From a campervan viewpoint there’s little more to add from the trip. After a few days fun in Devon with friends I stopped the night at the CAMC site at Illminster. It’s a peaceful site, albeit very open. I regretted the stop slightly, in hindsight I might just as well have driven home on the Sunday, particularly as my plan for a potter up through the Cotswolds with a wander round Stow on the Wold went out the window due to a long delay near Stonehenge and yet more rain. I always find the most depressing part of the holiday is getting home with unloading and washing to do but it has to be done.
A few conclusions came from the trip. I could have spent longer in Cornwall, while combining the ‘van holiday with the Devon hotel makes best use of the driving down there it does mean the first part of the trip is short and rushed. I’m not saying I won’t do it again but I’ll choose carefully where I go.
Even when I was having to unload the e-bike and bike rack in the rain I reckoned it was worth taking them. Due to the rain and damp problems (which I think have finally been cured by putting the control panel in the airing cupboard for a week) I only used the bike once, but I’d have used it again if I’d been able. Part of the problem though is it’s not really the right bike as I bought a folding bike due to not being able to fit a bike rack on the previous camper, that’s not now an issue. The small wheel size is a nuisance, making fitting panniers very difficult and reducing rideability. Depending a little on next years holiday plans (see below) I’m looking at options for a full size bike ideally with crank drive instead of hub.
I’m already debating where to go next year. Two places are likely, Kent and East Sussex for one and the South and Mid Wales coast. I was thinking of visiting the Isle of Man but I’ve decided the ferry is too expensive for the moment.
I’ve had one issue with the ‘van since the holiday, a dead battery. I’m glad it didn’t happen while I was away! Easily sorted (and fortunately I was parked next to a friend’s Berlingo so a jump start was easy), but would have been a nuisance in Cornwall.
Sunday 16 June 2019
Wednesday 5 June 2019
Go West - The Best Laid Plans...
I mentioned in the previous post that I intended to leave the ‘van on site today and just use the bike. All was going to plan, I’d charged the battery last night, sorted everything I’d need for the day and unloaded the bike. I did a quick power up and all was OK so I went to set off. Powered up the controller, it powered down again. Tried a couple more times and although it stayed on it was cycling through the settings repeatedly. I had to give up, load it back on the rack and drive instead. I’m fairly certain that water had got in to the handlebar bit and was shorting the buttons out. I did a quick check this afternoon and all seemed to work again so I’ll do a more thorough check at home. I’m also going to have to sort out a cover for when the bike’s on the rack to prevent this happening again.
First visit was the Cornwall At War Museum, quite appropriate with the D Day anniversary. It’s a very eclectic collection spread across several buildings but well worth the visit. They’ve even got some WD Railway stock and a short length of track, shame it wasn’t running! Just as I was finishing up the weather took an unexpected turn and it started raining, heavily. The forecast had been for sunshine all day. It didn’t last long though. The Museum is based on Davidstow Airfield (the cheese factory is next door), unusually you can drive across much of the airfield, including the runways, so I did that.
Having toured round a bit I went to Boscastle for a few hours. After a reasonable lunch I walked down to the harbour. It’s difficult to conceive, on a tranquil summers day with the burbling of the river over the shallows, that 15 years ago this August the nation watched as the village was devastated by a flash flood. There’s little trace of that now, just the odd plaque on buildings that were destroyed and rebuilt. My parents were in the village just a few days before the flood and a past acquaintance was there with her mother (who last saw her car on the news being swept out to sea). If there’s a saving grace it’s that there was, miraculously, no loss of life that day.
A quick trip into Camelford provided essential supplies (sausage and bacon for breakfast) before I headed back to the site. I’d seen a brown sign for the British Cycle Museum which looked worth a visit but I googled it and unfortunately it’s permanently closed. Most Club sites have Fish and Chip vans visiting once or twice a week, this one is no exception and tonight was one of the nights! Very nice it was too, unusually they prepare their own potatoes instead of buying them “ready chipped”, a definite improvement.
