2007 big vacation: Day 4 - Penzance 2007

The thing about going to bed at 9pm is that if you wake up at 5:30 in the morning, it's not that big a deal, sleep-deprivation-wise. I was thrilled to have had my first proper chunk of sleep since leaving San Francisco and celebrated by peering out the kitchen and sitting room windows at the fine views to the east as the dawn light grew. A bit chilly though, so I went back to bed and was coaxed by Joe's example to sleep even more. Ahhh, vacation!

When we really got up, I cooked us a nice breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and tea. We felt frightfully civilized. About 11:30am or so, having dressed for a big walk, we took our bags with camera, water bottles and guidebook, and set out for the day. A pleasant walk through the town - busy in the noontime with local folks shopping and talking in the streets. We stopped in at Millets outdoor supply on the main road, Market Jew Street, to case out the sweater & coat options. Joe decided he was content with what he already had on, so we continued down to our destination: the bus station. Sadly, we found a sign on the transit office "At lunch - back 12:45", so we just wandered round the different stops looking at the destinations & times. Our original plan had been to take a bus to Porthcurno, but we'd missed it and the next wasn't going for quite a while. Having read in the guidebook that the walk between Mousehole (pronounced "mowzl") and Penzance was along a fairly dull path, we were considering taking a bus to Mousehole and walking the other direction, figuring we'd catch a bus back from one of the other towns further down the coast. Conveniently enough as we were debating this plan, the bus to Mousehole pulled up and decided us.

It was a nice 20 minute or so ride which gave us a little tour of the route from Penzance through Newlyn and on to Mousehole with it's insanely narrow streets. So odd to see warning signs not of maximum height but maximum width! And more alarming to be on a bus, even a small shuttle variety, when seeing injunctions against anything wider than 6'6"!

Our walk to the west was lovely, light shifting from behind clouds, temperature cool but pleasant, and the astonishingly beautiful landscape and seascape. The path was a bit more adventurous than we expected, but we managed all right with rests when we (mostly I) got winded. We met mostly people walking their dogs - one of the advantages of off-season travel is the lack of other tourists!

Fortunately the big disadvantage of off-season travel - things being closed - didn't cause us trouble when we reached the next town, Lamorna, after a couple miles of rambling along the cliffs. Set in a gorgeous little cove, we can see how a little place like this could get overrun in the summer, but we had it almost to ourselves apart from half a dozen folks going about their business at the local homes. The Lamorna Cove Cafe was fortunately open and we shared a pasty & chips and a cream tea (two scones, clotted cream, jam) which re-fortified us nicely.

The downside of the transit office lunchbreak timing came home to roost here. Lacking the schedule we would otherwise have obtained, we did not know that probably right as we sat eating during the 2 o'clock hour, the bus back to Penzance was leaving from the Lamorna Wink pub up the hill. There's another bus in the 5 o'clock hour, but the pub's closed between the two times. We figured this all out after scaling the hill road up to the pub and reading the bus stop schedule.

Fortunately, the weather was still okay and we knew we had a couple hours of light left to head back to Penzance, so we just walked on along the road to the T-junction with the road to Porthcurno. There was a chance we could catch another bus on the road which didn't turn down toward Lamorna and sure enough when we got to that bus stop we saw there would be one - but alas not for a couple hours, by which time we could probably already be back in Penzance.

So we just walked along the road, facing oncoming cars to facilitate pressing ourselves into the hedgerow when the occasional one came by. It was fairly easy going and presented more lovely scenery, different from the coast, but also nice. Just as we were growing a bit weary of the road - which had become increasingly busy as we got nearer to sunset - we came to more houses which rapidly coalesced into a town. A turn, a new vista, and a sign confirming we'd reached Newlyn and thus, access to the easy walkway along the seaside.

Though we were quite ready to rest our feet for a bit, we found the Tolcarne Inn was closed, so we headed on along the wide shoreline promenade back into Penzance and to the base of our destination: Chapel Street. Conveniently, en route to the Egyptian House, we had a choice of pubs and stopped into the quaint Admiral Benbow, which feels quite ship-like inside, for refreshment. Joe had a pint of Guinness, I a half-pint of Strongbow cider, and we enjoyed a conversation about food & music with some nice folks. Pub culture is very sociable and you should expect that 9 times out of 10 you'll end up chatting away with strangers. I've been to parties where people made less small talk than the average random group thrown together at a local.

Restored and feet slightly rested we went on up Chapel Street back to Egyptian House, climbed the stairs, and settled in by the gas fire for a relaxing evening. We warmed up leftover Indian food for dinner, which was just exactly right, and enjoyed the pretty little sitting room. Another early-to-bed evening after all our strenous explorations, rounded out by another two chapters of The Twenty-One Balloons and quickly off to sleep.