Onwards to Lands End

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Thursday 30th July
Onward to Lands End
The odometer in RR is reading just over 10,000km or 6000 miles and we have so far in mainland Britain and Ireland been to the far north,the western most point in Ireland and almost got to the easterly most part of mainland Britain.
We have one more objective before we leave for the continent of Europe next Tuesday and that is to make it to Lands End.Not that we are going to go all the way there today as our accommodation for the next two nights is in Penzance which is about 10 miles from the end of the road in Britain.
The breakfast TV presenters are still making a big thing of the very changeable weather pattern that has developed in the past 2 weeks.In a way it’s not unlike spring in NZ where westerly fronts charge across the Tasman Sea and strike the West Coast bringing rain then showery weather an d a drop in temperature when the rain passes.Only here in the UK there isn’t anything major in the way of mountains to reduce the effect of the westerly as we get in the Bay of Plenty and Tauranga.
We have now come to appreciate the forecast of ‘sunshine and showers’ which has dominated the weather predictations each day for that is what has been happening.And the Weather Office has now stated that the jetstream is unlikely to change its present course until at least mid August.
After yesterdays persistant rain the forecast for the drive south west to Penzance looks like it we may come across the odd shower but generally we are going into a 36 hours at least of dry conditions.
It is going to be a long day as we didn’t get to Wells yesterday when we were nearby in Bath and there is a historic cathedral to go and see and place it in the list of comparisons for the others we have visited in Britain.
As we planned the route to the southwest it became apparent that we would need to weave our way along as the road system in the southern counties wandered about a bit.
Although going through Bath from where had been staying was probably the most direct way to Wells,the traffic in and around that city yesterday had been heavy and slow so we first headed south on the A350 towards Frome and then cut west on the A361 to reach the first stop of Wells.
Unlike yesterday in Bath the public car parking was clearly signposted and it was a short walk up the High Street to the very impressive looking cathedral with its extensive gounds of lawn and tree’s.
The West front of the building dates back to around 1230AD and it quite simply a stunning sight but it doesn’t prepares you for the equally amazing structure inside that holds the building up.It is like you are in two different cathedrals at the same time.The outside look being mediaeval while the scissor arches on the inside could be taken for being modern yet were built just over 100 years after the West front to combat the problem of sinking foundations. Quite an achievement for its time!!!
With its small chapels incorporated inside the main church structure this cathedral certainly equals others perhaps more famous ones that we have visited and we were pleased that we had the oppor tunity to visit.
On arriving in Wells and walking up the High Street you can’t help to miss the water running freely down the gutters.Now it had been raining yesterday but it was dry today and we had wondered where all the water was coming from.One of the stewards in the cathedral had told us about how the first Bishop who ‘owned’the land and the water well above the church site had granted ‘free’water to the people of the town.And since that day water has run freely down the main street keeping the gutters nice and clean!!!He did add that Bristol Water now supplied the home drinking water for the residents of Wells.!!
Small towns and pleasant English countryside passed by as we continued on towards the west coast of Somerset beyond Taunton to take in Exmoor National Park.
The lack of designated pull off highway picnic spots continue to frustrate us today and we ended up having lunch in one of the parking areas on the side of the highway with vehicles passing by just a couple of metres away.
The A361 that carried us onto Barnstaple is an excellent road of good width although with the amount of traffic we encountered on it today the width was a good thing.
We had deliberately chosen to take a more westerly route to Cornwall to enjoy seaside views rather than simply take what is probably the main road people use down the centre.
We were ready for a mid afternoon stop at Clovelly a seaside town off the A39.We weren’t prepared however for the charge they make to visit their town!!With no parking available in the town you park above the town itself for free then they charge you to visit the rest of it.We couldn’t see the value given the short time we wanted to stop so we rejoined the highway and continued south.
With the road tending to run along ridges we did get the sea views we were hoping for but the road,the A39, didn’t actually drop down into any of the coastal towns.While we didn't get the sea views we wanted passing through the quaint little villages with houses where the doors opened directly on to the road was interesting.And we headed further south the roads through the villages seemed to get narrower and it had to happen that eventually our passage was controlled by traffic lights as there was only room for one lane of cars while the others waited their turn to squeeze bewtenn the houses on both sides of the road!!!
Once we joined the A30 we knew we had reached the heart of Cornwall and holidsaymakers in their droves as the traffic volume really increased.Thankfully the road had a number of dual carriageway sections which kept the traffic moving at a good pace.
Arriving into Penzance ,by chance we took the right fork in the road that led us around the bay to our hotel for the next two nights.
Penzance is a bit tired looking and it will be interesting to compare it to the other southern holiday towns we will be staying in as we work our way across the south coast to complete our journey around the UK.The bay has an esplanade to walk around and after the long drive we did just that to stretch our legs.Almost all of the buildings along the 1km waterfront were either hotels,B&B’s or food places and the place was busy with holidaymakers.
Our accommodation here is in a lodge next door to the hotel and we won’t have any problems doing our self catering.

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Photos

New Witch at Wookey Hole!!!
A new witch has been appointed to Wookey Hole on a salary of 50,000 quid!!!!There were heaps of applicants!!!

Comments

[Chris]

Wells and Joanne's wedding
Now that you have seen inside Wells Cathedral you will appreciate the magic feeling we had for Joanne's wedding. Joanne's friends put together a choir and string quartet and the organist was the organ scholar from Westminster Abbey. So everything about the occasion was more than memorable. Being a Friday afternoon at the height of the tourist season the body of the cathedral was full. Pleased you got the chance of a visit to the smallest city in England.

[Rin]

Hillarious....
Wookey Hole!?! Think that's my absolute favourite funny place name you've come across so far! :-)