That’s now the end of using the campervan for a few days as I’m off to join friends for an activity weekend in Devon, so I shan’t now blog until the end of trip roundup.
First visit was the Cornwall At War Museum, quite appropriate with the D Day anniversary. It’s a very eclectic collection spread across several buildings but well worth the visit. They’ve even got some WD Railway stock and a short length of track, shame it wasn’t running! Just as I was finishing up the weather took an unexpected turn and it started raining, heavily. The forecast had been for sunshine all day. It didn’t last long though. The Museum is based on Davidstow Airfield (the cheese factory is next door), unusually you can drive across much of the airfield, including the runways, so I did that.
Having toured round a bit I went to Boscastle for a few hours. After a reasonable lunch I walked down to the harbour. It’s difficult to conceive, on a tranquil summers day with the burbling of the river over the shallows, that 15 years ago this August the nation watched as the village was devastated by a flash flood. There’s little trace of that now, just the odd plaque on buildings that were destroyed and rebuilt. My parents were in the village just a few days before the flood and a past acquaintance was there with her mother (who last saw her car on the news being swept out to sea). If there’s a saving grace it’s that there was, miraculously, no loss of life that day.
A quick trip into Camelford provided essential supplies (sausage and bacon for breakfast) before I headed back to the site. I’d seen a brown sign for the British Cycle Museum which looked worth a visit but I googled it and unfortunately it’s permanently closed. Most Club sites have Fish and Chip vans visiting once or twice a week, this one is no exception and tonight was one of the nights! Very nice it was too, unusually they prepare their own potatoes instead of buying them “ready chipped”, a definite improvement.
That’s now the end of using the campervan for a few days as I’m off to join friends for an activity weekend in Devon, so I shan’t now blog until the end of trip roundup.
Tuesday 4 June 2019
Go West - Wet, Wet, Wet!
I’m not referring to the singing group in the title but to the fact it’s rained most of the day! I’d got two railways to visit while moving between caravan sites, with a stop at Trago Mills on the way. For those who don’t know this is a large discount store selling just about anything you can think of. I only bought a couple of things I needed, partly due to lack of space.
The Bodmin and Wenford Railway is a fairly typical standard gauge preserved line. The problem today was that it was wet and very, very busy. This isn’t unusual, railways are a good attraction when it’s raining but I really could have done without yelping dogs and children. It’s effectively a Y layout as you run from Bodmin General to Boscarne Junction, back to Bodmin General, then to Bodmin Parkway and again back to Bodmin General. To avoid having to run-around several times we had a diesel loco at one end and steam (a J94 “Austerity”) at the other. Photo opportunities were limited but I managed to get some shots.
The second visit was, for me, the more interesting. The Launceston Steam Railway is not strictly a heritage line, it’s a 1’ 11 1/2” tourist railway laid on the old North Cornwall Railway. The engines are all restored historic stock and you get a choice of sitting inside or in the open “toast rack” coaches modelled on the Isle of Mann Steam Railway ones. I understand the railway is basically owned and run by a couple, with help from a number of staff. They seem to do everything from driving locos to clearing up in the tearoom! The history of how it came about is on their website.
The weather was a bit better whilst I was there, with some hints of sunshine, so I’ve got a few more photos this time, however not long after I set off to the caravan site the rain started up again and persisted until long after I’d arrived and got pitched. The sun did finally come out and promises to be fair tomorrow, which is good as I’m hoping to just go out on the bike. The view from the pitch would be great if it wasn’t for the caravans in the way!
The Bodmin and Wenford Railway is a fairly typical standard gauge preserved line. The problem today was that it was wet and very, very busy. This isn’t unusual, railways are a good attraction when it’s raining but I really could have done without yelping dogs and children. It’s effectively a Y layout as you run from Bodmin General to Boscarne Junction, back to Bodmin General, then to Bodmin Parkway and again back to Bodmin General. To avoid having to run-around several times we had a diesel loco at one end and steam (a J94 “Austerity”) at the other. Photo opportunities were limited but I managed to get some shots.
