We hooked up with A.L and she brought our dragon back with her. Great to have him home after his travels.
Weather was brilliant today, 21 degrees which is the first time in about 9 months we have seen that temp. Loved it!
A.L is great. She and her mum are currently cooking a wonderful smelling dinner. Looking forward to a peaceful nights sleep.
Axel if you read this send us an email if you are keen to hook up! Sorry it was a last minute trip. Literally bought the tickets at 6pm last night.
Category: Travel
Coastal Trail Series – Cornwall
This weekend was the 6th in the series of 7 races. Again we managed another weekend of good weather. Surely this can’t continue? Our B&B was located at St Just near Penzance.
We took off Friday to travel down as it was about 4 hours for this trip. We stopped at Clovelly which is a small fishing village that is closed to cars. To be honest, we didn’t bother going down to the village to have a look as you actually have to pay an entry fee. One thing we did come away from Cornwall with was a bit of a sour taste in the mouth as to the commercialism of the area. Everywhere you turned you had to pay for parking and/or entry to anything of interest. We also just didn’t get the feeling that they were happy to have visitors to some places. Almost like it was a given that tons of tourists come to the area so why should they be pleasant as there are plenty more of us.
Having said this our B&B was a treasure of a find. Bosvargus Barns run by Ann and Neil was immaculately clean, stylish and a real testament to how B&B’s should be presented and run. We normally dread the greasy English cooked breakfast in the morning but the cooking here was superb. You could also choose what you wanted so we didn’t have to waste the sausages, mushrooms and tomatoes that we normally leave on the plate.
On Saturday the run left from the Cape Cornwall Golf Club which has been far and away the best race base so far. It has to be fab when this one had a pool, spa and sauna that could be used by the runners! Bliss.
Steve managed a PB (personal best) on this one so that was great news. I found a lovely walking partner to do the 10km with so that made the time go by even quicker. Later that night we treated ourselves to a pizza in St Ives and sat by the beach to soak up the sun (and the cheesy deliciousness of our pizza and salty anchovies – at least on my half!). Not sure that this was such a good idea after such a great day of exercise!
Sunday on the way home we stopped in at the Minack Theatre at Porthcurno and of course Land’s End, the “end” of England. Funnily enough this place boasts a lot of signs that say the “last inn”, the “last postbox” etc but all of these “last” so and so’s have all since be closed down. Guess that doesn’t make it the last one then?
Also, quick thought, very interesting that this trip felt like a tour of Sydney suburbs going to Clovelly, St Ives, there is even a Padstow etc. Funny how so much of England was “transported” to Australia and New Zealand.
Tintagel, Cornwall
Going to do this trip in a few posts so as not to overwhelm you with all the details. Here is the Tintagel part, “King Arthurs” alleged castle.
Posting from Cornwall
We are in Cornwall this weekend for Steve’s 6th half marathon.
Today we took off early Friday morning and headed to Cornwall stopping in at Clovelly, Bude, Tintagel and finally to St Just only 10 minutes from race base. We have popped in to the Golf Club for an early registration tonight so we can sleep in tomorrow.
The place we are staying in is lovely, quiet and clean. We’ll see how breakfast goes in the morning.
Coastal Trail Series – Pembrokeshire
The forecast for this weekend in Wales was not just rain but HEAVY rain. Friday was yet another annual leave day so we could so some recon on the area and the weather was starting out as a bit miserable.
Finding accommodation in rural Wales is a bit of a chore so I would recommend being a little bit more organised with this when staying in the area. We have been relying on the IPhone with 3G internet connection but this can be slow and obviously non-existent in the rural areas.
There is an abundance of B&B’s in rural Wales but for the most part they are rooms in people’s homes that have been opened up for a bit of extra income so the level of expertise in regards to cleanliness and food hygiene can be a bit of an issue. Thankfully we managed to find a lovely farm house B&B out in the middle of nowhere. We were a bit concerned that we would never be heard from again but this thinking obviously proved to be unfounded.
