Saturday 12 June 2021 - Tyntesfield

We broke today's journey to Birmingham with a visit to Tyntesfield, near Bristol, until 2002 the country residence of the Gibb family, who made their fortune by importing guana from South America in the 19th century and selling it as fertiliser. 

Inside the house there's much of interest, including this roll top desk that's a bit fancier than the one I have passed on to Mike.

The dining room was all laid out  but the two footmen who serve the food must have been on a day off.

The chapel, a feature window from which is also shown, was a key element of the place. Inside there is seating for about seventy. All family and staff were expected to attend. Today it's used mainly for memorial services.

We took a stroll through the woodland, some of which is ancient compared to the 19th century house. 

More pictures will follow in due course.

Friday 11 June 2021 - Boscastle and Tintagel

Sue and I drove to Boscastle and parked near the doctors' surgery. We then ambled down to the harbour via the site of the twelfth century Bottreaux Castle that gave the town its name, and set off on the coast path. It was overcast with low cloud; trying to rain. Failing.

Sue continued in her bid to be granted a diploma in horse whispering.

We admired the views whilst chatting to a girl we'd seen yesterday on the coast path. 

Various birds posed for us. I'll try to post photos and clarify identities when I get home. Easier to identify is the coastguard station on the headland by Boscastle. They were scanning the sea for signs of the Russian submarines that are spying on the G7 summit being held today in St Ives.

There are many rocks strewn around the landscape of this coast. This may be Grower Rock, with Meachard in the distance.

Elevenses were taken early today. On a bench with a fine view.

At this point a lady backpacker (B&B rather than wild camping) appeared. We stayed near her all the way to Tintagel, catching up at one point when she became terrified by a few cows. Our resident cow whisperer soon sorted them out and eased the rigour of our erstwhile companion.

We left the coast path by Bossiney, on the outskirts of Tintagel, and soon found ourselves amongst crowds of folk on a path to a waterfall in St Nectan's Glen. We chose not to spend £5.95 each on viewing the waterfall, which judging by the low level of the 'river' may have been less than spectacular. We'll never know!

Anyway, we found a fine, brand new, picnic table for lunch, featuring last night's left over sausages and, at last, some very tasty crisps.

After that, a good path led up the valley and on to Treweens Farm, but the section from there to the Minster Church was largely through fields of crops where no effort had been made to maintain the stiles, which were horribly overgrown, or to acknowledge the existence of the field paths.

(Sue was on the phone to her mum, not the footpath preservation society.)

Once we reached the church, an ancient place of great interest that I may relate to you later, the paths through the National Trust woodland were excellent.

We took a path that crossed the river by way of a footbridge before Newmills. Hard to believe that this was the conduit of serious flooding just a few years ago.

Stepping stones soon led us back across the river and on along the path up Jordan Valley as far as a path to the main road and our car.

Here's our route - 21km in less than six hours.

Thursday 10 June 2021 - Jacket's Point to Trebarwith Strand

Much to our surprise, we woke after 8:30. Luckily we had offered no lifts, and had planned a walk from home.

Setting off after 10 in low cloud, we made our way past the church at Lanteglos. 

Our route headed directly west, aiming for the coast at Jacket's Point. The long wet grass failed to penetrate our boots - gaiters were very helpful today.

Various stiles and gates were encountered, some of which (not those shown below) were in need of urgent maintenance.

By the time the coast appeared, after a break for elevenses in a field of sheep, and beyond Tregaron, it was shrouded in mist, beyond a haze of willowherb.

The coast path was busy with people, whereas during the 2.5 hours and 8.5km taken to reach it, we had seen nobody apart from a workman who had sent us in a wrong direction.

Flowers abound on the coast. I paused on the steep climb to Tregardock Cliff to take the next picture.

We could have reduced the climbing by taking a higher level path from Tregragon that's not marked on our map. Once on the cliff top, we could admire the view back towards Port Isaac.

As we continued along the high path, Gull Rock, which is roughly level with Trebarwith Strand, came slowly into focus beyond many clumps of ox-eye daisies.

