Local Explore

Saturday Contd.
Out for a walk in the afternoon from the site. It was quite windy with the occasional sprinkle in the air. But it was fine for a multi-cache walk in the dunes and Nature Reserve - looking for number of water-safety flags on a sign and how many miles to Hayle? among the clues - stopping off at the Jampot for a bit of cream tea (haven't had real Cornish cream for years, so we had to try it!). Having solved the Gwithian puzzle, after dinner we felt the urge to look for a similar one on the towans. This is the area of sand dunes where the National Explosive Works used to be - there are still signs of the foundation blocks for the cable-way towers, and some of the geocache clues were hidden in them. We were successful in finding all the clues, but finding the final cache eluded us - well at least for the time being. We plan to go back and try again if we can - it's just that we are not sure if it's at the top of the cliff or down at the foot of the hundreds of steps! We went down, but all our stone turning was to no avail! Oh well, the walk was great with tremendous sea views. We just made it back to the van before nightfall.

Sunday
Right opposite the entrance to the campsite is a small white stone building with a thatched roof. We went to investigate it yesterday - the sign outside said it was Gwithian Methodist Chapel. We went inside to see the familiar old wooden pulpit and pew style, aparently refurbished in 1959, but sadly today just a museum. So the Parish Church next door was where we went to worship this morning. All the visiting Methodists were welcomed(!), but that wasn't aimed at us - there was a whole crowd who were camping at the other campsite, on a Church weekend away (we think from Plymouth) together with 2 dogs that 'sang' along in the hymns! Also right opposite the campsite is the Red River Inn, advertising it's magnificent Sunday Roast - so our salad was shelved till tea-time.
Later drove to Camborne to the East Pool Mine and found out about the tin mining industry and saw one the largest surviving beam engines in the world. Afterwards drove to St. Ives but even at 4 pm the main car park was heaving, so we just glimpsed the town and beaches from the van and came back home.