2 Walk On!

Wednesday, 17 September 2014

"Room with a Thief"

Room with a Thief!

The group had a talk the first night by the house manager of the hotel. She asked us not to leave our windows open when we go out for the day because the week before a "thief" had got in through the window and stolen a guest's pink nightie and left it up in a tree. We all thought that sounded hilarious until breakfast when someone noticed a seagull going into a window and pulling out a map and flying off with it. It turned out it was our room! Wendy and one of the servers went running upstairs to lock the windows. The gull was sitting right on the ledge staring in and looking most annoyed that he was being denied access. We found the map he had dropped in some bushes just below our window, narrowly missing the little pond in the garden. It was embarrassing to be the ones caught out by the gull, especially after we'd been warned. Now keeping a close eye on our windows!!

The "Culprit"!!!

Wendy's walk on Monday started off with a visit to an old tin mine at Botallack on the Cornish coast. It had once been a major producer of tin but closed in the late 1800's. There are still some interesting ruins remaining.

We then bused further along the coast to the village of St. Just where we saw the earthworks remaining from a Roman amphitheater and visited a church with a medieval frescoe of St. George fighting the dragon. Then we set off on a path across pastures and fields, with large granite styles separating them. Finally reached the coastal path with great views to both north and south. Followed it to old fishing village of Sennen Cove.

Our last stretch along the coastal path brought us to Land's End. We took in the views, and squinted into the distance in an attempt to see the Scilly Isles. Although not too busy on a Monday in Sept, the whole area is very commercial - ice cream and King Arthur - but we pretty well ignored that.

The End of England. (Marion won't get here till next week. )

Marion's 2nd day's hike was a continuation along the coastal path south from yesterday where we ended in Porth on the northern outskirts of Newquay. Today we picked up on the southern outskirts of Newquay and hiked along the path 17 km to the town of Perranporth. It was a pretty good day but still I feel like there are some of the group who think they are on a forced march. I hang out at the back so I can take pictures, check out little flowers and birds that fly by, and feel like I don't have someone chomping at my heels to keep going. I have a couple of great English gals, Elizabeth and Ruth, at the back with me. Lots of fun and we can grumble together as we climb up the hills, some with steep steps designed for giants we have decided. I will have some of my pictures to share with you on tomorrow's blog.

Our weather has been very good for the first 3 days hiking. Sunny warm days, some breezy spots depending how exposed you are on the cliffs. Each day brings different scenery, different colored rock formations, and the most beautiful colored sea. A turquoise green where sand has washed out and then a deep blue a little further out. Not many big breakers but apparently the wind hasn't been right for that in the last few days. More tomorrow.

Cheerio

Marion and Wendy

The M and W food blog!

Food at our HF house, Chy Morvah, has been very good so far. A menu is passed around each morning at breakfast to fill out our dinner choices. We have 3 choices for each course. But the best part are the lunches. Right after supper we select our sandwich or salad from a long list of options. Then the next day after breakfast we pick up our sandwich and a brown paper bag and go down the long table picking out other things to fill out the lunch from a selection of: little tomatoes, pkgs of cheese, various crackers, cookies, granola bars, chocolate bars, oranges and bananas. Way more choices than at home! Such a treat. I have been trying all the different sandwiches choices. So far the combo of ham, mayonnaise, salad and mature Cornish cheddar is my favourite. It's even possible to get a peanut butter and banana sandwich, another favorite of mine.

Cornwall is well known for Cornish pasties. They are available all around town so Wendy took a picture on her free day yesterday. We will go and try them on Saturday for lunch when we are both off for the day and able to do some things together. They come with a number of fillings. You could expect to find beef, onions, potatoes, pork, but never carrots, inside the pastry. The idea behind them is that the miners would take them for their lunch when they were working down in the mine. They would hold them with their dirty hands covered in all sorts of toxic dust. They could eat everything but the part their hands were touching, that part would then be thrown out. Not sure why carrots are such a no-no. Will let you know if we find out.

A cream tea is the other food high on the menu choices in Cornwall. The difference between a Devon cream tea and a Cornwall cream tea concerns which you put on the scone first: the cream or the jam. In Cornwall the jam goes first then the cream, in Devon the cream goes on first then the jam. As far as I am concerned it all tastes the same. Nummy!!!

Marion enjoying a cream tea yesterday after her group's walk finished in St. Ives. And then there is the view. Can you beat our lunch spot today? No coffee, tea or running water. No toilets but the view outstanding!!

Cheers!

Marion and Wendy

Sunday, 14 September 2014

St. Ives, Room with a view!

View from our room at Chy Morvah (means house by the sea) with other side of St Ives Bay in the distance, and close in, the swimming pool for our use. I was hoping to have a swim today when I got back from my first day's hike but our group did not get back until after 5:30 and I was in desperate need of a cup of tea and a shower.

For our first day of walking, Wendy did one of the shorter guided walks offered, walking from our hotel, through lovely woodlands to a high point with a sweeping view of the coast, then down to the beach at Carbis Bay. It's a huge expanse of beautiful sand, with the usual beach amenities of hotel, restaurants, coffee bars, ice cream stands. We sat and watched some kayak lessons while we had our lunch. After a brief walk on the beach we made our way back to St. Ives and 'home'.

For our camino buddies, look at the signpost Wendy came across on her walk. Hard for us not to follow the shell!

