Day 6 - South West Coast - Clovelly - The prettiest village I've ever seen

I'm starting to sound like someone who's addicted to hyperbole and over-exaggeration...but I honestly am not. I've worked as a journalist, and skepticism comes with the turf. I know I've given a few good words to places like Mousehole, Dartmouth, Brixham and recently St Ives, but Clovelly is extra special. For sheer beauty, this tiny village (much smaller than tiny Mousehole) is unmatched. (And I promise to get a few photos up soon!!! Update - Check them out below.)

My mate back in London made me swear that I'd visit Clovelly on my trip. He's been on a romantic escapade there, and I can see why. The little place would knock the pants - sorry, I mean socks! - off most girls (and guys) on a romantic weekend.

I will try to describe it, probably unsuccessfully, because you have to be a poet... There are only about thirty whitewashed tiny cottages, all situated in a steep culvert between two high hills. To the left and right are precipitous forests that come down to a stony coast. There is a waterfall cascading into the ocean just to the north of the village. The harbour keeps about ten fishing boats, and the breakwater tries its best to keep the winter swells out. Streets are cobbled. Flowerpots hang out the windows. And the sound of the sea is amplified by the narrow topography.

And many of the residents are old locals. Barry Perham owns the Shellfish Shop at the bottom of the hill, just before you walk onto the breakwater. He was born in Clovelly. His great grandfather moved there after marrying one of the locals. He's not bowing to any tourist marketing program...he's just selling his "hot, smoked mackerel in soft bread roll for £2.50". That's why Clovelly works. There are tourists, but it hasn't compromised the soul one bit.

The history of the place goes back to 1066, when it was described in the census for that year. The whole village has always been owned by a family, and today it is privately owned by the Hamlyn family, and has been since 1738. As a result, they have been able to preserve Clovelly, so that is has essentially remained unchanged for centuries. The town's tourist centre at the top of the hill does taint things somewhat, but it's far away from the town itself, so it doesn't matter. And you'll pay £6 to gain access to Clovelly, but it's worth every penny, and it helps to preserve it.

In fact, I would have liked to spend a night there. And will be going back for sure. Two places caught my eye, but didn't go inside:

- Red Lion Hotel, right on the breakwater. An impressive sight.

- Donkey Shoe Cottage, in the middle of the village.

- For more accommodation options, check out http://www.clovelly.co.uk/.


Panorama of Clovelly, click on the image for a full screen version...a photo doesn't do the village justice, and I wish the sun had been shining...it deserves sun all year round - clouds should be reserved exclusively for London!! And notice the waterfall on the left of the image...


Barry Perham, who owns the Shell Fish Shop next to the Red Lion Hotel on the harbour (which is to the right of the panorama photo)

Day 6 - South West Coast- Tintagel - King Arthur and his knights...

On the way from St Ives north to Ilfracombe is Tintagel Castle, close to the town of the same name. It is here that King Arthur was born...if he ever did live.

The castle is on cliffed-island down a steep hill from the town. The wind was galeforce when I got there, and had to lean into it while taking a few pics. The sea was spraying up above the cliffs which are about 40 metres high...an impressive place for a legendary king to be born. Bad weather suits the place. But although it's a decent outing, it's not as special as some guidebooks make it out to be. The castle is almost eroded to it's foundations, and the town itself is not pretty. There are lots of curio stores selling swords and King Arthur chess sets. Poor old King Arthur...I wonder if he's getting any royalty payments...


Click on the panorama for a full screen version of the broken down Tintagel Castle...it's to the right of the image.

Day 5 - South West Coast - St Ives - some more...

St Ives is popular today as an artist town, and it has been since 1811, when the famous JM Turner (I didn’t know who he was either – but check out his work to see if it's your thing) moved to St Ives. The first official tourist arrived in 1877 when the trainline was extended.

And now that I’ve had some more time in the town, I’ve realised how much St Ives, in particular, relies on tourism. The pilchard fishing industry, which was once so prolific, has died, and overfishing left the fishing boats unused in the harbour. To give you an idea of how many pilchards were caught, Tim Tait from Cornerways showed me the basement of his B&B, which used to be a pilchard press (...it smells better now!)

“They used to throw the pilchards down a shute, into the press, extract the oil, and send it to London to light the street lamps. There was just so much of the stuff...” One estimate, according to the local tourism brochure, is that every year 100 million fish were transported out of St Ives. And it didn’t take long for the stock to run out – by 1924 the industry had almost died.