The farm was a working one with dry stock and some pigs with the listed stone house as the main accommodation. We were the only guests that weekend except for the owners grandchildren that turned up for the weekend which we never saw anyway. The view from our room was lovely, straight across the fields to the ocean. I could even see the lighthouse blinking at night far off in the distance. The living room had a lovely crackling fire, wooden beamed ceiling and proved to be the perfect location for reading the next book on my list, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.
We went for dinner at Little Haven and early registration on the Friday night. Night time driving through all the back roads of Wales with no street lighting – interesting! Being confident with reversing is essential in this country on back lanes with farm equipment taking up the whole lane.
The next morning we were incredibly surprised to see that we had yet another spectacular day. At some point on these runs we are sure to get a miserable day but so far we have been incredibly blessed. Two runs to go, let’s see how we go.
As we were staying near to race base we got another sleep in (far better than leaving from Bristol at 6am to arrive in time for the race). We had to park in Broad Haven then catch the shuttle base to race base as Little Haven is quite tiny and couldn’t accommodate the number of cars for all the runners. At 10.30 the half marathoners were off. I trailed them by walking the 10km section meeting back up with the half and full marathoners at the final section of the race. The coastal path truly does follow the cliff edge and there was a number of times that I was thankful that the gusting winds were blowing on shore and not off. If you fell over the edge here they wouldn’t find your body for a while I would imagine.
Steve ran this time with a smaller pack to lighten the load on a knee injury he has but still it is slowing him down so he will have to get it seen to before the next race in Cornwall. Apparently the next one is brutal but the Exmoor one is the hardest. I never know who to listen to though as to me they all look incredibly challenging.
So in three weeks time it is Cornwall! I am looking forward to that one as we haven’t visited this area as yet.
Coastal Trail Series – South Devon
This is the hump race. It will mean four down and three left to go. This month the race was located in South Devon with race base in the seaside town of Beesands.
Newport
I spent yesterday in the back of a car giving directions as we toured 10 different rental properties in Newport, (Gwent in Welsh), Wales. A mate of ours is looking to move to Newport as the rent is cheaper and the commute is fairly simple via train into Bristol. Only 26 minutes, assuming they are running on time.
The benefits of Newport would include more housing space for less money, ability to save more quickly for your own home, closer to the stunning mountains, rivers and coastal areas in Wales, easy commute to the two main business centers of Bristol and Cardiff (you could include London in this as it would not be that much further for a day trip for work). However the downsides are obvious signs of a struggling town with lots of shop closures, large numbers of rental properties on the market (good for the renter but starts ringing alarm bells as to why), obvious signs of working class families really struggling to make ends meet and to that disorderly youth that just don’t have anything to do in the city and hence get into all sorts of trouble.
Speaking of Wales, the six nations rugby tournament is on at the moment and Wales won against England last night. Doesn’t appear to have been any blood shed yet!
After the rental properties tour we did a quick jaunt into the Brecon Beacons which still has a lot of snow on them at the moment.
“Kew” the snow
This posts title comes courtesy of Steve. I thought it was rather clever.
The BBC and local news stations had been predicting heavy snow falls but to date we had yet to see them. Imagine our surprise when this time they got it right.
I had been waking up throughout the night to check for snow but to no avail. I was already up, dressed and ready to leave for work when Steve mentioned checking the Earthcam websites to see if there was one for Kew Gardens. He has been wanting to visit Kew or the Eden Project if they were ever likely to be covered in snow. I found a live webcam for Kew and what should I see but lashings of snow!
I quickly called into work for an impromptu annual leave day which I was granted much to my delight. Changed into our winter gears – thermals, microgrid, Goretex jacket and ski pants and we were off heading to London. Now this was rather impulsive and most people would say a bit on the crazy side. Everyone else was trying very hard to avoid driving or going anywhere near London but here we were heading straight into the city. In fact apparently 6 million people didn’t go into work today across the UK!
To be honest, this meant driving down was easy. The roads were generally pretty quiet. Yee hah! We got a park right outside the main gates (free parking too!) and made our way in. We have annual tickets to Kew so didn’t even have to pay to get in. Love it.
