Viv feasted on a healthy looking salad I went in search of a clotted ice cream. Not finding one I consoled myself in a double decker quivering cone obviously disappointed at my lack of success.
From Lizard we wandered 3 or 4 more kms back to the Kynance Cove car park passing a stream of exiting beach traffic walking vast distances to avoid the 8 pound car park having found out that they would have been better served trying to swim in the Thames river than at this churning non life guarded supposed beach.
With fewer nervous screams from my passengers we made it back safely to the Penzance sea front car park (they only charge 8 pounds for 24 hours !) in time for a well earned rest.
The adventure continued in the evening as we searched high and low for some damned clotted ice cream. Not finding one at the local pub or the nearby Thai restaurant we settled instead for a quaint sea front cafe having to down coffee and cake when the Dawn French lookalike owner kindly confirmed what we already knew that Penzance was crap for ice cream !
As for Henleys's crusty jocks the fact that they were left standing by themselves upright in the corner of our room might indicate that their use by date has well and truly expired !
With a mixture of excitement and nervous trepidation Viv, Linton, H and self took to the roads driving 40kms to the supposed isolated Kynance Cove car park on the Lizard.
I suppose we should have expected the unexpected as the Lizard was teeming with holiday makers making the narrow roads and lanes just a tad more challenging. None the less our collective jaws dropped as we drove into the Kynance Cove car park to be confronted by vehicular and pedestrian traffic that resembled the approach to Bondi Beach on a hot summers day.
The only problem was that this was not Bondi Beach, it was overcast not hot and the supposed beach was a collection of wild looking rocks superimposed against an even wilder looking headland.
We paid an exorbitant 8 pounds ($15) to park and watch astonished as a long snaking line of adults and kids traipsed into the distance carrying all things "beachy" including spades, buckets and blow up mattresses.
A small walk and a few pics soon confirmed that the secret of Kynance Cove was out with seemingly 1/2 of Cornwall picnicing at what could be a magnificently beautiful location.
We turned around and picked up the Coastal Walking trail and made our way on a now sunny morning to Lizard Point some 5kms distant along a section of spectacular trails albeit shared with numerous holiday makers.
At the Point we took in a cuppa overlooking the rugged coastline while H made himself popular with the locals rejoicing every time the Poms lost a wicket on the final day of the first cricket test in Birmingham.
A little more coastal walking and some failed drone flying (there are so many exclusion zones in the UK) and we headed inland to the town of Lizard itself. While Viv feasted on a healthy looking salad I went in search of a clotted ice cream. Not finding one I consoled myself in a double decker quivering cone obviously disappointed at my lack of success.
From Lizard we wandered 3 or 4 more kms back to the Kynance Cove car park passing a stream of exiting beach traffic walking vast distances to avoid the 8 pound car park having found out that they would have been better served trying to swim in the Thames river than at this churning non life guarded supposed beach.
With fewer nervous screams from my passengers we made it back safely to the Penzance sea front car park (they only charge 8 pounds for 24 hours !) in time for a well earned rest.
The adventure continued in the evening as we searched high and low for some damned clotted ice cream. Not finding one at the local pub or the nearby Thai restaurant we settled instead for a quaint sea front cafe having to down coffee and cake when the Dawn French lookalike owner kindly confirmed what we already knew that Penzance was crap for ice cream !
As for Henleys's crusty jocks the fact that they were left standing by themselves upright in the corner of our room might indicate that their use by date has well and truly expired !
Sunday, August 4, 2019
Walking in Looe
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| Near Looe |
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| Polperro |
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| Great Coastal Views |
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| Cawsands |
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| Talland Bay |
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| Fowey en route to Penzance |
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| Fowey delights |
On the March in Looe !
With Memories of our last big group walk at Wilson Prom Victoria,(appropriately called the "Sandler Death March) Kev and self were just a tad nervous as we set off with great Aussie friends Linton, Viv and son Mike for 2 days of walking around the stunning South West Coastal path near Looe in Cornwall UK.
Day 1 - Saw us follow the coast to Polperro passing the partly sandy, mostly rocky and almost totally seaweed covered beach of Talland Bay.
There were enough steep ascents and picturesque views to keep us interested for the 3 hours of walking before we reached the lovely Cornish harbour town of Polperro.
The village of Polperro virtually hangs on a steep sided valley while the narrow streets and old looking buildings provide for lots of Cornish character.
While Linton with a Grammy knee felt emboldened enough after a lunch time Guinness to suggest that we walk the same track back to Looe, we settled instead for a return by sea on a boat that resembled Steam Boat Willy from a Mickey Mouse Cartoon.
Back in Looe still recovering from somehow bouncing around on a near perfectly still ocean, we reassembled after resting to unsuccessfully find anywhere to eat settling instead for Looe's equivalent of not too appetising fast food !
Day 2 - With the weather on the change (overcast) we ventured this time Northwards to Cawsands depositing one of our 2 cars before driving back to Portwrinkle to start our days adventure.
Our 2nd days walk also provided for spectacular coastal views as well as the added excitement of an active golf course, a (thankfully) non active Military firing range and miles upon miles of sandy beaches some strangely with nearby Military cliff side lookouts.