The town relies now on its bygone charm as a working fishing town to draw the tourists. There are lots of boutique clothing and fashion stores, and a lot of upmarket restaurants. Sure, there are fish and chip shops too. The charm is still there, and it’s great. I just hope that it doesn’t become too trendy.

Well, it may be too late, because the Tate art empire has got a St Ives branch, which you pay about £5.65 to get in. There are 30 other galleries in the village, hosting a wide range of paintings, sculptures and photography. If you're an art fan, then go to St Ives.

Here are a couple more things that you can do, courtesy of Tim, and Madeleine at St Ives Tourism (The office is very helpful - a clear sign that they know how important the industry is to the town.)

- Take a guided tour of the town with Valerie Hurry, who offers two versions: one for folk interested in all the art, and one for those who want to know more about the history and quirkiness of the place. Contact Valerie on vwaves@btinternet.com. Prices are $5 a person, and tours last about 75 minutes.

- Visit the St Ives Museum down near the harbour wall. Yeah, yeah...I know what you thinking...you didn't go on holiday to see a museum. And it is run-down and poky, but according to Tim at Cornerways, it is one of the unsung attractions. It has an enormous amount of archival material that even ardent non-historians might find interesting. Like how Saint Ia (a lady!) from Ireland founded the town in the 5th century, after sailing across on a dingy made from animal hides! Wow. There's a lot of quirky stuff as well.

- Go to Trewyn Gardens, which isn’t touristy, and are very pretty. They sit right next to the Barbara Hepworth museum, which houses much of her modern sculpture work. Tim says it’s a “must-do” if you’re that way inclined. I didn't know who she was.

- Try Saltwater Restaurant in - you guessed it - Fish Street! Tim says it’s got the best seafood, and is a “special occasion” spot. Other famously good restaurants are Porthminster Cafe & Restaurant, which is apparently nationally famous. And Alba, which got 10/10 from the Daily Telegraph food writer and is located in the old lifeboat house and has panoramic views of the ocean.

- Bringyour walking shoes. The coastal walks are fine. Tim says his favourite is to walk the three hours south to Zennor, have lunch at the popular - and only - pub, the Tinners Arms, then take the open-top bus back to St Ives.

- For diferent accommodation options, check out Old Salthouse, which is a luxurious studio apartment, and Gowerton Guest House, a less pricey spot (£30 a night incl breakfast) run by a South African lady called Zelda Bennett. I know I keep going on about how great the views have been, but her view has set the new standard. Her three storey fishing cottage is part of the breakwater, and you look out your window onto the sea directly below.


St Ives Internet Cafe...


Art deco poster of St Ives


...and one for Cornwall too.



St Ives on a stormy morning...hey, I also wish the weather was better in July!

Day 5 - South West Coast - Lands End & St Ives

I drove from Mousehole to Lands End, the most south westerly point of England. When I arrived, it was raining, and foggy. There was a queue ten cars back from the kiosk, where they were charging £4 to get in. And then I saw the sign that said there was a shopping mall. I decided to give it a skip and carried on to St Ives.


A shopping mall at a place with a romantic name like Land's End? Not sure it works!

St Ives has a talked-up reputation, and deserves it. It's about four times the size of tiny Mousehole, with a bigger harbour and waterfront, but it has the same charm. It's busier with tourists, and there are more designer boutique stores. But the town still has "old charm" written over it, the streets are too narrow for SUVs, and they twist and turn randomly, as if the town's builders woke up every morning and threw a dice to see in which direction they'd build an alley way. It's romantic.

Cornerways B&B suits St Ives well. It's classy, yet reasonably priced, in the old part of town, on a hill that overlooks the harbour. The building is an old three storey fisherman's cottage, with narrow staircases. Inside, it's renovated, modern in a maritime way and very comfortable. For attention to detail, Cornerways deserves a good mention. And because the rooms are stacked at odd angles and at different heights, you feel like you're in your own small flat, with couch, table, and ensuite bathroom. And a view of the harbour. And there's a seagull that perches on the roof of the neighbour's house, staring into your room while you're changing. No wonder it's squawking at me so much.


Room at Cornerways...the windows look out onto the pic below...

...Where a seagull squawks at me while I'm changing.

