In late August/early September, we went down to the South West of England to walk the SW Coast Path from St Ives to Lands End. We then went to the Scilly Isles, a group of Islands about 50km off the SW Coast.
We started by taking the "sleeper" train from London to Newquay - no sleepers for us though - actually just slightly nicer reclining seats. Not too happy as we had expected bunks but never mind...After taking the bus from Newquay to St Ives, we arrived at our hostel and met another couple of people doing the SWCoast Path - one of them a NZer from Taranaki, named Aaron.
We saw Aaron again the next day when walking our first day’s leg to Zennor. It was a great day – fantastic weather and we even saw Dolphins off the cliffs. In Zennor, 6.5 miles from the Tate St Ives, we stayed at the Old Chapel Backpackers and had a pint in the local cosy pub, Tinners Arms.
Day 2 of walking took us to Bottallack..... It had rained heaps overnight and the track was very muddy. Susanna fell down not long in and got completely muddied and (as it appeared later) strained her knee quite badly. Didn't matter much as an hour later it POURED!!!!!! We got soaked! It then dried up again and by the time we got to Pendeen Watch we had dried - only for it to start raining again (you will see this becomes a common theme)! We struggled along to Geevor and then retreated to a cafe at the mine and then a pub. We then walked the short distance to the campsite in Bottallack by road in the mizzle. Chucked almost everything in the huge washing machine and then the dryer and got nice hot showers! YAY. That night had scrummy dessert at campsite bar.
Last day walking – the weather had cleared a lot and we walked to Lands End. Only one short squally rain period so it was quite good weather but we managed to: go up the wrong path, strand ourselves on the mountain, cross a river twice and only lose 1.5 hours walking time.....Glad to see the end of the day and made it to Lands End. Woohoo! Caught a bus back to Penzance that afternoon and stayed at YMCA.
It was then off to the Scilly Isles. We took the morning ferry to St Marys Island. It was a bit choppy and we were forced to retreat to one of the lower decks and sleep for most of it! We looked around St Marys for a couple of hours and then caught the local launch to Bryher in the afternoon.
Bryher is one of the lesser populated out-islands of the Scillies. It is pretty rugged but beautiful all at the same time. We camped there, just up the hill from the local pub (reportedly the smallest in Britain). During our stay we managed to walk around and across most of the island at different times. We also visited another of the islands, Tresco, which is famous for its Abbey Gardens – it rained there as well!
After a few days on the island, it was a bit of a struggle to return back to London and the daily grind but we made it! Here are some pictures from our trip.
We started by taking the "sleeper" train from London to Newquay - no sleepers for us though - actually just slightly nicer reclining seats. Not too happy as we had expected bunks but never mind...After taking the bus from Newquay to St Ives, we arrived at our hostel and met another couple of people doing the SWCoast Path - one of them a NZer from Taranaki, named Aaron.
We saw Aaron again the next day when walking our first day’s leg to Zennor. It was a great day – fantastic weather and we even saw Dolphins off the cliffs. In Zennor, 6.5 miles from the Tate St Ives, we stayed at the Old Chapel Backpackers and had a pint in the local cosy pub, Tinners Arms.
Day 2 of walking took us to Bottallack..... It had rained heaps overnight and the track was very muddy. Susanna fell down not long in and got completely muddied and (as it appeared later) strained her knee quite badly. Didn't matter much as an hour later it POURED!!!!!! We got soaked! It then dried up again and by the time we got to Pendeen Watch we had dried - only for it to start raining again (you will see this becomes a common theme)! We struggled along to Geevor and then retreated to a cafe at the mine and then a pub. We then walked the short distance to the campsite in Bottallack by road in the mizzle. Chucked almost everything in the huge washing machine and then the dryer and got nice hot showers! YAY. That night had scrummy dessert at campsite bar.
Last day walking – the weather had cleared a lot and we walked to Lands End. Only one short squally rain period so it was quite good weather but we managed to: go up the wrong path, strand ourselves on the mountain, cross a river twice and only lose 1.5 hours walking time.....Glad to see the end of the day and made it to Lands End. Woohoo! Caught a bus back to Penzance that afternoon and stayed at YMCA.
It was then off to the Scilly Isles. We took the morning ferry to St Marys Island. It was a bit choppy and we were forced to retreat to one of the lower decks and sleep for most of it! We looked around St Marys for a couple of hours and then caught the local launch to Bryher in the afternoon.
Bryher is one of the lesser populated out-islands of the Scillies. It is pretty rugged but beautiful all at the same time. We camped there, just up the hill from the local pub (reportedly the smallest in Britain). During our stay we managed to walk around and across most of the island at different times. We also visited another of the islands, Tresco, which is famous for its Abbey Gardens – it rained there as well!
After a few days on the island, it was a bit of a struggle to return back to London and the daily grind but we made it! Here are some pictures from our trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment