Cornwall - part 2

In this episode we continue our review of Cornwall, this time with more of a focus on the cultural, covering:

St Ives (Tate and the Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden).

Tremenheere Sculpture gardens

The Minack Theatre

The Eden project

CharlesTown

St Michael's Mount

Tintagel

We also discuss accomodation, Victorian hotels, Fawlty Towers, tiny AirBnBs and where and where not, to wild camp.

Of course, as usual, there are various random reminiscences and tales thrown in.

This episode is brought to you by Chiltern Walks who provide guided walks and walking holidays around the UK. If you'd like to be added to Chiltern Walks mailing list to receive details of our walking holidays please follow this link to join the Chiltern Walks WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/I6e0xptc88z0B27aJlEHNw

If you have a story to share or some feedback to give just contact us at contact.unraveltravel@gmail.com


Our theme music is Traveler's Blues by Jerzy Gorecki from Pixabay (with licence)

https://pixabay.com/users/jerzyg%C3%B3recki-2233926/

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to Unravel Travel, where every journey has a story.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Charles Town, which is just about five or six miles away, which is uh a harbour on the coast which is full of tall ships. You know, the sort of square rigged, you know, master and commander type ships. There's uh there's just a harbour full of them.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

All from a uh you know, all genuine from uh what what would be 200, 300 years ago?

SPEAKER_03 0:43

As genuine as they can be these days. You know, they say it's because you're so close to the sea, there's such good light because there's nothing to get in the way. Oh, it makes sense. Uh and you always think of that when you're down there, it's bright and and light. But actually more so than the St Ives itself, I like the Hepworth museum there. There there is a a s a special Beb Barbara Hepworth museum where she lived and worked, with a sculpture garden, which is excellent, and actually your ticket for one covers uh the other.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Sorry, is it about in St. Ives as well?

SPEAKER_03 1:31

It is, yeah. It's about three hundred yards from the Tate itself, with a with some great sea views slightly further up into town.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Okay, so welcome back. Uh and I thought the next thing I'd do is I'd ask, because I know Malcolm and Petra are both keen art lovers and in fact have produced uh a fair bit of their own art actually. Uh so I thought I'd move on to the arts because Cornwall's quite famous for its arts, and I'm sure uh I hope I'm not throwing you uh a curveball here, Malcolm, but I'm sure you will have uh been to some of the galleries down there and some some of the exhibitions. So we I'd I'd be quite interested in hearing what you recommend down there.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

You throw me a curveball, I'll head it out the park, Dave.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Yeah. Just like you do when you play cricket, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

That's right. We'll save that one for New York. Baseball metaphor. Um yeah, well, I mean that w the last time we went back, actually, that was the the reason for going, or the last two times we took out a Tate membership a few years ago, and there is a as well as the Tate's in London, there's a Tate in Liverpool and a Tate Tate in St Ives. Um and so we thought as we had membership we'd we'd when there was a good exhibition came up, we thought we'd tie that in with a trip. Um and so we've been to the Tate in St Ives a couple of times. It's a quite interesting building. Um and that you know, i it has not probably quite the same level of um prestigious uh exhibitions as they have in London, but they're pretty good. Um they've been good every time at quite a large scale and something quite interesting. Um and as you say, it it's carrying on the the history of art in Centes. It's been uh uh been a centre of art since, I guess, the sort of mid-war between war period. Um when people like Barbara Hepworth and her husband at the time moved down there. You know, they say it's because you're so close to the sea, there's such good light, but because there's nothing to get in the way of the case. Uh and you always think of that when you're down there, it's bright and and light. But actually more so than the St Ives itself. I like the Hepworth museum, but there there is a a s a special Beb Barbara Hepworth museum where she lived and worked, with a a sculpture garden, which is excellent, and actually your ticket for one covers uh the other.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Sorry is that in St. Ives as well.