Have lunch at the Cornish Pasty shop just down from Cornerways, on the promenade. For £2 you can have a medium sized traditional pasty (steak, potato and veggies, wrapped in a light tasty pastry). I had two!

Day 4 - South West Coast - Mousehole - Some old pics..and bit of history

Like all villages along the coast of Britain, Mousehole is all about the ocean and the people who survive off it. The air is thick with salt. The sea is loud wherever you are in the village. People practically live IN the ocean. So everything relates back to the sea. I found these old pics from The Shipp Inn's bar area...incredible. My fishing mates in Cape Town won't believe the pic of the massive shark, taken in 1939. The caption for the photo says it weighed five tons and the liver was one ton...

Incredible. Nature is amazing for what it can come up with!

The caption for the shark photo...click on it to read it in a bigger font.


The best beer in the world for admirals - and us.

And Mousehole's history is violent. It was burnt to the ground by the Spaniards in 1595. Squire Keigwan defended his manor house to the death, and it still stands today.

And the last speaker of the Cornish language - Dorothy Pentreath - lived and died in Mousehole, passing on in 1777 at the age of 102. Her grave is in the churchyard above town.

Day 4 - South West Coast - Mousehole - Ice cream from heaven

I've just tasted the best ice-cream in Cornwall, if not the galaxy. It’s made by Mr Robin Webb, whose company is called...Webb’s.

If anyone should put their name on their business’s products, Mr Webb is that man. In fact, he should call his ice-cream flavours after his children, because he must be that proud of it. And he should be knighted and ordained all in one go, because his ice-cream must make thousands of people happy to be alive when they lick their favourite flavour.

I’ve eaten way more than my life’s fair share of ice cream already, so I really do believe, with all my heart, that Mr Webb’s ice-cream is up there amongst the best I’ve tasted. This is not an exaggeration, because on the wall of his mom’s tiny ice-cream store in Mousehole are more than twenty annual awards for “Cornwall’s Best Ice-Cream”, as judged by the National Ice-Cream Alliance. (Update: Actually, I've just visited Robin in Penzance, and he says he got a merit award, which is about tenth place out of a few hundred entries...still not bad!) Now that’s an organisation that I could work for, and if it ran the United Nations, I reckon it could ensure world peace just by handing out endless supplies of Mr Webb’s chocolate ice-cream.

Mr Webb runs his business from Penzance, and I’m going to pay homage tomorrow or the next day. (Have just done so, and he's an ordinary man selling extraordinary icecream - the name of his shop is the Coffee Pot, and it's on the main promenade near the arcade in Penzance. Don't pass it by.)

Because I went back for seconds immediately after my first cone, I thought I’d strike up some friendly conversation with his old lady, Mrs Webb, to find out a bit more about this holy grail of ice-cream. But being an unashamed fan of her son’s ice-cream doesn’t make you special, as I found out when I asked Mrs Webb what her first name was. “I don’t tell people my first name. I’m just Mrs Webb to you, and that’s the way it’s going to be, okay?” Fair enough - I guess you wouldn’t ask the Pope’s mom what her first name is either.

Day 4 - South West Coast - Mousehole - Tiny fishing village

Mousehole. I knew I had to spend a night in a town called Mousehole (pronounced “Mowzel”).

It’s a tiny fishing village, in a tiny cove, with tiny fishing boats, with tiny streets, tiny buildings and tiny night-time fairylights. You can walk around the whole village in five minutes.

There’re only a couple of places to spend the night. I am staying at tiny The Ship Inn, which has the best spot, right on the harbour, overlooking the tiny fishing boats, and the tiny breakwater that keeps the very large sea out. The Ship Inn is mainly a pub that serves good food, but they do offer a couple of rooms upstairs.

I am sitting now in front of the bay window of my room, which has a view that might just rival that of The Cottage Hotel in Hope Cove. But it’s a different view. It’s a very comforting view, not an awe-inspiring natural view. The fishing boats in the harbour look safe and sound, like small children wrapped up snuggly in bed. Old fisherman must have felt the same way coming back into Mousehole’s harbour from a night on the ocean. The sounds from downstairs in the pub: laughter and chatter. People passing on the street below. The seagulls doing seagull stuff out on the harbour’s wall.

