exploring & escapades

Cornwall is mint, seafoam, green, wild, dunes, disconnected. Soft colors and a soft breeze. Caribbean blue and hydrangeas bigger than my head. Not the Mediterranean, nor South East Asia. It’s England, this sandy other world, and what I will always remember most about it is how far away it made me feel, way out on the far tip of this island, untouched and untamed. 

I didn’t know if I would ever come here. I had seen pictures, I knew it was beautiful, I wanted to go. But it’s oh so far away, so difficult a place to travel. No shortcuts, just raw road across England’s vast green. Through the Cotswolds. Through Devon. It would have been easier and more direct to fly across Europe to a new country. That’s why it took so long to make this trip; now that I have done it, I’m glad we waited. If we had come any sooner, I’m not sure I would have ever gone any place else. 

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Day 1, Cornwall Trip

The first day of our Cornwall trip was mostly a day of driving. We left Cambridge shortly after 9:00 am and drove and drove and drove, only stopping once just outside of Bristol for a seaside pub lunch in a small seaside town. The pub occupied a classic Old English building; it even had it’s own small beach and wooded area. We walked to the beach, dipped our feet in the water. I could see Wales across the way. Then, driving, again.

We arrived in Marazion in Cornwall just in time to catch the low tide needed to cross the causeway to St. Michael’s Mount. Grey sky, small bursts of sun. The most beautiful light for photos. We crossed the cobblestone path to the castle-island, and I was surprised to find we had it almost all to ourselves. At that point, the castle, garden, and shops were closed, probably why hardly anyone else was there at that time. IPeaceful. Pastels. Brightly colored boats sleeping on the sand. Rowers in an eight rowing out to sea. We wandered, pausing on the causeway on the return to take it in completely; the castle, the chattering of the families, the vast whiteness of the sand.

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Cornwall, UK

When: July 2019

How long: 4 days (including 2 days of driving), 3 nights

Via: Drove our car 6 hours from Cambridge. We stopped in Portishead for lunch along the way. 

Stayed: Bright Flat nr Sea Front, Penzance 

Ate – Day 1: The Royal, Portishead (lunch),  Mackerel Sky Seafood Bar, Newlyn (dinner)

Did – Day 1: St. Michael’s Mount  – for up-to-date tide times, click here.