The gardens were spectacular. I love it here in summer but in winter it is a totally different place. Also, Heathrow airport had grounded all flights it was so peaceful today especially with that certain type of “heavy” quiet that accompanies snow. Normally there are flights going over every 90 seconds. Today was bliss.
We took the burner and coffee in with us and hunkered down for a hot drink halfway through our walk. It snowed pretty much on and off all day while we were there.
We stayed until just after 2pm but had to finally leave in order to ensure we avoided driving back through the snow in the dark. Believe me, leaving was hard to do. What a magic day.
Coastal Trail Series – Portland
This is a much larger post for a change. Steve had some annual leave up his sleeve so we took off Friday in order to get some traveling in before the run on Saturday.
As this run was down in Dorset territory it was a great opportunity to visit a place that is the iconic home to one of my favourite, inspiring shows – River Cottage. Although Hugh was no where to be seen we did arrive early enough to have breakfast. To be honest, the breakfast was nice but the selection available was far from what I imagined there should be. Steve had a bacon roll and I had salmon with fresh baked bread. Both very delicious but only 2 of the 5 or 6 choices and of which there we no eggs at all to be found on the menu. Not sure what that was about? The coffee however was also great.
After lunch we slowly headed out of Devon and into Dorset stopping along the way at Charmouth to do a bit of fossil hunting. We found a few small ones but nothing like the intact dinosaur that is on display nearby. I think you have to really be visiting on a daily basis with hammer and chisel to be finding all the good stuff. Me, I’m just content to have a wander and see what I find.
We stopped for fish and chips in West Bay which is a nice little seaside town, however it is very much a retirement destination but still has quite a strong fishing business by the looks.
We next moved on to Chesil Beach which is basically a huge spit running parallel to the mainland for miles. It is entirely made up of the most amazing coloured pebbles. I have never seen anything like it before. They make the most amazing noise underfoot and although tiring to walk on I found them far better than having annoying, grinding sand in your shoes.
Finally we headed into Weymouth which was far larger than I expected it to be. Again, due to the proximity of the sea, fishing and cargo are the main stayers here. It seems to be a town that has everything going for it plus access to stunning waterways. From Weymouth you can catch the numerous ships leaving for France etc. I believe imports and exports go through this town port as well.
We decided not to stay the night in town and headed out to The Lugger Inn located in Chickerell.
Saturday morning we got a sleep in for a change as we normally get up really early and arrive in time for the race briefings etc. This time it was a leisurely breakfast and a short drive to race base at the Portland and Weymouth Sailing Academy. Talk about a great set up they have here and tons of kids learning to sail. I could see myself living quite contentedly for a while in Portland. I suppose it helps when the weather is glorious so the sea, sky and rock look spectacular.
So far, of all the runs, this was by far the most spectator accessible where I was able to arrive at certain points along the way to provide some encouragement to Steve as he ran and try to snap a few pictures. I was very fortunate to catch up with him as he was going far quicker than I had catered for. The hardest part was the long stretch down Chesil Beach – pebbles all the way. Gotta hurt!
Anyway, here are some pictures from this fabulous weekend.
Coastal Trail Series – Gower
Yesterday was the second of seven half marathons that Steve is attempting to do. This time it was held in Gower, Wales. The race base was out of the small Welsh village of Llangennith.
It was only 2 hours away so we left at 6.30am, picked up a friend on the way and got there in plenty of time for a coffee and general browse before the race started.
The weather was magic, blue skies from here to forever. Not quite the Sydney blue that we know and miss but blue enough for us. Wales is a magic country and in particular down on the coast the scenery is stunning.
Steve has been sick (first time in ages) and hadn’t managed to get any training in since the last run. Even given this I don’t think he did that badly. Mind you I’m impressed that these people get through it without keeling over. This time it was not only hills but beach running as well.
While he was off running, I went for a walk to the beach with my mate where we set up the burner for a nice hot cuppa, rugged up in all our winter woolies watching the surfers in their thick neoprene suits. Nut cases!