SPEAKER_03 4:24

It is, yeah. It's about 300 yards from the Tate itself, but with a with some great sea views slightly further up into town. But yeah, it's very nice. Um so there, you know, a a pretty good day's worth of of artiness to do that. There's some good general sculpture parks actually all over um Cornwall. There's a couple on the south.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

I am a fan of sculpture, so I hadn't and I hadn't realised uh that there were there was well, I hadn't realised there was any down there. So yeah, next time I'd go I will definitely be seeking that out.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

There's a great I should have researched it and I can't remember what it's called, but I will look it up for the notes. There's a there's a really interesting sort of sculpture park with natural sculptures, so sort of things made out of moss and hillocks and stuff like that. Um I'm I'm underselling that with my description.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

But but there is uh that I can just go out in my garden and have a look at a very small hillock with moss on it. It's called my lawn.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

I think it's a bit bigger than that.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

The other you know, you know, you know, I've got fields beyond. I've taken the hedges down and just I'm just pretending the fields beyond belong to me now.

SPEAKER_03 5:39

You mean they don't belong to you?

SPEAKER_02 5:41

They probably belong to In my head they do. And the cows are mine as well.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

The other notable um thing of artistic interest at that part of the world is the Minac Theatre. Do you know the Minak Theatre?

SPEAKER_02 5:57

No. I I was looking at your notes and I was thinking, nope, don't know that one. So please enlighten me.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

It's uh it it's on um this it's on a cliff on the south coast. Uh it's uh it's at um Porth Kurno. Just above the beach from Portno.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Unless I'm confusing it with another one. There's one where it's in a cave. It's not in a cave. Is it in a cove?

SPEAKER_03 6:30

Well not really, it's up up above a cliff. So it's it's like a Roman amphitheatre but a small one. And some does ring a lady dug it into her some thespian interested lady dug it into the back end of her garden. And um and so the stage backdrop is the sea, and as you sit in these stone seats looking out at the the stage at the bottom, and then the sea behind, and the stage entrances and and the like go up some sort of little winding paths at the back, so they're sort of half hidden. And they started putting on some sort of amdram things there I'm guessing back in the sixties or something, but by now it's sort of semi professional if not professional. And we saw the Fleeder Mouse there in about twent two thousand and probably twenty years ago now, probably about two thousand and five, when my kids were little. And it it rained, you know, it was and it just go it carries on, you know, they just go on in whatever weather. I mean, I think they're only open across maybe eight months of the of the year, maybe even only six, um, when the weather's reasonable. But it's a fantastic little place, really interesting, quirky. Um yeah, and highly recommend it. Even just to go and see it if you don't go and see a production. Um, you do need to check well in advance though, because the it's it's not a particularly big venue and the tickets are quite in demand.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Yeah, well, it's quite an experience, isn't it? So it's gonna sell out.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

Yeah, you can probably pick up tickets though if it's raining.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Well, yeah, return.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

And then So go on.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Yeah, no, I was gonna say carry on.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

Um uh St. Michael's Mount, I think you've been there, haven't you?

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Uh I've been to the one in France. Oh right Saint Michel. Right. Uh so I I don't know if it's officially its sister, but I presume it they're they're brother and sister type relationship.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

I uh uh uh brother and younger sister, maybe. I mean St. Michael's Mount looks much smaller scale than on Saint Michel. Right, okay. But it's the s exactly the same idea. Uh Causeway um it's got a nice house and gardens, it's National Trust owned. Um but it yeah, it's very nice. Um and and it's n it's nice when you do that sort of thing. When you reach it, you know, you you walk out there and get the boat back, or you get the boat out there and walk back, that sort of thing. Um the the boats run from the the closest point on the side.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

Can you not drive uh uh and can you drive along the causeway? Okay it's it's walking because I th my recollection of Mont Saint-Michel was that we did drive. Yeah, I think that's right. So as you say, it's on a bigger scale.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

I think I've seen St. Michael's Mount, but only from the shore. So not really, but I thought oh yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

I think you can see it from all the way around at Mausel, to be honest. Um it's there, so yeah, chance to sign up. Um so I would think you probably can Mar uh Marision, Marzion, um, we're gonna again get that pronunciation nailed um is the place of it. Yeah, uh that's in the Penzance Bay.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