The second visit was, for me, the more interesting. The Launceston Steam Railway is not strictly a heritage line, it’s a 1’ 11 1/2” tourist railway laid on the old North Cornwall Railway. The engines are all restored historic stock and you get a choice of sitting inside or in the open “toast rack” coaches modelled on the Isle of Mann Steam Railway ones. I understand the railway is basically owned and run by a couple, with help from a number of staff. They seem to do everything from driving locos to clearing up in the tearoom! The history of how it came about is on their website.
The weather was a bit better whilst I was there, with some hints of sunshine, so I’ve got a few more photos this time, however not long after I set off to the caravan site the rain started up again and persisted until long after I’d arrived and got pitched. The sun did finally come out and promises to be fair tomorrow, which is good as I’m hoping to just go out on the bike. The view from the pitch would be great if it wasn’t for the caravans in the way!
Monday 3 June 2019
Go West - Mines, All Mines!
The title says it all really! The second major target of the trip was Geevor Tin Mine. I’ve been down coal mines, slate mines, a lead mine and up a copper mine (you enter at a lower adit near the bottom of the hill then climb up to the top) so adding tin to the collection made sense! It was very quiet, especially early on, so I was able to wander round in peace. The Dry (the miners’ changing rooms) is quite evocative, looking much as it would when the last shift worked.
There were three of us for the first trip down the mine itself, and we had a few minutes wait, but the guide was excellent. You walk down through The Mill, where the stone was processed, and are met ready for the tour. The available level is from the early mining era, all the 20th Century levels are below sea level and have long been flooded. The guide suggested they’d like to dig a new tunnel to show how things were when the mine closed in the 80’s. The tunnels are sometimes quite low and very narrow (hard hats and dust coats are provided) as of course they didn’t want to remove any more waste rock than they needed to. It was thought that these levels dated back to the 17th or 18th centuries however carved into the rock at one point is what appears to be a stoup, as used for holy water in Catholic churches. It clearly has no practical mining purpose, the water is too mineral laden to be readily drinkable so there’s a possibility clandestine services were held in the 16th C.
After coffee and cake I finished off the last couple of buildings and drove the short distance round to the Levant Mine. I had planned to walk along the cliff top but the exercise yesterday plus the steps in The Mill and walking through the Mine whilst bending down had all taken their toll! The main attraction at Levant is a working Cornish Beam Engine, honestly I could sit and listen to it all day. I also spent some time setting up a few arty photos, colour and black and white, I won’t really know how they’ve come out until I get home and download them but I may have at least one entry for a calendar competition! It took a while to get some pics as I had to wait for people to move.
The sat nav wanted me to return via the A30 but having been that way three times in two days I took the northerly B road route instead. It’s quite twisty and very narrow in places, with the added hazard of open top tourist busses, I nearly got hit by one and was held up behind another. I saw St Ives in passing, so to speak, before arriving back at Hayle with thoughts of a late lunch. Fortunately there just happens to be a pasty shop, with a car park, right by part of the harbour. The mistake was having a large oggie, I lost all enthusiasm to do much by the time I’d eaten it! Back at the site I just parked up and collapsed, reading and dozing for the rest of the afternoon.
Tomorrow I move back eastwards, via a couple of railways, to a site near Boscastle and Tintagel. That puts me nearer to my long weekend stop with friends in Devon. Hopefully I’ll have more energy by Wednesday as I’m planning on just using the bike to explore the area. The weather looks set to be wet tomorrow and fine the day after, but then the forecast says there’s only a 10% chance of rain now, I can assure the Met Office there’s a 100% chance ‘cause it’s tipping it down!
