Dorset to Cornwall

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Monday 16th

Stayed three hours in Selbourne but saw lettle of the town - blogging in Oliver's cafe and buying cut-price strawberries in the Co-op.

Leaving there i travelled along the A3081 and the A30 which gave me beautiful views over the rolling Dorset countryside.

Stayed the night in a pub in the country near Abbotsbury; two pubs in Burton Bradstock had refused to let me park overnight in their car park and a passing fisherman suggested I park at his wife's pub, 15 miles along the coast road.

Tuesday 17th

I drove to the cliff above Eype beach and had breakfast in the sun, for possibly the first time this trip.

Stopped in Honiton for supplies - yet another historic market town - the country seems littered with them, but i suppose every town of a certain size would, in historical terms, have been the market town for the surrounding area.



i then drove to Teignmouth and thinking I'd set the satnav to 'shortest route'would avoid the main roads. I should have had second thoughts about this - 'shortest route' means the most direct, which in Devon means tiny roads, or cart tracks flanked by high unkempt hedges with no passing places and many blind bends. I nearly lost the aerial several times and was lucky not to lose the paintwork.I passed no-one except a pheasant and a rabbit. This all took so long I had no time to explore Teignmouth, and had to get back on the A38 to get to Plymouth.

Wednesday 18th

i collected Daisy, my god-daughter and we drove through rain and mist to St Ives, where the sun eventually came out.

The Alex Katz exhibition at the Tate St Ives kept us in for a while till the pull of the sun took us outdoors to watch the surfers on the West Beach, and paddle near the harbour.

We drove south to Marazion and took a boat to St Michael's Mount to explore the castle on the top. We ended the evening just east of St Austell in a campsite overlooking a valley with the sea as a backdrop.

Thursday 19th

We walked to the Eden Project from the site and spent several hours browsing through the various sections. More biodomes have been built since i was last there sven years ago. i love the way information is displayed, and the quirky artistry and sculptures, and can only marvel at the vision that Tim Smit had, to change and empty china clay quarry into a lush landscape that seems to swallow visitors so nowhere feels crowded or overlooked.

Friday 20th to Monday 23rs July

Camped near Port Isaac, over the weekend meeting up with a large crowd from my local pub in Leytonstone. Over the last 20 years they have been coming here to play cricket with a local team, and still come ven if they've moved away from London.

Two days we spent at Trebarwith Beach, only exposed at low tide, body surfing and sunbathing, beacuse true to Cornish folklore, the Mediterranean summer starts here.

Toady Daisy and I cycled along the pre=Beeching railway line, now a path for cyclists and walkers. The five-mile tracke from Wadebridge toi Padstow runs beside the Camel River giving lovely views of the estuary before dipping behind hedgerows.

Port Isaac, a delightful historic fishing village, now made famous by the Doc Martin TV series, is virtually car-free as its steep, narrow lanes prohibit through traffic. There are many eateries and pubs and we meet up and divide into groups defined by age or level of drinking.

My first adventure with the van was yesterday at Trebarwith. We parked in the overflow carpark, which was a steep-sided field and when we came to leave, we discovered the van had one wheel completely bogged down, Any attempt to move it forward or back was digging itself deeper in. A man and his two sons came to help, 'Have you an old bit of carpet,' he said. Normally i have two pieces of rug, but had left them to dry back in the site after two (yes, two!) raw eggs had rolled out of the poacher and onto the floor, the rugs, my shoes and started to seep under the cupboard. (Mopping up raw eggs is a hopeless business isn't it?) Anyway with the aid of some long grass packed under the wheel and much to-ing and fro-ing they managed to push the van out. We then had to wait for half an hour for the clutch to cool down

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