Moor Today

Today was Cornwall. More idyllic scenery. More driving. More shopping. More narrow lanes and quaint villages. And another moor.

Our first stop was Padstow, on the Cornish coastline. It was teeming with tourists, drawn out by the perfect summer weather and the prospect of a day by the sea. Some cynical folks, I'm told, call it "Padstein" as seafood chef Rick Stein has done well down here and owns a lot of the town.

This is me OUTSIDE his famous restaurant here. Given the combination of Woodsie not liking fish and me not liking Rick's prices, I did not venture INSIDE.


His patisserie was not my speed, but I had just enjoyed a Cornish ice cream so was full when I wandered past this part of his empire.


Padstow was a fishing village originally. It had some delightful sights towards the water, but being part of the estuary, when the tide was out it was funny to see various small craft not afloat, but stuck firmly in slushy mud.










It had many narrow streets and delivery vehicles drove slowly, as tourists wandered to one side to allow them to pass. Look at the colourful flower boxes outside this house, down near the harbour. The stone front door step is right on the edge of the road, shown by the double yellow 'no parking' lines there.



As we approached Padstow, I woke up from my snooze in the car, lulled by the warm sunshine and my general tiredness after this long 'Holiday'. Woodsie, who has done all the driving, wryly asked me, "How you going? Everything not too strenuous for you?"


Next to tried to visit Port Issac. But the popularity of this sleepy Cornish fishing village has soared since used as the location for fictional Portwenn in the T.V. series DOC MARTIN. The streets were indeed steep and available car parks a long way from the village centre.

So we drove on. We ended up having lunch in a delightfully named pub in Delabole.




Delabole is the site for the first wind farm in the U.K. which was set up in November 1991. Slate has been quarried here for six hundred years, hence the pub's name. Did you know a BETTLE is the large wooden mallet struck against a chisel to split slate? (Me neither!)

Next we headed across Bodmin Moor to Jamaica Inn, made famous in the Daphne Du Maurier novel. The Smuggler Museum there is of some interest.




The above horse shoe shape, attached to a long pole, was used by the SHUFFLER. His job was to follow behind the smugglers, removing all traces of their footsteps with a tree branch, then using the SHUFFLER'S IRON to create a false trail of hoof prints ... leading the wrong way

The museum emphasises that smuggling is not an activity of the past and presents a variety of displays showing methods of modern day smugglers.

A ten minute film at the end of the museum explains that the severe taxes on imported goods, poverty, plus unemployment of sailors after the Napoleonic Wars all combined to make smuggling a read local industry. Whole villages depended on the income it provided. When the taxes were lowered, smuggling was no longer profitable as goods could be bought legitimately for the same price.

We had to have a drink in the Jamaica Inn. I ordered a rum and coke; Captain Morgan. Sounded like the name of a smuggler, I thought.







The bar had an usual feature. Bank notes from around the world where nailed into the beams and posts.




Stopping at the supermarket at Okehampton on the way home, we saw another usual feature. At the entrance is this machine.



You scan your credit or debit card and one of the little sections light up.



It is a hand held scanner. You scan and pack your groceries as you go. Once you arrive at the checkout, the scanner gives the total you owe, so you can pay and go.

Back where we are staying, we went for a walk in the gardens. On the first floor, that is our bathroom widow to the left, with the second and third windows belonging to our bedroom.




The gardens feature lawn, garden beds, a creek, pond and even a summer house. They have a vegetable garden, chickens and orchard. But it runs further back, through three five-bar gates, into more wild meadows and woods.










Owners Ken and Sue told me that the B.B.C. has been there filming the badgers that flourish on their land. We saw a squirrel outside the breakfast room window one morning. Sue said they had six baby squirrels at one point.

Our stay at Frog Mill bed and breakfast has been an absolute delight. It is a thatched building, which was formerly two cottages, now joined into one extremely comfortable home in an idyllic, quiet, relaxing setting. Ken and Sue have been the most amenable, helpful, charming and friendly hosts.










Tomorrow we drive to busy, noisy, bustling London, our last stay in this amazing ten week journey.