Adventures of Ali: Cornish adventures

After spending a few days in Devon it was time to cross back into Cornwall, and see just what all the fuss is about.

Cornwall is almost an island in itself. Separated from the rest of England by the River Tamar, many of those living here today see cornwall as a nation of it's own, another country not just another english county. Because of its bleak high moors and poor soil, it never attracted the attentions of either invaders or landlords, and many ancient settlements were left untouched.

After heading north from Okehampton, we decided to head to the last little town in devon, called Clovelly. Described in my guide book as "almostly impossibly beautiful" we thought why not...

what we didn't read was the fine print that it was a privtely owned village and you had to pay to get in...

we're talking 10 pounds each ($25 Aussie dollars) to even get in... and 10 pounds to park our car...
we sat for a second before thinking ummm no...

on the way back to the main road we found another road going towards the city for "residents only" deciding that we still wanted just a glimpse of this beautiful village we headed down that road... before being chased out by scary looking real residence... needless to say we didn't even get a glimmer of a rooftop!

headed out and back into Cornwall, the coastal scenery is what hits you first, rugged cliffs and smashing waves. Decided to stick with the coastal route, with the hope that the weather would clear up an we'd be presented with some spectacular views..

The north coast is definitely cornwalls most dramatic, whether it be due to the strong winds and huge seas, or the large golden beaches streching along the coast.

We stopped in a little town called Bocastle,

you couldn't ask for a more pictureque setting.
it's burrowed at the base of a steep coombe in the heart of the North shore.

This poor town was devastated just 4 years ago in one of the worst flash in Britain, where the whole town was destroyed. Though many of the building have been rebuilt and restored over the last few years, it has such a charm to it.

There is a wealth of folk lore about piskies and giants that roamed Cornwall in the past. whether it be fact of fiction is up to you to decide.. and here in Bocastle they had an entire museum dedicated to Witchcraft.

it had such a bizarre collection of witch related memorabilia; spooky poppets (ancient voodoo dolls), wooden witch mirrors, enchanted skulls, not a museum for the faint hearted or the witches amongst us!

Heading on we headed into Tintagel, the home of King Arthur's Castle. due to the strength of the winds the castle was closed for visitors, so we just had a wander around the town.

there was a quaint rickety post office along the main street, dating back to the 16th century.
I'm continually in awe of the history that just surrounds everything you look at.

Continuing along the coastal path our next stop was at Treyarnon.

We started out along the coastal walk but had to turn back for fear of being blown out to sea with the wind..

We found a quaint little cafe and had our first taste of a traditional Cornish cream tea, complete with scones with jam and clotted cream... mmmmm

It seems cornwall with it's rather wet climate is is ideal for growing the rich grass required for dairying, leading to the production of Cornwall's famous export, clotted cream. Which is protected under EU law and cannot be made anywhere else!

All the girls at work had been telling me i had to try the famous clotted cream before i left...

It's a bit off putting to look at with it's golden crust, and a melted cheese like consistency... but it had such a cool silky taste. And tasted devine on a freshly baked scone...

with the wind howling and the rain falling we fell victims to the sound of

The fairground for coaches, and old people! full of all sorts of overpriced cornish jewelery and such.. though we did come across a few interesting show cases...