So uh we've we've done quite a lot that's outside stuff, so I thought it might just be worth uh mentioning the Eden project, um, which is obviously something where you can be indoors if it's bad weather. Uh I first went there because I think it was part of the it was it opened for the millennium? Uh so the year 2000 millennium project, wasn't it? It was about yeah, I can't remember whether they opened it after it or they opened it for it, but basically I was there within the first year uh and I've not been back since. Uh and there was so much of it that had just been planted and was going to get so much better over the coming decades, and yet I still loved it. It it was just amazing. So it's somewhere I've always in fact I'm not sure. Well, yeah, somewhere I've always wanted to go back and see what it looks like now. I I believe it's got the world's largest indoor rainforest, uh, which is pretty impressive.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

Somewhere in Singapore that's got a bigger one now, I should think. They've got all these big biodomes in Singapore, haven't they? But um yes, it it certainly at the time it was, wasn't it? Uh very impressive built into those quarries. I've been there as well, and I probably went within a year of it opening. Well, maybe 18 months. Joe was tiny.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

So yeah, similar for us. Uh so yeah, definitely a place I plan to go back, and obviously that's a nice indoor thing to do if it is raining, although not that I've overly suffered other than that last day of my three-day hike along the coastal path with rain.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

Yeah, the outdoor part of it's quite interesting as well, though, isn't it? It's a bigger area, it's not just the domes, there's that there's that bigger area outside.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

Well, that was the bit that really wasn't planted out when I was there. Though there wasn't very much to see outside at all, um, which is why I'd like to go back, because I think that I'm sure it's going to be amazing.

SPEAKER_03 11:37

Uh and when you're if you're going to visit a really good pairing uh I found is if you're going to visit uh the Eden Project, um, is to go to Charles Town, which is just about five or six miles away, which is uh a harbour on the coast which is full of tall ships. You know, the sort of square rigged, you know, mastering commander type ships. There's uh there's just a harbour full of them.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

All from a uh you know, all genuine from uh what what would it be, 200, 300 years ago?

SPEAKER_03 12:14

As genuine as they can be these days. Uh I mean a lot of restored, yes.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

Yeah, I mean they're not modern replicas, is I guess is what I'm asking.

SPEAKER_03 12:23

I think so, or modern built to look like old ones. It's where most of the ships use for uh film recreations of things like Masters. I've not heard of that place. Um and you can go on and look around them and there's a museum of Cornish shipbuilding and stuff. That's a very interesting place. Um yeah, so that's that's well worth a look. I mean again, many of these things are things you can do with kids.

SPEAKER_04 12:52

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Uh that brings us back to the uh the theme park at Land's End. It does, yeah. Not that I think it was a theme park, it just felt that way.

SPEAKER_03 13:03

And Stu, of course, was saying they did some canoeing around the coast, and you do see people, you know, out in little boats and and canoeing and the like. What was it called?

SPEAKER_02 13:12

Well, and surfing is a big thing down there, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 13:15

Surfing, of course. Yeah, on the north coast. You ever tried surfing particular? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

Yeah, and how'd you get on?

SPEAKER_03 13:24

Um in England or something. How did I get on?

SPEAKER_02 13:27

By jumping up out of the waves. Yeah, you see, that was my problem. I couldn't manage that bit. I could just imagine the surfboard.

SPEAKER_03 13:34

I couldn't either.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Lying down seemed to be my favoured position.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

Yeah, I I I I really struggled with it. Uh so in fact I did I didn't do it in court. I've been boogie boarding or whatever, but um I tried that. I tried it South Africa and it and I got nowhere.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Yeah, I was Sri Lanka and I got to the same place as you.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Yes, so the less said about um about that, unless you're gonna spend a lot of time there, the better. But it is great to watch. Even in St. Ives, in fact, if you do if you had a windy day on the therapeutic, isn't it? Yeah, it's great to watch. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

I I remember well, okay, it wasn't Cornwall. It might have been India, but it could have been Sri Lanka. I think it was India though, just sitting at a cafe just watching people surf, it was brilliant. Yeah. Sun coming down. Yeah, very nice.

SPEAKER_03 14:24

So we took it takes a long time to get to Cornwall. You don't exactly do it on a day trip. Where have you stayed when you've been down there, Dave?

