Photos without commentary

For my mate known only as 'Domestos' here are the 'pot pouri' of images you requested...you know what you need to do....pack your bags and get over here!! We'll be here a while.

 

Stone Henge and beer

Not necessarily in order of priority I'll mention the beer of the week first...Stone Henge later. First we have the Ruby Red....I was hot on the heels of the perfect beer and thought you could just buy any Ruby Beer and all would be well, but apparently not. Make no mistake this beer is miles ahead of  your average VB or the 6 pack that you get cheap anad drink it to save a few bucks.....this is quite nice but I don't like a bitter after taste and there were hints of it. It's like a pretty woman who winks at you making you fell nice then walking away....so you have to open another one.

Everything else about it was great though. I was also swayed by the shape of the bottle (flat like a flask) which is a copy of the original bottle from c1770. It's from Suffolk and the water is drawn from the same deep source that it was taken from over 700 yrs ago....or so the label explains. Anyhow its 500mL of coloured beer at a moderate 4.3% alcohol .... 4 stars!

My faith somewhat restored with the following drop. Each bottle has its own unique number which you can look up on their web site to see when it was brewed. Don't know why you would though...you really want to drink it. This serious attempt with 7.2% alcohol is not a "session beer". You have one and that's enough....maybe wait a while cause it's rich...dark ....and very very nice.  Again they throw half a litre at you per bottle, and at a local price of around $2.50 its dangerously cheap....5 stars.

So our 2 weeks in Cornwall is over and we sadly depart. It has become home and the streets of Doc Martin now too familiar. Half way between Cornwall and Kent our destination is Stone Henge....a good lunch stop  over.

As you approach it, it looks small...but the stones are up to 6 m tall. When we enter this English Heritage site we are given our head set audio tour.....the stones have been sourced from many other areas...some from Cornwall where we had just been (3 hrs drive) ...others brought down the river Avon ...and all placed with symmetry that reflects the four seasons and both the summer and winter soltice. It also gave a 12 month calendar....all this and somehow the lentel stones are also lfted into place around 5000 yrs ago...why? Symbolism that includes other Counties...Nobody knows. And there is a Station stone remaining ....one of four remaining that when lines are drawn between them provide perfect symmetry that cut through the 'alter stone'....and their 'saints; are also buried in visual mounds around the base containing people, their horses and posessions.

 

So this is what is once looked like before famers took stone to fix paths, builders took stone to construct with and toursists were finally outlawed from bringing hammers to chip off a soveneir.

These can all be enlarged by clicking

So we continue on to Dover, Kent in preparation for our trip across to France. I've had 2 flat tyres, one seized back wheel, one faulty oil pressure light and now the rego is about to run out while my Rego papers have somehow been lost in the post to the DVLA for ownership transfer. Car ownership comes with its issues. Which brings me back to the beer therapy.

A Day at King Arthur's Castle

This is the stuff of myth and legend, so who really knows if there was an Arthur.....but its a good story....and there was a real castle after all. Well...some remains anyway.

This is our little tour guide, Noah.

And off we trot to the island rock at Tintagel.

Our intrepid guide leads the way.

And the view at the top is spectacular although the sea mist is beginning to thicken up and create a lot of haze.

Our little tour guide sits us down in a hand carved tunnel under the castle remains.

But the trek is is dangerous.

So our little tour guide re-thinks the path we will take.

Merlin's cave is under us in the harbour.

And its all topped off with a bite to eat.

 Jacob on top of some rocks near Penzance at St Michael's Mont.

 Tides out at one of our local Ports. This is a tiny little fishing boat.

 Back to St Michaels Mont and when the tide goes out, it leaves a lot of beach that goes on for miles. There's a great little 12th Century market town over the road and of course St Michaels Mont itself.

 At low tide you can walk out to the Mont but we arrived near the change of tide and could only  spend about 20 min on the island. The tides move very quickly here.

 This shot was taken about 40 min later and the island is already becoming isolated from the land. The whole foreshore soon disappeared. We are looking forward to visiting the Monts "relative Mont:" in France as its larger and older similarly on a tidal island. The light is behind the Mont making photos a bit difficult.

This shot was taken within the harbour of the island Mont looking back at the shore.

This was late in the day across the other side of Cornwall at St Ives. A great little place to walk around with its protected harbour and old market village with interesting shops. That's Steph all rugged up.

St Ives

In search of the perfect beer

You can stop searching for the perfect beer for I have found it....Hobgoblin, a legendary Ruby Beer...half way between a dark stout and a normal amber beer. See here. It comes in 500 mL and is local to Oxfordshire England. A lovely cherry colour and some real substance in flavour for a change and at 5.2% alcohol it warms you up pretty quickly. I will be buying more! And of course its cheap with the Aussie dollar at the moment.

We hit the road today in search of King Arthur's castle just 6 miles north and then saw a detour which looked interesting. The road made its way down to the sea and was an out of the way cosy little village...actually it was tiny. Looking out over the sandy beach (quite rare in Cornwall due to the mostly cliff sided coast) you can see the mist rolling in from the Atlantic. We headed back up to the main road again.

Then the mist came in rather thick as it did yesterday and this shot was taken mid morning. We were to find out later that just 3 or 4 miles up the road that it was a clear sunny and warm day everywhere else.Yes there are sheep hidden in the shot...you couldn't see much.

The narrow roads with their dry walls were now more difficult to drive on with their blind corners and oncoming surprises.

We had to postpone a place called Tintagel as when we arrived we couldn't see anything ...literally....and given that Arthur's Castle remains are there along with Britains best scenery....we will try again tomorrow. So we continued on to Boscastle which was magic withe the mist as a backdrop.

At the sea end there is a sea wall and an ooutlet to the sea which we saw at low tide. The heavy mist made me think of tall ships and |Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carrebean and I imgained huis ship appearing around the corner. Climbing up the headland gave this view.

The empty harbour walls

See thesmall size of the rocks. Cornwall structures are made from much smaller stone than I have seen elswhere.

Walls of stacked stone around Launceston Castle

Each stone of this chuch was individually carved.

Walks around Pt Issac

A warm day but the sea mist cuts visibility down. This hill is up our back yard and the view is magic.

Public access is excellent to the coast using public access routes, however this property had a sign saying you could basically walk anywhere. The strange thing for me is seeing all this pasture with no animals on it....its a common sight and I don't know why. It doesn't happen back home...we stock our places to the max.

B&B above Pt Isaac....everything here is basically accommodation.

Had to share this one....its the 2 way street through town...and that's me in the Tarago.

Some places you need to watch your mirrors against the homes....and then you meet someone else head on....great fun!