Holiday: Devon and Cornwall – Day 12/15:

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Greetings, reader! It’s day 12 of our 15-day break here in the south-west. It’s also our last full day here at The Piggery (courtesy of AirBnB.) on the Lizard Peninsular.

10.09am: Just a couple of quickies today: National Trust’s Godolphin and Praa Sands Beach (famous for surfing dudes).

Godolphin (National Trust)

It didn’t turn out like this!

The estate was once owned by the influential Cornish family – the Godolphins over many generations. In the mid-17th century, the House, in keeping with their growing wealth and status, was the largest and most fashionable in Cornwall. The family acquired their wealth from the surrounding mineral-rich land (tin and copper). In the early 1600s, the family pioneered new tin-mining technologies improving the yield and productivity of their mining process. So, more wealth and less effort meant later generations of the family would move into an easier job – politics!

10.31am: Godolphin was just a ten-minute drive away and already the weather was contra-forecast! It had turned very grey, the temperature was down to 15℃ (rather than the predicted 17℃) and it looked like it might rain!

At the time of writing, the House itself is only open on the first Saturday to Thursday of each month, 10:30am-5pm – so it was closed today. Still, there was the garden, farm buildings, estate and tea-room to explore, and I’ve got a lot of experience in the latter!

Maybe it was the dull weather, but it all looked a bit unloved (or, ‘au-naturel’, if you prefer). The exterior of the House was quite attractive, but the surrounding farm buildings looked very bare (apart from a solitary plastic cow). I know the NT does occasionally leave some of their properties ‘frozen in time’ – but here, it just looked forgotten about!

At least the gardens looked colourful…

10.59am: Yes, a real disappointment in my book, and perhaps one for NT ‘completists’ only. Next stop, the beach at Praa Sands, just under 4 miles away. By now the weather was on the turn – and not for the better! ☔☔ For only the second time this holiday, the wipers squeaked into the life and stayed that way for the whole journey.

There are a few walks to do here, and we had planned to take the ‘purple route, but the weather suggested otherwise!

Praa Sands Beach

11.10am: Given the weather, this was really more of a short photo-call as the area is renowned for its beautiful beach (Isn’t that everywhere round here? – Ed)

But first we had to find the car park. There seems to be quite a few to choose from, but I guess ‘beach car park’ offered a clue! We ignored that one and went a bit further only to find that I needed to u-turn a short while later and back-track.

Success! We parked in the correct car-park after being directed by a very assertive car park attendant. In fact, there were TWO of them waving and pointing – perhaps a little over-manned for the total of the five cars here!

No idea what’s going on here!

Weather-wise, this surely wasn’t the time for taking shots of the beach (was it?), as the rain and the mist made it all look and feel very unattractive. Still, we soldiered on, passing a massive construction covered in scaffolding next to the steps to the beach (lovely!). No idea what was going on underneath all that metalwork, but a closer look revealed that the lower part of the building was made of traditional stone (so it wasn’t a NEW construction).

…and as we got down to the beach, we saw the famous view that appears in many publications about this area. Even in the famous Cornish ‘mizzle’, it didn’t look too bad at all – but it most definitely wasn’t sunbathing weather! The flag was flying for no swimming, but there were a couple of courageous surf-boarders taking on the elements.

There’s a famous memorial here to the Flying Boat that was ditched here in WW2, but the visibility was so poor, we weren’t able to pinpoint exactly where it was.

Time to retreat back to the car and return to The Piggery.

Note for dog lovers: As you may know, dogs are very popular down here, and interestingly, there’s a ‘no Fido on the beach at all’ policy here at certain times of the year. Worth checking, if you’re thinking of bringing your furry friend!

11.43am: Well, I think that’s a record (even for us!) – two locations and back to base inside two hours. For probably the only time during this break, we were pleased to back inside.

Another lazy afternoon (the weather didn’t really improve much), but at least we had more time to pack for moving on tomorrow.


Tomorrow: We check out after breakfast and head for Dartmoor and the Mill End Hotel in Chagford. It’s the final leg of our holiday and we’re spending three nights there.

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