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Well, when it was Padstow, it was uh a couple of B's, and when it was hiking, we wild camped uh without the landowner's permission. But it was as I said before, it was December. We were walking the southwest coastal path. We basically pitched our tent about 20 minutes before the sun set, uh more or less on the path. Uh so and we were up before anybody was up walking it, so and we took obviously took all our rubbish and everything with us. Uh so uh we we we did it in the right way, in that nobody knew we were there and nobody knew we were there afterwards. But yeah, so that that that that was me. Whereabouts have you stayed?

SPEAKER_03 15:11

Well, I I've stayed well for work I stayed in this interesting, quirky, faulty towers type hotel in uh in Penzance. I I've stayed at a big hotel uh with the family uh at Lizard Point. There's a massive sort of granite hotel which must have been built in Victorian era right on Lizard Point. And I stayed there. That was again a sort of interesting experience, those sort of big old hotels. Uh uh a bit of a harking back to days gone by, but normally just uh an Airbnb somewhere. Uh I mean it's a of course it's a b it's become a a hot potato in Cornwall, accommodation like that, pushing out the locals, and you wander around St Ives and every other house has got a key lock by the front door.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yeah. And actually when I when I was in St Ives in between Christmas and New Year, it was kind of dead. Obviously, New Year itself, it got very busy, but even just a couple of days before it, and it you know, it it feels like it's ripped the heart out of the city.

SPEAKER_03 16:18

Although it's like seaside towns are all like that, aren't they? I mean, they're all like that.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

Yeah, they're probably yeah, they've probably always been like that. That you know, they've always been like that before it was Airbnb.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

My grandparents lived in Bridlington, so we used to go there all the time in season and out season, and it's totally different between one side, and that's before you know the rise of Airbnbs. They're just different. Um I mean it does make it worse and worse and it pushes up the house prices for sure. I I understand that. Um and we one of the reasons we wouldn't want to go in the summer is we like staying in places like that because we like to cook ourselves a bit as well as eating out, and you can't do that in a hotel or a B. So that's why we go out of season usually and midweek usually. But we we stayed at one very very memorable place in St Ives, which was an old fisherman's lock up. So so it was like uh it was like a garage. I mean it was like the fifty paces from the harbour, you know, it was a it was uh so fishermen have a lock up like a garage where they can roll all the equipment in and out and get their push their boat down.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Keep their nets and collosses and all that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 17:31

So it wasn't much bigger than a garage, but it had been converted into an Airbnb. And you couldn't drive to it because it was there were just the rows of them, and um, you know, you had to walk down some sort of passages to get there. No parking, you parked in public car parks. But it was a really strange sort of place with a sort of tiny kitchen and a sort of mezzanine bed built in above the sofa and all all the furniture built in and uh really quirky, quirky, quirky little thing.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

You know, you you're rolling out of the purple restaurant and you you're you're at home, which is something to be said for it, rather than having to worry about taxes back to your place or you know, a long walk.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

Absolutely. The and the first place we stayed when we went down there to do like this was um halfway between Penzance and St Ives, and we didn't want to have which was uh a a sort of more conventional B a room in somebody's house, you know, and we 'cause we didn't want to have to drive and park in St Ives. You know, somebody helpfully gave us a lift in and we got a taxi back. Um that was actually very close to Alistair Crowley's, the occultist's house. Um they were pointing out as we drove in. They were saying you don't want to go there after dark, mate. Very strange.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

As far as I'm aware, he's dead now, isn't he? He is.

SPEAKER_03 18:53

But you know, mate, is he dead?

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Yeah, because that was his thing, wasn't it? Sort of communing with the dead. I think that was his big thing. So yeah, maybe he's not. So yeah, I mean So other than staying in Al Alistair Crowley's house, uh That's right, yeah. Did you get invited round for dinner? That'd be nice.