There were three of us for the first trip down the mine itself, and we had a few minutes wait, but the guide was excellent. You walk down through The Mill, where the stone was processed, and are met ready for the tour. The available level is from the early mining era, all the 20th Century levels are below sea level and have long been flooded. The guide suggested they’d like to dig a new tunnel to show how things were when the mine closed in the 80’s. The tunnels are sometimes quite low and very narrow (hard hats and dust coats are provided) as of course they didn’t want to remove any more waste rock than they needed to. It was thought that these levels dated back to the 17th or 18th centuries however carved into the rock at one point is what appears to be a stoup, as used for holy water in Catholic churches. It clearly has no practical mining purpose, the water is too mineral laden to be readily drinkable so there’s a possibility clandestine services were held in the 16th C.
After coffee and cake I finished off the last couple of buildings and drove the short distance round to the Levant Mine. I had planned to walk along the cliff top but the exercise yesterday plus the steps in The Mill and walking through the Mine whilst bending down had all taken their toll! The main attraction at Levant is a working Cornish Beam Engine, honestly I could sit and listen to it all day. I also spent some time setting up a few arty photos, colour and black and white, I won’t really know how they’ve come out until I get home and download them but I may have at least one entry for a calendar competition! It took a while to get some pics as I had to wait for people to move.
The sat nav wanted me to return via the A30 but having been that way three times in two days I took the northerly B road route instead. It’s quite twisty and very narrow in places, with the added hazard of open top tourist busses, I nearly got hit by one and was held up behind another. I saw St Ives in passing, so to speak, before arriving back at Hayle with thoughts of a late lunch. Fortunately there just happens to be a pasty shop, with a car park, right by part of the harbour. The mistake was having a large oggie, I lost all enthusiasm to do much by the time I’d eaten it! Back at the site I just parked up and collapsed, reading and dozing for the rest of the afternoon.
Tomorrow I move back eastwards, via a couple of railways, to a site near Boscastle and Tintagel. That puts me nearer to my long weekend stop with friends in Devon. Hopefully I’ll have more energy by Wednesday as I’m planning on just using the bike to explore the area. The weather looks set to be wet tomorrow and fine the day after, but then the forecast says there’s only a 10% chance of rain now, I can assure the Met Office there’s a 100% chance ‘cause it’s tipping it down!
Sunday 2 June 2019
Go West - dah dit dit dit dah dah dit dah dah dit dit dah dah dah
To save you having to translate the Morse Code that's Day 2!
The major visit today (and one of the reasons for coming to Cornwall) was to Porthcurno Telegraph Museum. My particular interest in telegraph is on the ciphering side, the Lorenz cipher (the German High Command cipher which Colossus was developed to help break) was a telegraph cipher, but it's of general interest anyway. The weather was fairly atrocious when I arrived a while before their opening time so I sat in the 'van instead of having the planned wander around. Fortunately the museum itself is mostly indoors. As often seems to happen to me it took 20 minutes to buy my ticket, 5 to transact the business and 15 chatting to the lady serving! There are three parts to the museum, the relatively new building has various displays and introductions to the whole topic upstairs (the shop and excellent tea room are downstairs), however the more interesting part for me are the wartime tunnels. The third part is the cable house.
An out-of-the-way obscure little Cornish village seems an unlikely place to have become a major communications hub but there are good reasons why this happened. Initially it was planned to bring a telegraph cable from Bombay (Mumbai), via Malta and Gibraltar, ashore at Falmouth however the harbour there is busy and there was too much risk of the cable being damaged by ships' anchors. Porthcurno has a sandy beach and is not a suitable anchorage, plus it already had telegraph lines to Penzance and on to London, so was ideal for the job. Eventually communications with much of the British Empire, and many other countries, passed through the cable house (a very unprepossessing building resembling a public lavatory) and the telegraph station.
The tunnels were dug by tin miners early in WW II when it was realised how vulnerable Porthcurno would be to bombing. Although by then wireless had taken over much of the traffic it's much easier to intercept so the links were vital to the war effort. You go into the tunnels (there are two, interlinked at various points) at "ground level" and don't really get a sense of being deep underground unless you choose to climb the emergency exit, all 119 steps of it! I did so, very glad that the original wet granite steps have been overlaid with modern steel gratings. Unfortunately it was still raining at that point and, as the sign puts it, they didn't consider the view when planning the location. I found the whole place fascinating and, by the time I'd had a decent cup of coffee and some carrot cake, the weather had cleared so I walked down towards the beach. The cable hut wasn't open due to the wet but I got some pictures of the outside.
