Lands End to St Ives

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After breakfast we packed up and said our goodbyes to our hosts at Gamekeepers Cottage and set out for Lands End. Lands End itself is now a set of shops and experiences- like Shaun the Sheep - but the countryside around it has some lovely views and rugged coastline. We parked and displayed and set out to walk a little. The actual point of the most southern part of England has a sign pointing to America, the next biggest piece of land You come to across the Atlantic. We didn’t spend too long at Lands End, just as long as we needed to say we had been there. The country around is rocky and not a lot grows. However, there were once a lot of tin mines around, and that was where we headed next. The Levant mine was one of the longest running tin mines in Cornwall. It was dug to a depth of about 280 fathoms (6 feet in every fathom) and went out under the sea about a mile. It had a long history of the local farmers digging a bit of copper out in the winter months for extra money, before a group of entrepreneurs put the mine on a more productive footing. The mine is now flooded and not profitable, but there are shafts and stacks and one of the large steam engines that brought the ore to the surface still on site. We had a great guided tour- meant to go for an hour, but went for 2!- and saw the stream engine working. We also were able to go a short distance into the mine, just below the ground. From there went went into St Just to get a late lunch. A Cornish pasty again, and today a little different from the other 2 we have had, and also very tasty. We thought it was time to move on to St Ives, our stop for the night. Just one night here, in the Boskerris Hotel. The hotel overlooks Carbis Bay and has lovely views from our window. We decided to go for a walk into St Ives from the hotel. There is plenty to do in St Ives, but the walk sounded good. There is a train that we can take back to the hotel, so we set off. The track took us down to the bay below our hotel, before wending its way through the wooded area on the headland into St Ives Beach area. Both these beaches are more like the Australian beaches, with white sand and a good length of beach. We could see the harbour of St Ives around the corner, but had walked far enough, so just observed the harbour from the beach. We caught the train back to the station below the hotel and walked up the hill to get ready for dinner. Dinner was at the beach we had walked to in the Afternoon, at the Porthminster beach cafe. It came highly recommended, and we enjoyed our meal. Halfway through there were fireworks set off on the beach. A very colourful display. We were not sure if it hadn’t been set up for a young couple who were having drinks on the balcony outside. It gave a special touch to our meal too!

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