SPEAKER_03 19:12

Yeah, I like St Ives and I I'd pop that's my preferred place to stay, but like I say, you do feel a little bit guilty about it. And the the most of the cars you see well, the cars are sort of blocking up the street are people cleaning Airbnbs, cleaning company vans. Yeah, like I say, if you go down in the in the height of summer, um it's a bit of a challenge to park. Definitely a park and ride is a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

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SPEAKER_03 20:13

Okay, well that was all good. I think we missed a few things though on the list, Dave. Did we? Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

I think it's your list because I think you've done a very good uh comprehensive uh list of stuff to cover here.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

We jumped around a little bit, um, but there was a couple of things I wanted to mention back to a particular walk. I've done this walk a couple of times from Penbirth, which is a lovely little cove on the south coast of the very end peninsula, round to Perth Kerno, which has got a very nice beach, and it's a lovely clifftop walk. Uh, and it has the museum at uh Porth Kerno for the transatlantic cables, communications cables.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

There's a museum for cables.

SPEAKER_03 20:57

Yeah, there is transatlantic cable the walk sounds lovely, I'm not sure about the museum. Uh and it's it's you know it's about Marconi and stuff like that. So um so that's quite interesting. Um and it's a nice, lovely little spot. And actually, I think there's a bus route to at least one end of it. I mean it's not a circular walk, we walked it and then walked back both times. But it's a sort of walk I think, you know, that that part of the world I think you can do quite a lot of the walks without cars. We talk about this because parking can be a nightmare down there. That's parts of the world not really designed for uh for cars and the parking is very restrictive at the sort of places you want to walk to and from.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Um Yeah, and some of the lanes are quite uh tough driving along as well. High hedges I seem to remember. Yes and narrow lanes.

SPEAKER_03 21:49

High hedges, narrow lanes, tractors, um and then some loony pulling a caravan. Uh yes. Uh sorry about that. Which they can't carefully negotiate around the spaces. So, you know, public transport's a very good idea um just to try and get get around that. And I looked up the name of the sculpture garden that I mentioned uh uh but now I don't really want to pronounce it.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Give it a go, go on, we won't laugh.

SPEAKER_03 22:23

I think it's the tremanier sculpture gardens. But there's there's many more E's in there than I used in my pronunciation.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

I'm I'm sure you did it proud.

SPEAKER_03 22:33

Yeah, I hope so. Uh it's well worth a look anyway. We talked about uh the A thirty a number of times, um that route in, and you've said it's you said it was a little bit strange looking. You I think you're referring to like the slag heaps, are you, from the mining?

SPEAKER_02 22:48

I don't remember saying it was strange looking, did I?

SPEAKER_03 22:52

Oh, well well, you know, you y there's these big cones, aren't there, sort of white? Almost like they look like pyramids almost? No. Don't remember asleep at the wheel. Uh the I mean the the thing that Cornwall's famous for now in industrial terms is China clay mining.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

Yes, that I had heard.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

Yeah, and so these are the spoil heaps from the mining. Um, you know, they set send them up a conveyor belt and it all falls down into a cone shape, and you've got these big white cones visible from the A thirty. Go on. No, I just I honestly don't remember seeing those. I'm wondering, is there another way into Corbell? Well, I mean, maybe if you've come down the north coast road, that might be slightly different, but that that if you go down this little mains.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

I tended to go padstown and sort of like got off earlier. Okay. And so maybe I did go that way, I can't remember.

SPEAKER_03 23:47

So maybe you have missed, and then I always think it looks moonscape-like as you come down that bit, and and of course, that's a lot of what they're exporting from these commercial harbours. And I think what they used to export from Charlestown, where I was saying with the tall ships were because it's it's around that sort of Toro area, just a little bit north of that. Probably when you went to um the Eden project, you might have seen those.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Yeah, we went down from Padstow, we were staying in Padstow at the time.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

So I'd uh a long time ago, so I don't really remember which route we took, other than it was very much cross-country.

SPEAKER_03 24:22

And um of course the olden Cornish mining was all about tin and copper, arsenic as well, I think. And yeah, you see all those old mine workings, don't you? You know, the the the steam towers they were using for for raising and lowering cages out of the mines, I think. You see these sort of rugged old stone tower type buildings on the cliffs, no? Yes. A long time ago since I was last in Cornwall. Okay. But they're quite iconic, um, nice waypoints on a walk. And then I was gonna mention some things that were I think you've been to the you've been to Tintagel, haven't you? Or you've walked close by it?