The second visit of the day was to the Helston Railway. This is definitely one of the smaller preserved railways, running about a mile at the moment (they're hoping to extend soon) but it does have the distinction of having the most southerly station in Britain, Truthall Halt. The motive power today was a Ruston diesel (ex British Sugar and purchased from Northampton Ironstone Railway Trust) and the rolling stock was a GWR brake van! Not exactly glamorous but no worse for that. They do run steam services with hired in locos but the current one is undergoing a boiler overhaul at the moment.
I'd received an invite to join a TOG friend for coffee as, coincidentally, she lives very close to where the caravan site is. Having brought the eBike with me I decided it made sense to ride rather than drive round. It worked out very well since after coffee and a scone, and a lengthy catch up about campervans and various other topics, I went for an explore. The only annoying thing was that I hadn't taken a camera with me as the lighting was ideal for a good photo of Godrevy lighthouse. I'll see how I feel when I get back tomorrow, I may ride or drive round.
Toilet, beach café or major communications hub:
The major visit today (and one of the reasons for coming to Cornwall) was to Porthcurno Telegraph Museum. My particular interest in telegraph is on the ciphering side, the Lorenz cipher (the German High Command cipher which Colossus was developed to help break) was a telegraph cipher, but it's of general interest anyway. The weather was fairly atrocious when I arrived a while before their opening time so I sat in the 'van instead of having the planned wander around. Fortunately the museum itself is mostly indoors. As often seems to happen to me it took 20 minutes to buy my ticket, 5 to transact the business and 15 chatting to the lady serving! There are three parts to the museum, the relatively new building has various displays and introductions to the whole topic upstairs (the shop and excellent tea room are downstairs), however the more interesting part for me are the wartime tunnels. The third part is the cable house.
An out-of-the-way obscure little Cornish village seems an unlikely place to have become a major communications hub but there are good reasons why this happened. Initially it was planned to bring a telegraph cable from Bombay (Mumbai), via Malta and Gibraltar, ashore at Falmouth however the harbour there is busy and there was too much risk of the cable being damaged by ships' anchors. Porthcurno has a sandy beach and is not a suitable anchorage, plus it already had telegraph lines to Penzance and on to London, so was ideal for the job. Eventually communications with much of the British Empire, and many other countries, passed through the cable house (a very unprepossessing building resembling a public lavatory) and the telegraph station.
The tunnels were dug by tin miners early in WW II when it was realised how vulnerable Porthcurno would be to bombing. Although by then wireless had taken over much of the traffic it's much easier to intercept so the links were vital to the war effort. You go into the tunnels (there are two, interlinked at various points) at "ground level" and don't really get a sense of being deep underground unless you choose to climb the emergency exit, all 119 steps of it! I did so, very glad that the original wet granite steps have been overlaid with modern steel gratings. Unfortunately it was still raining at that point and, as the sign puts it, they didn't consider the view when planning the location. I found the whole place fascinating and, by the time I'd had a decent cup of coffee and some carrot cake, the weather had cleared so I walked down towards the beach. The cable hut wasn't open due to the wet but I got some pictures of the outside.
The second visit of the day was to the Helston Railway. This is definitely one of the smaller preserved railways, running about a mile at the moment (they're hoping to extend soon) but it does have the distinction of having the most southerly station in Britain, Truthall Halt. The motive power today was a Ruston diesel (ex British Sugar and purchased from Northampton Ironstone Railway Trust) and the rolling stock was a GWR brake van! Not exactly glamorous but no worse for that. They do run steam services with hired in locos but the current one is undergoing a boiler overhaul at the moment.