We lunched on a bench overlooking Tregardock Beach, and before descending to the Strand we stopped for a lengthy chat with some backpackers who are wild camping a section of the SWCP. 

A pair of peregrines was very active in the air above us.

After the steep descent, we stopped for a cream tea in the Port William pub. Not the best choice, but the cheapest cream tea ever as they recognised the defects in their service (eg they failed to see through our invisibility cloaks, no tea was provided with the scones until we asked for it) and provided a full refund without us asking for one.

After that we headed inland again, on mostly good paths to Rockhead, then quiet lanes before the final field path to Juliots Well. 

Here's our route - a good 22+km in about 7.5 hours including some lengthy stops.

The rest of the group are leaving tomorrow, so we visited the big house (Polmear Barn) and enjoyed the evening with our friends before saying our farewells and leaving them to pack in preparation for an early start.

Wednesday 9 June 2021 - Lanhydrock

On an overcast day with occasional light drizzle, Sue and I met up with Jacqui and Fern at Lanhydrock House, the entrance to which is shown above.

Some time later, we had thoroughly explored the gardens, which extended from a neat walled flower bed to a long stretch of woodland with lots of rhododendron. 

After a tour of the impressive kitchens, and coffees in the courtyard, Fern went home and the three of us took an 8km stroll around the Lanhydrock estate.

Lunch was taken near the River Fowey, where a fine old bridge, Resprin Bridge, supports the narrow road.

We stayed dry, despite occasional light drizzle, perhaps thanks to the substantial tree canopy.

Here's our 8km route.

Sue and Jacqui generously queued for a tour of the house - rebuilt after largely being destroyed by fire in 1881 - whilst I was serenaded by a pair of pheasants.

The tour was interesting - a fine old house with some very rare books. Well worth a look around, and what a tremendous place in which to have lived!

This evening twelve of us were supposed to be meeting at a restaurant in Wadebridge, but that was cancelled at the last minute due to a power cut. So Sue and I were joined by Andrew, Dave and Betty (now known as 'Lilibet') for a good meal at our local pub, the Mason's Arms. The others ate spag bol etc at home.

Tuesday 8 June 2021 - Rough Tor and Brown Willy

 

On another fine, sunny day, a fair number of us set off up Showery Tor from the car park at Poldue Downs.

We crossed the Grade-II-listed Roughtor Bridge - a fine example of a double-span clapper bridge made of granite - then headed up easy slopes to reach our first summit (see above).

After a long break and much admiration of the granite stacks and Neolithic stone walls at Showery Tor, just four of us went onwards to Brown Willy.

The name 'Brown Willy' is a corruption of the Cornish 'Bronn Wennili', which means "hill of swallows". I'm pictured on the summit with Sue, Gaynor and Gill, thanks to a chap straight out of an extreme sports magazine. He was a 5th Dan who enjoyed 24 hour obstacle races - the winner being the one who could do the most 5 mile laps in the 24 hours.

A swallow flew past, harvesting rich picking from the many insects that were congregating at the summit.

We strolled along the ridge to the furthest cairn, then returned all the way back to a small bridge over the stream that divides Brown Willy from Rough Tor. 

After another gorgeous lunch break in the sun, we headed up to the Rough Tor ridge, passing this little chap who was pretending to look like a pile of sheep poo.

Once on the summit of Rough Tor ("row-tor"), Sue clambered up some rocks and nearly got marooned on the top when she couldn't find the way back down. 

We soon found a war memorial that is situated in the foundations of a medieval chapel built into the side of one of the larger cairns.

A gentle path down saw us reach the car park soon after 2pm, after our four hour jaunt. We had covered a little over 8km, with around 350 metres ascent.

After returning home in the early afternoon,  Sue and I strolled down to a local church of great character, St Julitta's at Lanteglos. 

A long chat with the lady church warden solved many of the world's problems!

If only it was that easy ...

Then we assembled a box of goodies and took them to the Old Ambulance Station (now converted) to share with Andrew, Dave and Betty.

A very enjoyable evening - with thanks to our hosts, whose facilities are more suitable than ours for a small gathering such as this one.