SPEAKER_02 25:00

Yeah, walking around there. Just I c I can't remember exactly where we started, but I think we spent oh Boss is there a place called Boss Castle? It's ringing a bell.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

Sounds possible.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

I think I think Boss Castle is where we actually wild camp. So we made this decision to sort of like camp on the path. It was just off the path. On the on one side was uh the Atlantic, uh, and on the other side uh was the the the estuary that goes into Boss Castle, if indeed it is Boss Castle, uh and we thought, oh, won't it be a lovely place to pitch our tent up here on this ridge? And we found a little hollow that was maybe half a metre, a metre below the peak. Pitched our tent, went into town, had dinner, uh hiked back up to our little ledge, and of course it's blowing a gale by that point.

SPEAKER_03 25:50

Was your tent still there?

SPEAKER_02 25:52

Tent was still there because it was uh a decent tent. And remember getting into the tent and the the the bot top of the tent is banging on my head. I'm thinking I'm not gonna get much sleep here tonight. It was that windy. Next thing I know, it's sort of seven in the morning and I'd slept all the way through the night. But yeah. No, note to uh note to audience members, think about where you're pitching your tent. Just because it's a lovely location when you pitch it doesn't mean it's gonna stay like that all night long.

SPEAKER_03 26:22

Yeah. I knew somebody who went to the Gower Peninsula on a family holiday. They told me before they weren't they didn't really enjoy camping, and uh they were camping on a campsite on a some peninsula and uh uh with three children, and in the night the wind got so strong it blew the tent down, blew it away.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Oh my word. Just whipped it, but they weren't in it at the time.

SPEAKER_03 26:45

They were it ripped it to shreds. Um I don't think it was a sort of tent suitable for that sort of camping and weather, obviously, and then spent the rest of the night in the car. And he said I'm never going camping ever again.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

Yeah, well, yeah. If you had that experience, I'm not surprised. Uh I've just had a quick look at the map, and it was Boss Castle, and my suggestion oh yeah, and Tintagel's just down the coast. So I did walk past Tin Tadgel and Tintageel Castle. So I think we've started just north along the coast of Boss Castle, and I think we might have ended in uh Port Isaac was where we spent the last day, which is where we when it was raining. We actually camped on a I think it was almost like a roundabout, but there was a hedge, so we could put the tent behind the hedge, and it was right next to the pub, so it was completely ideal. Yeah, I know. But it was you know, there weren't many places to camp, and we were in the middle of the St. Isaac, so uh it was it was just discreet, nobody knew we were there, which was good.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

I'd like to go to um Tintagel sometime, but it's all sort of in theory mythical links to um King Arthur, doesn't it? But I think that would have made a better one. That sounds like century, I think.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

That sounds like an oxymoron. It's sort of in theory mythical.

SPEAKER_03 28:03

Well, that's what they sit together. People say that it is, but I think it's one of those, you know, it's something that was a good thing. Well, if it's a myth, it's anything can have anything can be true, can't it? Yeah, yeah, that's true. That's true. Or not true is the fact that I think.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

I've just got back from I've just got back from doing uh a walking holiday this weekend in Cheddar, uh, and there was King Arthur's sword setting a stone in the river there. So I think everywhere down that region is making some kind of claim to King Arthur. Glastonbury Tor. Exactly. Yeah, I could see that as well. And we were up on top of Cheddar Gorge.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

Yeah, and actually um you know I often stop at Glastonbury on the way down or on the way back from Cornwall. It's uh I like to it's some interesting.

SPEAKER_02 28:41

A nicer route going cross country.

SPEAKER_03 28:43

Yeah, it takes a bit longer, doesn't it? It well, it depends on the traffic. Depends on the traffic on the M5, actually, yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

Exactly, yeah. But yeah, you know, it yes, it does take longer, but as I said to my mate, when we picked that route, I gave him a choice. Do you want to be crawling and stop, start, stop, start, or I could take you cross country and I can more or less guarantee we'll be doing no more than 30, but at least we'll be moving. And we went with the that we'll be moving, and it was very nice. We went through Glastonbury, uh Wells, then Bath, and then finally hit the uh the M4 just north of Bath. It was a lovely journey home.

