Lands End

At the extreme southwest corner of England, Lands End is near where the English Channel merges into the Atlantice Ocean.

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20230607 - travel from Dawlish Warren to Sennen near Lands End

How would you like to travel to school on a train? The train from Dawlish Warren acquired children of about 12 and older joining the train. They asked maths question of each other and tested on event dates. Younger girls smiled and hugged each other as friends boarded. Two younger boys played a smartphone game with the accompanying conversation filled with words like communism, sedition, and constitutional. All wore uniforms.

The train stopped in Plymouth. The name reminded me that early English immigrants to American came from this part of the world bring their origin names with them.

The train passed through a countryside of rolling hills with occasional steep sides cut by creeks. The hills had patchworks of fields on them divided by high green hedgerows. One area raised tall evergreen timber. Dotting everywhere were cottages some clearly old made of grey chiseled stone. There were the odd medieval tower and walls. Cows or sheep munched grass or lay about under the sun in some of the fields. The train must have stopped a dozen times at small stations; one could see the locals pride in the painting of the station or the fresh hanging potted flowers.

Penzance, my destination on the train, has an old world charm with the area around the station made up of two story granite buildings lining the streets filled with shops. Going in for a coffee at the Quirky Chick I stayed to enjoy a traditional english breakfast of sausage, eggs, cooked tomato, and beans. I met an 89 year old lady have breakfast - she made my mother of 87 look like a 40 year old.

I caught the Coaster bus out to the town of Sennen near Lands End for £2. Holy cow! You have to know how to drive in these parts. Many times either the bus or the oncoming car had to back up to a place where they could pass each other. Many of the roads are single lane, no markings with 6+ foot stone hedgerows on each side. I won't mention what took place in town for the bus to make its way.

The dominate feature of Lands End is the WIND. A stead 15+mph wind from the east blowing out toward the Atlantic. There are no trees around here to break the wind just the hedgerows. Fortunately the forecast calls for just wind - no rain.

I met, Lewis, a young Scottish man who'd just finished up riding a bicycle from the north of Scotland to Lands End over 18 days and 1000miles. He's camped next to me.

The camping area suits me. Its grassy, flat, the bathroom facilities are clean and new. And, most excitedly, there is an electric pot for boiling water - handy for tea, coffee, noodles in a cup, etc.

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Today I hiked the coastal route from Lands End to Porthcurno.

I attended the performance of Calvino Nights at the Minack Theatre. The theatre is built into the side of a rocky overlooks the English Channel. Seating is on grass covered stone stairs with beautiful rock gardens interspersed. It was conceived and constructed by Rowena Cade with its first performance in 1932.

I also visited the Porthcurno Global Communications museum. A brilliantly assembled story and explanation of subsea cable telecommunication. It is housed in a building adjacent to a WWII underground bunker all for the purpose of operating subsea cables brought ashore at this small cove. This the place the Atlantic subsea telegraph cable came ashore. Cables still come ashore here now, but they are fiber optic cables.

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The Coaster bus provide transportation as I visited St Ives then on to Penzances. I walked the couple of miles to Newlyn before catching the bus back to Lands End. This formed a circle tour and a chance to see and visit more of the surrounding countryside and towns.

St Ives is an old fishing village in the county of Cornwall formed circa 1312. The fishing technique used was 'seining' that used several boats with a seine net to catch pilchards, a small sardine like fish. The town has become a very popular tourist destination with many art shops and food places. One can travel there by train or the popular 'Coaster' bus that makes loops around the Cornwall peninsula starting in Penzance.

St Ives and other ports in the area provide 'lifeboat' support for ships in trouble. The body of water surrounding the Cornish peninsula is called the Celtic Sea.

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The campground had four tents pitched with individuals not in automobiles this morning. One French/English gentleman about 40 years old was in a very small single man tent walking to Scotland from Paris. One talkative man in his thirties from Netherland is about to terminate a portion of the coastal trail in Penzance in the next two days. A young Scottish man from Aberdeen cycled from John of Groats Scotland (a very popular thing to do in these parts - about 1000 miles in length) and plans to secure a job here and stay for the summer. And then there is myself.

Planning only to visit Sennen Cove about 1-1/2 miles away, the morning took on a relaxed leisurely pace. I'd purchased two Cornish pastries yesterday and having eaten one of them, I enjoyed the second for brunch. They are a popular item here with many places selling the thick pastry folded like a calzone and stuffed with savory options. Around 10:30AM I finally headed for the Coastal trail.

The wind and rain finally abated with only a non-threatening gray sky. Turning north at Lands End the Coastal trail meandered along the top of the cliffs with sea views. One very steep narrow ravine with a stone shore stored the rusty aft wreckage of a vessel. Further along a small stone structure at the top of a series of cliffs was where a special division trained climbing in preparation for assaults in Italy. Now climbing enthusiasts tackle the pitches. I met a young lady, Emily, with binoculars watching for birds and large marine sea life. Chatting I discovered I'd seen a special bird for these parts on my hike a couple days prior, a red-billed chough, or Cornish Chough as she called it (Being from the nearby county of Devon). The walk from there took only five minutes to arrive in the small fishing village of Sennen Cove. The Round House and Capstan Gallery contained art of various scenes of the area; many I found very appealing. The 'Tinker Toy Holiday Cottage' across the lane with it's contoured thatched roof added considerable charm. And the next building housed the local 'life boat'. More a fire station for sea rescues the 'boat' is a sophisticated 70ft vessel inside the building at the top of a ramp for quick launching. I sat at the Sennen Cove Cafe for a couple of hours downing an Offshore Pilsner (very light and refreshing) then a cheese sandwich with chutney (delicious!) while catching up on the blog.

Gaia maps helped my make a loop route back to the campground. I do not quite understand 'private' versus 'public path' in these parts, but in this case the public path held up enough that I felt comfortable.

Today closes the chapter on the visit to Lands End and the surrounding area.