Cornwall and some lucky encounters

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Some random thoughts on the trip so far
• The seagulls over here are huge. They have a wingspan of nearly a metre. They are ubiquitous as is their call and their calling cards. In fact England is not a land of roses and cream. It’s one of pigeons and seagulls
• The English do old well
• The English do sun sand and surf really badly
• In Australia we have invented the “yeah, no” response to everything as in “Gus you had a big win today.” “yeah, no, we’re just taking it one game at a time.
In the south of England the standard response to everything is “LOVELY!” as in:
“ How long are you in England?” “8 weeks.” “Lovely!”
“What would you like for breakfast?” toast, eggs and bacon.” Lovely!”
“What was that on the news? ” World war 2 has broken out.” “ Lovely!”
• The British road system is like the curate’s egg: good in parts. You have motorways which are world class. Then you have a series of A, B and C class roads which designate the gradual lessening in standards. Problem is that an A class road can still be one where there is only room enough for one car to pass so it’s a case of stop and wait, or a Mexican standoff while you try to outstare the other guy to get him to back up to allow you to pass or vice versa.
It is impossible to convey the terror or the stress of constantly driving along roads with 10 foot high hedges on either side where you can go for a mile with room for only one car to fit.
• Every small town in Britain is having simultaneous roadwork done on the main (and i use this term loosely) road resulting in a set of stoplights being set up to control traffic in both directions. This results in your adding 30 minutes to the travel time to your destination.
• Sausages here taste like sausages should
• We always pack too much when we travel
• What did travellers do before GPS? It transforms the arriving experience.
• The weather has been absolutely tropical. Shorts and t shirt.
Thursday
We drove from Penzance to bath. Along the way we stopped in at Port Isaac, scene of DOC MARTIN. We thought the series had finished but we came across the crew and cast filming. We got to see Martin Clunes, Caroline katz and Ian McEwan. It was a chance occasion that travelling throws up occasionally.
Pt Isaac is like most “tourist” towns in Britain. Their town centres are so small that they have designated parking areas outside the city centre where you can walk or hop a bus. St Ives is the worst we have come across but PT Isaac is not good either.
Next we went to Tintagel, legendary home of King Arthur. The doco in the tourist area is from the Edgar Von Daniken “drawing a long bow” school of research: Arthur is said to have lived in this part of the world in an ancient castle. This area has an ancient castle that was rebuilt by Henry 2’s brother for no apparent reason other than to celebrate previous history. Ergo this is Camelot.
We finally got to Bath at about 6pm. Longest drive of the trip so far. We were asked to take our shoes off before coming inside. Hmmmm.
Friday
Today we visited bath. It is such a beautiful city. It was Good Friday but you wouldn’t have known it. People everywhere and everything open. Went to the roman baths which were great and the Herschel museum which was so so. The only thing not open was the Abbey because of GF services which was a disappointment so we went to Bradford on Avon which is a very pretty little town with canal boats and a heritage listed barn.
When we got back we got into a discussion with our hostess. She started talking about “them” running everything. It’s because of “them” that the shops are open on Good Friday and we can’t have Christmas carols anymore because of “them”. I tried to explain how these were beatups back home based on false emails that periodically do the rounds but without success.
Tomorrow it’s Oxford and on Monday we see our first play in Britain at Stratford.
Clare our GPS has taken us on an even grander tour of England than we expected. Never the straightest road between 2 places; always across country and down the narrowest ,windiest lanes with the tallest hedges she can find. It is mentally and physically exhausting watching for signs of an approaching car, ready to slam on the brakes, as everyone approaching seems to assume that nobody else will be on the “road”, and that anyone they do meet will do the right thing and reverse many metres (no room to pass) until there is enough space for us to allow them to continue on their way unimpeded. But as compensation, we have seen some great scenery, like the Cheddar Gorge, that we would otherwise have missed.

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