I'd received an invite to join a TOG friend for coffee as, coincidentally, she lives very close to where the caravan site is. Having brought the eBike with me I decided it made sense to ride rather than drive round. It worked out very well since after coffee and a scone, and a lengthy catch up about campervans and various other topics, I went for an explore. The only annoying thing was that I hadn't taken a camera with me as the lighting was ideal for a good photo of Godrevy lighthouse. I'll see how I feel when I get back tomorrow, I may ride or drive round.
Toilet, beach café or major communications hub:
Saturday 1 June 2019
Go West - Day 1
I’m now in Cornwall for a few days in the campervan. It’s a blooming long drive from home so I decided to break the journey at the Haynes Motor Museum. Reading reviews I found a one star score with comments along the lines of, “It’s just a lot of cars!” That’s very true (there are bikes as well) but what did they expect?
Most vehicles had a brief description card which was good but if I had a minor criticism it was that they’re sometimes inaccurate or many years out of date. Suggesting that Triumph are the only current British motorcycle manufacturer probably wasn’t true when the card was written (CCM have been around since 1971) and certainly isn’t now with Norton, Hesketh and a few others. They’re not the original companies of course, but neither is Triumph.
I found about an hour was long enough looking round before car overload started to set in so decided a cup of (very nice) coffee would set me up for the next part of the journey. I was very fortunate to be travelling into the west not away from it, I had virtually no holdups whereas the other carriageway had several long queues, that’s the advantage of coming away at the end of a school holiday! The second major stop was at The Great Cornish Food Store for a stock up of local produce. I sampled the Cornish Blue cheese, powerful with a half life comparable to Uranium as I could still taste it an hour later! I did buy some and may have it for supper.
Arrival and checking in at the site was smooth as usual, although it’s about 1/2 a mile from where the sat nav puts it. They’re fairly empty this week so I was able to pick an awning pitch even though I’d booked non-awning. Since then I’ve sat, read, dozed and eaten, with the odd can of beer thrown in. It’s a grass site, which makes a change from the usual hard standing, and there is s back gate onto the sand dunes but I’ll be settling reasonably early as it’s been a long day, I may get the bike out tomorrow when I get back and explore.
Tomorrow I plan to visit the Telegraph Museum and the Helston Railway. The latter is only open Thursday and Sunday, limited opening is common for volunteer railways which is partly why I have to plan my trips in advance (the other reason is that I enjoy doing so!)
Most vehicles had a brief description card which was good but if I had a minor criticism it was that they’re sometimes inaccurate or many years out of date. Suggesting that Triumph are the only current British motorcycle manufacturer probably wasn’t true when the card was written (CCM have been around since 1971) and certainly isn’t now with Norton, Hesketh and a few others. They’re not the original companies of course, but neither is Triumph.
I found about an hour was long enough looking round before car overload started to set in so decided a cup of (very nice) coffee would set me up for the next part of the journey. I was very fortunate to be travelling into the west not away from it, I had virtually no holdups whereas the other carriageway had several long queues, that’s the advantage of coming away at the end of a school holiday! The second major stop was at The Great Cornish Food Store for a stock up of local produce. I sampled the Cornish Blue cheese, powerful with a half life comparable to Uranium as I could still taste it an hour later! I did buy some and may have it for supper.
Arrival and checking in at the site was smooth as usual, although it’s about 1/2 a mile from where the sat nav puts it. They’re fairly empty this week so I was able to pick an awning pitch even though I’d booked non-awning. Since then I’ve sat, read, dozed and eaten, with the odd can of beer thrown in. It’s a grass site, which makes a change from the usual hard standing, and there is s back gate onto the sand dunes but I’ll be settling reasonably early as it’s been a long day, I may get the bike out tomorrow when I get back and explore.
Tomorrow I plan to visit the Telegraph Museum and the Helston Railway. The latter is only open Thursday and Sunday, limited opening is common for volunteer railways which is partly why I have to plan my trips in advance (the other reason is that I enjoy doing so!)
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