Marion's walk is called The Coastal Path and there are 11 participants with 1 leader. Wendy's walks are called The Classic Walks and she can chose from easy, medium and hard. There is a leader for each group and there are 25 to 30 participants who each day choose the walk they want to do the next day. My (Marion's) group started the coastal path along the northern coast of Cornwall at Treyarnon Bay. This is not very far south of Padstow for those checking maps. We were dropped off by bus and walked from there right along the coast line to Porth, on the northern outskirts of Newquay. 17.5 km and 1345 feet of ascent. Lots of ups and down and by the middle of the afternoon I was beginning to wonder about my idea of fun!! It was a pretty warm day and hard work. We hiked for 6 hours with a 30 min. lunch break and a 1 hour bus ride on each end. I was beat when I got "home" but after a couple of cups of tea and a nice long shower I felt human again.

Saturday, 13 September 2014

Topsham / Exeter

We were met at Exeter train station by our friends Pat and Francis, and driven in their little car to their home in Topsham, a village just south of Exeter on the River Exe. Pat was one of the 6 founding members of the Confraternity of St. James in the 1980's, and continued to play a pivotal role in that major Camino group for many years. We first met them when they followed us as hospitaleros in Corbigny, France in 2010. And amazingly, during our short time together there, Marion found out that Francis was writing a book about her great-great-great-great grandfather! So during this visit we had lots of chat of the Camino and of family trees. He expects his book to be published in the next few months.

On Friday we returned to Exeter and had an excellent tour of the town and its Cathedral. Both are very knowledgeable about the history of the area, so we were in good hands. The Cathedral has the longest Gothic nave in England, and some beautiful painted statuary and wood carvings. There are lots of Roman ruins scattered throughout the centre of town, many incorporated into pedestrian areas. Then we were treated to a lovely salmon lunch at the Devon and Exeter Institution, a members-only club with its own private library where Francis showed Marion some books he had used in his research. It looked like a typical gentleman's club.

Francis and Marion

After afternoon tea we did a walk around Topsham to see the old houses, some built by former sea captains in a Dutch style, copied from those they had seen when delivering wool to Holland in the 1600's. Folks retire to this area now and these renovated properties are very expensive.

River Exe Estuary

We were so well-cared for by Pat and Francis - wonderful hospitality. "Thank you" seems an insufficient way to say farewell. We're now on the train to St. Ives to begin our two weeks walking holiday there. Hope to finally be able to go on line when we are in our room at Chy Morvah, St Ives.

Wendy and Marion

"They're Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace, Christopher Robin went down with Alice".

Day1: We are now confirmed KLM passengers. Best flight and food we have ever encountered travelling overseas - in economy. (Having never travelled in first class or business class we can't comment there). We decided to go right to Windsor after arriving since we wanted to visit the Queen and we heard she stays there now more often than at Buckingham Palace.

Windsor Castle

Turns out she is still up at Balmoral for the summer, but we are going to Scotland later so maybe we can have tea with her then. In the meantime we have a very pleasant B & B in Windsor for our first night in England and tickets to see the Castle along with the Great Kitchen. When we arrived at the Castle for our pre booked tour of the kitchen we were told it was closed for a large banquet that night. I did suggest that we could help peel the potatoes but apparently that was not even funny! Lucky for us we were staying over and could get the first tickets the next morning. This turned out even better for us as we were the only two on that tour, along with two in training to give the tour. After our first day's tour of the Castle we stopped at a little place for a nice cup of tea! We are now really in England!

Cream tea for two

We feel really lucky to be at the Castle late in the afternoon as there are no tour bus loads full tourists. We just walked right in to see Queen Mary's Dollhouse and then the state apartments. Pretty cool place and with a good audio guide we learn as we go. We were both pretty well toast by the time we got to tea (having been up for over 24 hours by then) but made ourselves carry on to find the train station and look after tomorrow's tickets before hitting a pub for fish and chips. We weren't sure what kind of night we would have right under the approach for Heathrow airport but all was well - the landings and take offs seem to happen about every 2 minutes, but stop between 11pm and 6am. After our tour of the Great Kitchen we had another very good cappuccino and bought our lunch to take with us at the fabulous Marks and Spencer's picnic lunch section. We were sorry to see that they don't carry little cans of wine anymore.

I am writing this on the train to Exeter where we will spend a couple of nights. Lucky for us we got a train employee who spent lots of time with us yesterday proving to us that we would really save lots of £ if we bought a seniors rail card. We save 1/3 off every ticket. We love to travel by train but it's expensive and confusing in England with I lots of different train lines. She has started us off on the right foot (feet) we think.

We did see the changing of the guard for Christopher Robin fans, but unlike Buck House, it's done on smaller scale at Windsor Castle. Nice big band though (more men in the band than the guard!) and they marched through the town afterwards.

Changing Guard at Windsor Castle.

Not sure when we will be able upload this. We don't think our friends in Exeter will have internet available. Having a great time, wish you were all here with us!!!

Cheerio

Marion and Wendy

Sunday, 7 September 2014

“Kits, cats, sacks, and wives, How many were going to St. Ives?”

As we prepare to head off on our next big adventure to England and Scotland we find that our bodies are not in nearly as good shape as they were last year when we were preparing for our walk of 750km in France. Both of us have suffered sore knees to the point that we have not been able to do the preparatory hiking we like to do in the spring. We have been visiting orthopedic doctors, physio therapists and massage therapists instead. Wendy is now on the list for an MRI but not until 2015 so that is no help. Her knee doctor has suggested that she might spend more time in the pub this time, than on the trail. She asked for that in writing!

So we head off with knee braces and a bottle of ibuprofen in hand. We went to purchase our travel medical insurance and had a good laugh when we find that we are totally insured except for our left knees. We could have insured them too but only by paying big bucks. Really?? How silly is that.

We are excited about our 2 weeks in Cornwall, based in St. Ives, and then wandering by bus and train to visit some old friends and some new places in England and Scotland. Stay turned for the ongoing saga of the two un-insured left knees!

(Knees up Mother Brown, knees up Mother Brown)