NB. Just before you get to Mousehole, make sure you visit Marazion, just to the east. St Michael’s Mount sits just off the coast, a spectacular hill island with a superb abbey on top, connected to the mainland by a narrow, low causeway. It really is special to see – its sense of history matches its physical impressiveness: the abbey dates back to the 5th century. It’s currently draped with scaffolding for restoration, but even so, it’s WOW.


Mousehole harbour


Mousehole itself...The Ship Inn is in the middle with the flower boxes

St Michaels Mount, just to the east of Mousehole

Day 4 - South West Coast - Lizard Point - Southermost point on mainland

A quick mention about Lizard Point, because it’s the southernmost point on the British mainland.

Like everyone perhaps, I’m not sure why we all trek off to these sometime mostly sunspectacular places, which are really just important because of the longitudes and latitudes dreamt up by mapmakers. We come back and say a little proudly that we’ve been to this and that point, without knowing why we’re proud.

But even if Lizard Point is buzzing with tourists and is not AS stunning as much of the rest of this coast, there’s still a pensive, reverent feel to the area. People sit on the grass, talking softly, staring out to the horizon, re-evaluating their live's...we can’t help ourselves, can we!?!? So go, only to say to that you’ve been there. And it is beautiful in it's own right.


The view from Lizard Point, the southernmost point on the mainland.


Follow the signs...

Day 4 - South West Coast - St Austell - St Austell Brewery

From Eden, it’s a five minute drive to St Austell Brewery, where you can ponder the future of the earth over several pints of real ale. The brewing company has more than 170 pubs in the south west of England, where you can enjoy their five or so different types of beers. It’s been in the family for five generations, and when you do the brewery tour you get the feeling that they really do love their beer.

It’s not contrived or commercial at all – if you love beer, then do the tour, especially because you can sample all the different ales. St Austell’s beer lasts only 6 weeks in the cask, because they don’t use any chemicals or preservatives. And the brewing water is still sourced from the same spring that was originally used.

Jeremy Mitchell at the brewery looks after all the different pubs in Cornwall, and has spent plenty of time visiting all 173 of them. So he knows the area like the bottom of a beer bottle. His top picks of things to do and see in the region:


- Charleston, for its famous tall ships.
- Fowey (pronounced “Foy”), because it’s a pretty but un-touristy coastal village.
- Veryan, because there are two thatched houses which are round: locals believed that the devil could hide around square corners.
- Halford Passage, because there’s a famous oyster farm there
- Gweek, for its seal sanctuary
- Lizard Point, the southernmost point on the British mainland.
- Porthcurno, firstly because you can suntan naked – there’s a nudist beach there. And secondly, the Minnack open air theatre is apparently spectacular and hosts shows every night in summer.
- Watergate Bay, to visit Jamie Oliver’s restaurant called “15 Cornwall”.
- St Meryn, to enjoy another celebrity chef’s food: fish and chips at Rick Stein’s Cornish Arms
- The whole coast between Newquay and Padstow...there are at least seven long beaches, all with decent surf breaks. Jeremy grew up in St Agnes, whose nearby beach has a particularly good reputation amongst local surfers.

Day 4 - South West Coast - St Austell - UFOs and Rainforests at Eden Project

From there I shook a leg across to the Eden Project near St Austell. I heard about this futuristic environmental site long ago, and being a willing earthy type, I always wanted to go. It’s well worth it.

From the outside, there are five or six massive space-ship-like, honeycombed white domes. It’s futuristic looking, and when it was launched back in the day, it was a futuristic concept. These days we've has come to realise how we’ve messed up the earth, so whereas the Eden Project was an implicit warning to the world when it launched, today it’s simply confirming for us what we’ve now known for some time.

What’s impressive is that the site on which Eden is built used to be a massive mining pit, and what’s arisen from the dust is all the more special because of it.

Inside each dome is the recreation of different natural climates and habitats from across the globe. You can get really hot and sweaty in the tropical biome crammed with rainforest, and then cool off in the Mediterranean one. It's worth the £16 entry fee, which all goes to the charity which runs Eden anyway.

It was packed with people, and is clearly a big hit. For me, it was a melancholy experience...I
wondered what things would be like in the future...would the world be one big concrete megalopolis, and we’d have to visit a habitat “zoo”, like Eden Project, just to remind ourselves what deserts and rainforests were like? That’s a dumb thought I guess. I hope it is!


The river in the rainforest biome


Outside the UFOs


The Mediterranean biome