In returning to Cawsands we passed Freathy Cliffs, a unique cliff side establishment comprising of mainly cabin looking buildings that would have been better suited to a caravan park !
With time running out before our car park ticket expired we legged it back to Cawsands.
While putting in money to extend our car party stay I felt a fair shove in my back. Turning around ready to abuse the expected culprit I instead found the back of a van continuing to gradually shunt me into the parking meter !
With profanities out of the way and drinks and savories taken at nearby Cawsands beach, it was time to journey back to Looe where after a rest Kev and self caught up with Viv, Mike and Linton to grab a beer while eating this time in a proper restaurant !
Day 1 - Saw us follow the coast to Polperro passing the partly sandy, mostly rocky and almost totally seaweed covered beach of Talland Bay.
There were enough steep ascents and picturesque views to keep us interested for the 3 hours of walking before we reached the lovely Cornish harbour town of Polperro.
The village of Polperro virtually hangs on a steep sided valley while the narrow streets and old looking buildings provide for lots of Cornish character.
While Linton with a Grammy knee felt emboldened enough after a lunch time Guinness to suggest that we walk the same track back to Looe, we settled instead for a return by sea on a boat that resembled Steam Boat Willy from a Mickey Mouse Cartoon.
Back in Looe still recovering from somehow bouncing around on a near perfectly still ocean, we reassembled after resting to unsuccessfully find anywhere to eat settling instead for Looe's equivalent of not too appetising fast food !
Day 2 - With the weather on the change (overcast) we ventured this time Northwards to Cawsands depositing one of our 2 cars before driving back to Portwrinkle to start our days adventure.
Our 2nd days walk also provided for spectacular coastal views as well as the added excitement of an active golf course, a (thankfully) non active Military firing range and miles upon miles of sandy beaches some strangely with nearby Military cliff side lookouts.
In returning to Cawsands we passed Freathy Cliffs, a unique cliff side establishment comprising of mainly cabin looking buildings that would have been better suited to a caravan park !
With time running out before our car park ticket expired we legged it back to Cawsands.
While putting in money to extend our car party stay I felt a fair shove in my back. Turning around ready to abuse the expected culprit I instead found the back of a van continuing to gradually shunt me into the parking meter !
With profanities out of the way and drinks and savories taken at nearby Cawsands beach, it was time to journey back to Looe where after a rest Kev and self caught up with Viv, Mike and Linton to grab a beer while eating this time in a proper restaurant !
Friday, August 2, 2019
All Stations Looe !
We said goodbye to the narrow lanes of Nth Devon and headed southwards in the sunshine and the school holiday traffic to Cornwall dropping in first of all on lovely Boscastlle.
This picturesque harbour / village featured on the world news stage in 2004 when a flash flood after 8 inches of rain carried cars and buildings down its narrow streets into the sea.
Today there was nothing but sunshine, the wafting smell of Cornish Pasties and the overhead shriek of Dinosaur sized sea gulls to remind us of where we were.
Clambering up to a lookout overlooking the town and harbour I put up the drone to catch some shots of the beauty of this part of the Cornish coast and of the village / harbour itself.
On the road quickly afterwards to avoid the mortgage sized hourly payments one has to deposit in car parking meters over here, we headed across Bodmin Moor to our destination for the next 3 nights, Looe.
The GPS seemed to sense that we were now accredited narrow lane drivers as it took us along any nearby road that involved minimal clearance rather than directly on some of the busier wider roads.
Kev and I had a blue after I got one of his Go, Stop, Maybe commands on a "blindish" corner but all was forgotten as we finally arrived at Looe a picturesque village just south of Plymouth.
Having checked into our b&b all that remained was to explore the two towns (East & West Looe) separated by a 50p ferry ride and catch up for dinner with our great OZ friends Linton, Viv and son Mike who we plan to share the next week with before heading home
Sent from my iPad
This picturesque harbour / village featured on the world news stage in 2004 when a flash flood after 8 inches of rain carried cars and buildings down its narrow streets into the sea.
Today there was nothing but sunshine, the wafting smell of Cornish Pasties and the overhead shriek of Dinosaur sized sea gulls to remind us of where we were.
Clambering up to a lookout overlooking the town and harbour I put up the drone to catch some shots of the beauty of this part of the Cornish coast and of the village / harbour itself.
On the road quickly afterwards to avoid the mortgage sized hourly payments one has to deposit in car parking meters over here, we headed across Bodmin Moor to our destination for the next 3 nights, Looe.
The GPS seemed to sense that we were now accredited narrow lane drivers as it took us along any nearby road that involved minimal clearance rather than directly on some of the busier wider roads.
Kev and I had a blue after I got one of his Go, Stop, Maybe commands on a "blindish" corner but all was forgotten as we finally arrived at Looe a picturesque village just south of Plymouth.
Having checked into our b&b all that remained was to explore the two towns (East & West Looe) separated by a 50p ferry ride and catch up for dinner with our great OZ friends Linton, Viv and son Mike who we plan to share the next week with before heading home
Sent from my iPad
Thursday, August 1, 2019
South West Coast Walk UK
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| Main street Hartland Quay |
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| Beautiful Coastline |
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| Drone over Hartland Quay |
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| Kev with one leg now shorter than the other ! |
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| Wild volcanic looking landscape ! |
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