Hiking in Cornwall--Val and Arieh

July 8 to July 11, 2009.

Our trip to England (Cornwall) was quite lovely. The car rental worked out well, we arrived relatively on time, only got lost a little bit trying to get away from Heathrow airport and eventually made it to Polperro in Cornwall (past Plymouth) around 7PM. Polperro (if you know where you are going) is about 4.5 hours drive (on the M highways) from Heathrow. We stayed in a B & B there for the 4 nights and drove (or walked) around the area. Very narrow roads, very windy (not windy--lelow ruach) and difficult at times (while driving in a car) see any views from the road. Most of these little roads have hedges along them instead of fences. And it is very difficult to see through a hedge unlike a fence!

Many of the towns are former fishing villages. While they still have small ports and boats the major income producers are tourism, retirees and working somewhere else. Most of these towns do not allow parking in the village but rather up the hill or slightly elsewhere in a car park. It makes for nice walking in the town and quite quiet also. The food in England was better than it used to be, although quite expensive. Of course, being fishing towns, there was a lot of fish on the menus as well as seafood (crabs, shrimp, etc.) and they do that well. We also indulged in English tea--scones, clotted cream and jam. Yummy.

Speaking of food, the B & B provided us with a "hearty English breakfast". I am "happy" to say that the breakfast has not changed (nor improved) since I was there in 1982. What does "hearty" mean? Eggs (scrambled or poached). BTW, I asked for fried one day and was told they don't have a frying pan. Sausage. I asked for "no meat" and was offered a "Diana sausage" as a vegetarian substitute. Very disgusting. Toast. They did offer some sort of brown bread. Presented in the same funny holder as in 1982. COOKED tomatoe. (They agreed on the second day to give me the tomato uncooked). Baked beans (from a can and sweetened). Hash browns (fried potatoes) from a package. (Remember "no frying pan". How do you cook hash browns, then?). Canned mushrooms. Good coffee or tea. Juice. The good part was yoghurt and some canned grapefruit (I think, unsweetened). While the B & B was quite pleasant, the breakfast was something to remember in my old age.

We did not go to Land's End. However we did drive to St. Ives (As I was walking to St. Ives, I met a man with 7 wives.........) and walked along the harbour from one end to the other (about 2 KM). Two other noteworthy events were going to the Eden Project and our 8 KM walk along the seashore. The Eden Project is an old clay quarry (open-pit mine) that was closed and transformed into a botantical garden. Beautiful local flora along the walls of the pit as well as at the bottom. They also had 2 big domes--one housing an eco-system from the Mediterranean (and California) and the other a tropical eco-system. Very beautiful and worth the visit.

Our 8 KM walk was quite nice. There is a 800 KM walking trail along the south west coast in Cornwall and around Land's End and then North. We did 1%. Up and down, a bit of flat, a coffee stop and beautiful views of the seaside. Sometimes we were on the edge of the cliffs and sometimes on the top. We passed peopl running along the trail, other walking for the day and one family with teenagers doing about 1/2 the trail for the vacation (Everything on their backs). Didn't rain for us until 30 minutes after we arrived at our destination (another town called "Looe"). Had a very nice seaside lunch (unfortunately in side) and then took a bus back to our town.

Here are two links to pictures of the route we took:

http://www.cornwallinfocus.co.uk/walking/talland.php

http://www.cornwallinfocus.co.uk/walking/hannafor.php

The trip back to Heathrow was uneventful. The best part was utilizing Bobby's Air Canada lounge passes a Heathrow. Quite civiilized, I must say.