Whitsand Bay

Wednesday

Took the van out for a drive today - first to Camborne Tescos for fuel and some supplies, then to St. Erth, a village just south of Hayle. We had hurtled through St. Erth on the bus and had noted that there were two parking areas either side of the river bridge, so that is where we were to start our walk. We arrived at about 12.30 and strangely so did lots of others. Fortunately we had bagged our space before more and more cars kept on coming - some parking beside the road too. Then the bells started ringing .... yes, we had stumbled on a wedding about to begin! We started putting our picnic lunch together and another car came and squeezed in beside us - the photographer had arrived. The bride followed at 1.10 - and we set off on our geo-walk. The River Hayle is very pretty, with remarkably clear water and bordered by lots of different plants and trees. The sun got hotter and hotter as the afternoon wore on, so we took it all fairly leisurely, finding 9 caches out of a longer walk of 15. Some were traditional small boxes, but some very clever and even Aqua Caches(!) The first of these watery ones was attached to a fine length of fishing line and tied to a bridge - so you hauled it up out of the water. The next one we accepted a DNF (did not find), because you had no choice but to wade in and get it - we weren't that desperate! When we got back to the car park, the wedding party had long since gone, so we finished off the afternoon with a final cache called 'Tombstones' finding various dates in the churchyard to lead us to the final.





Thursday

We said goodbye to Gwithian Farm this morning and set off towards our next campsite. But to arrive there would come later - first, we drove to The Lost Gardens of Heligan, near St. Austell.

What a wonderful place - here's a bit of history from the leaflet: Heligan, seat of the Tremayne family for over 400 years, is one of the most mysterious estates in England. Between 1770 and 1914, four generations created an almost self sufficient community - at work or at leisure - in its thousand acres. Gradual decline set in following the departure of the last resident squire in the 1920s. By 1990 the old working buildings and glasshouses had become totally derelict and dense overgrowth smothered the whole garden. The Great Storm of that year utterly devastaged the site, as though finally to consign The Lost Gardens of Heligan to history. Then events conspired to unite new pioneers with an unstoppable energy and passion to re-awaken this "Sleeping Beauty".

We found it quite amazing to see how the gardens have been restored, growing similar plants to those that were lost and re-building the glasshouse frames just as they used to be. We walked all through the Jungle down the steep valley, up to Hide Park Corner to visit the Wildlife project, through the New Zealand garden, in the walled Flower Garden with apricots, lemons and vines growing in the glasshouses, through the vegetable garden and around the Ravine. It was quite busy today but there is also so much open space with beautiful views to the sea - and numerous benches to rest-a-while. We bought a couple of plants to bring home and then set off on the
rest of our journey.





At 5ish we arrived at Whitsand Bay Holiday Park. Quite an 'interesting' road for the last couple of miles along the winding cliff top! We were soon settled on our pitch among the remains of gun batteries of an old fort. Spectacular views down to the sea, along the coast to Rame Head and back right across to Plymouth and the Sound. Phoned Carolyn to let her know we had arrived - looking forward to seeing all the Kings when they get to Saltash tomorrow. Lets hope this lovely weather continues till Saturday .....