LIFE SAVING PRACTICE CORNISH STYLE
OR ARE THEY JUST TRYING TO BEAT CLOSING TIME AT THE PUB OPPOSITE
Pubs, Rugby and Cornish Paths
In a pub on the side of Porthleven Harbour, after the Wallabies had so rudely abused Welsh hospitality, I beat a hasty retreat as some Welsh supporters in the bar seemed not to appreciate my glee at Aussie scores.
DEVONSHIRE PRIORY
DEVONSHIRE COAST PATH
I had a couple of days with my brother and his wife at the priory they are involved with near kingsbridge in Devon-walked from Lannercombe beach to Spawle point and back. Can recommend the Cricketer on Beesands for beer and food.
ADMIRAL BENBOW SMUGGLERS PUB PENZANCE
Then I set off alone to Cornwall and had two glorious but rather over-strenuous days walking and camping, from Penzance to the Lizard. Needless to say I took in the England debacle at the Admiral Benbow in Penzance-fabulous former smugglers inn-in company with 2 delightful Kiwis- ( not sure I want to attend UK club rugby after all ) and the Welsh game as mentioned.
ST MICHAEL'S MOUNT-taken during a much needed pub stop on the cornish track out of Penzance.
Fabulous country-as close to Aussie coastal scenery as have seen here in it's unspoilt beauty and with pubs and Doonbar ale at each stop. Few people too, now that kids back at school. But a chatty Geordie woman, who has lived in Canada for 40 years, was so engaged by my adventure, age and single status that she wanted to take me to meet her recently widowed Mancunian!! Landlady at her B and B-that got me walking again.
Great historical features-St Michael's Mount in sight most of the first day, many ship wreck memorials testifying to the need for the admiralty to develop better charts and to calculate longitude more accurately.
Even the site of Marconi's first shore to ship communication is marked. Beautiful, friendly Shetland ponies, in the Lizard nature cliff top park, to keep the grass and weeds down.
LOOKING BACK TO PORTHLEVEN
Very tired on second night ( knees sore-overbalanced on some rocks and was pinned down by my pack for a while until I figured how to roll free without going over the cliff-I found one doesn't bounce back quite so quickly at 65!!) after completing about 20 miles in two days with a substantial pack on and a very cutting wind ,which was sapping my core body heat- followed by night long rain.
RUSSIAN YACHT IN FALMOUTH HARBOUR.
packed up dripping tent yesterday morning, walked to the nearest bus to Falmouth and then a delightful 2 hour ferry ride up the River Fal to Truro. Rather taken aback to see a huge racing yacht in the Falmouth roads with lettering that rang a bell-it was Russian Cyrillic-one of the oligarchs having fun at Russian tax payers (an oxymoron) expense?
The only way on to London was an overnight bus starting at 9:30pm arriving Victoria station at 6:30am this morning. 5 hours to kill on a bitterly windy night in Truro ( fool me in shorts) so more Doonbar ale with Bobby Charlton's biography ( my greatest football hero-I was delivering papers in Manchester the night the Busby babes plane crashed in Munich almost 50 years ago-he speaks openly of it and his survival for the first time in this book. Finally, a very creditable Nonya (Thai/Malay) restaurant meal-looked a bit of a dork coming in from the inclement night with huge pack and hairy knees to sit amongst well-dressed birthday celebrating silver hairs and canoodling young couples.
The delicate curry, coconut rice and green tea restored the inner man sufficiently to withstand the final wait in a drafty bus shelter (why do they build them so the wind attacks your knees? Perhaps a new way of repelling Scottish male invaders?) and the 9 hour night journey.
Awoke at Bristol airport at about 2am-naturally thought of my work in that city on previous trips and must say that with the credit crunch and customers run on Northern Rock Bank, together with rumours about financial health of others, I reflected that it would even less easy trying to sell to them than when I tried before.
As the Stamford bus didn't go until 6pm-a quick tube ride to King's Cross and a very smooth and expensive ride to Peterborough saw me mostly to home base.
No comments:
Post a Comment