SPEAKER_03 29:17

Well, from where we are, of course, we drive down that way. It's all cross country, you drive down to cross country to Sirencester and stuff, so it's nice. All good. Right.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

So you'd like to add that we've missed out?

SPEAKER_03 29:28

I I don't think so. I think that's sort of uh Cornwall wrapped up. Um we'll do these around the UK things occasionally, I guess. While we're in the West Country, we might do we might even do Bath, Bristol, Glastonbury, Wells, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

Well, I've just I've just got back from doing Cheddar and Wells. Uh very, very pretty, some lovely restaurants. Uh I've stayed in Bath before. Uh so yeah, we could do sort of a a Mendips sort of area, mendips and surrounding areas.

SPEAKER_03 29:58

Yeah, where does the Mendips end and the Cotswolds start then?

SPEAKER_02 30:01

About Bath, I would have thought. Yeah, Baths and the Cotswolds. Cotswolds go all the way down to Bath. I'm not sure the Mendips go all the way up. I don't think the Mendips go all the way up, but it's not far. We're virtually at the end of this episode, but I'm gonna just ask you one last question. Um, because we both said we haven't been there in the summer. What's been your best time of year would you recommend people to visit Cornwall? Uh obviously that so many people listen to this and that it's gonna ruin it for everybody when we all go down at that time of year, but when would you recommend?

SPEAKER_03 30:33

That's right, because everybody hangs off our every word. Um Exactly. I think I have been there in the summer once when I went down for work actually, but um but normally for my own personal visits um outside summer, I would say a s a sort of sunny autumnal trip.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

September.

SPEAKER_03 30:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

The the grey, the grey summer, isn't it? I I'm I'm not doing as many of my walking holidays now, but uh I I would do most of them during the summer, uh, and that's when I got the big numbers, and then I would do a one or two in September. Uh, and you get fewer people because most people have turned off thinking about holidays or whatever, but invariably the weather I would get in September would be brilliant, and you you don't have to worry about the parking, everything's quieter, hotels are cheaper, cheaper. September is a great month to be going away in the UK.

SPEAKER_03 31:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

Especially to somewhere like Cornwall, which as we said earlier has its own microclimate and and can ends up being warmer for longer uh parts of the year.

SPEAKER_03 31:34

Yep, totally. That's what I'd say. Best time to go. Midweek if you can manage it.

SPEAKER_02 31:39

Well, totally. Uh or although it'd take you all weekend to get there. No, maybe not in September. Um, so maybe maybe on that top tip and yeah, again, talking about the travel and how long it takes to get to Cornwall, uh, we should we can uh wrap things up for this episode.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

If you're going to Cornwall, there's about 20 episodes to listen to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

Just those ones that you didn't get around to. You can listen to them two or three times. Okay, well, thank you very much for that, Malcolm, for finding out several things that I didn't know about Cornwall.

SPEAKER_04 32:15

Good.

SPEAKER_02 32:15

Um, I I haven't uh I I would quite like to get um my partner Izzy involved and just uh you know you can talk to us about what we did when we were in Bali and what I did when I was in Bali and Gilly T. Yeah uh exactly uh we've we liked it so much we've actually already booked our flights back for next Easter. Uh so I don't know if that'll be the next episode, but that's definitely one coming up. Uh we've got your and Petra's trip to New York, keen to find out what you got up to there. I know there was some gin involved, but other than that, I'm more or less in the dark. And then we keep teasing it. So at some point, I think we need to get your brother back on and talk about his K2 uh expedition.

SPEAKER_03 33:02

Yeah, at some point.

SPEAKER_02 33:03

I was actually at dinner with him last week and I said, I don't want you to tell me now because I want to hear it on the episode for the first time. So it might be one of those three things, or it could be something completely different.

SPEAKER_03 33:12

I think I think it'll be um barley and the and the US, won't it, as the next couple, I think. Right, cool. That sounds good. Thank you for that, Dave.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

And thank you, Malcolm. Thank you, everybody, for listening.

SPEAKER_03 33:24

Beat you all soon.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

Bye bye.