Blogs from Newquay, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 3

Whanne that April with his shoures sote The droughte of March hath perced to the rote, And bathed every veine in swiche licour, etc., etc. So priketh hem nature in hir corages; That longen folk to gon on pilgrimages, ... And specially, from every shire ende Of Englelond, to ST. IVES they wende, The holy blisful LIGHTHOUSE for to seke, That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke. I include the above (slightly modified) excerpt from the beginning of the Canterbury Tales to try to explain how excited I was to go to St. Ives. Chaucer's pilgrims must have been mighty excited to see whatever relic it was that they were going to Canterbury to see, as it probably took the majority of them along time to wende they're way to the SE. Similarly, it ... read more

Travelling UK style! OK, we've finally got round to sorting this blog out. This one is about Cornwall, but is actually being written in Kynsna in South Africa! Cornwall was great. We spent 4 nights in a lovely villa in Porth, just outside of Newquay with Lynne's Mum and Dad. It was a great way to wind down after work and prepare for a life of not doing very much. We did manage to see quite a bit though. My highlights were going to a place called the Lost Garden of Helligan. This is a country estate that was left to ruin after all the gardeners were killed in WW1. A group of people have been restoring the gardens since the early 80's. The victorians were obviously very clever people and had made various grrenhouses to ... read more

Finally we have heard back from Airpets and have been told that my dogs now have their import permits and a place in quarantine in Perth. We have to drop them off at the Airpets kennels just outside Heathrow on the 5th November and they fly out on the 6th November and will land in Perth the next day. So seeing as though the dogs are more organised than myself I have now started looking at flights for us both - I think we will fly out sometime in the first week of November ... which means that after we move out of the house we will have 6 weeks with no house and not working .. panic! I think that I might have to go temping as it has been years since I have done ... read more

Geo: 50.4136, -5.08336After a traditional English breakfast at a small local cafe, we hit the road this morning nice and early- after I called work to tell them I won't be in today. The weather today was unsurprisingly crap- grey and wet. Our first stop for the day was Newquay- the place to surf in England. This town reminds me of Cowes, Philip Island, except many more shops and cafes. There were heaps of people having surfing lessons in the water- although there seemed to be a lack of decent waves. After a walk around town and along the beach, we had a snack and hit the road again.... read more

Just back from a great 4 day tour of South West England so am going to combine it all into one neat little package for you all!! Monday - Left Karens place with my small pack in tow at 6 an headed on the tube to Victoria Station. Found place no problems on Vauxhill Bridge Road. This trip is totally diffferent to the Scottish, less hiking, more motorway driving but still good. Sights coming out of London were good, I think in Chelsea saw Battery Factory which was on a Pink Floyd CD cover. And there was little funky looking houseboats just moored perminatly on the Thames in Chelsea. Headed out an first stop was Stonehenge. It was right next to a main road which made it a bit less historic but it was something ... read more