Gavin's Adventures on the Mystical Island of Britain -- Part 5

A list of the adventures.

In Cornwall -- Penzance, Land's End, and Sennen Cove

The next day found me wandering Cornwall in the rain. Hoping to find some refuge, I drove my wagon into Penzance, where I stopped by the ocean. Even though the tide was out, the harbour was amazing, far larger than any I had seen before. I could see around the bay and saw there were many other towns with their own harbours. As I walked along the shore past the harbour, I came across a tourist information centre. Here I was sure I could get the Ordnance Survey Maps of the area. Armed with these, I felt sure my adventures in Cornwall would be rewarded with many great finds.

When I left Penzance, I followed the main road, figuring that it must lead somewhere. After a while, the signs starting talking about "Land's End". I had heard of Land's End, the point at the very end of England, that magical place where England meets the sea. I followed the road to Land's End, and was amazed to find it another Walding place, a sort of amusement park, with rides and games. Though I had no money to try the rides, I wandered among old beached ships, which have signs relating their interesting histories. I crossed a rickety suspension bridge over a tiny arm of the sea. After I had crossed, I found a sign which, to my amazement, told me that no fewer than three ships had been wrecked there, washed ashore in that tiny gully. Given the weather when I was there, I could certainly understand it!

As I left Land's End, I found a place called the Minack Theatre, cut right into the edge of a cliff. The audience sits on the cliff, looking down on the stage, extending out over the sea. There were no plays on, and I saw no other Waldings there, but the place was certainly very impressive.

After that, it was starting to get dark, and I started looking for a roof to cover my head while the skies drained themselves overnight. After knocking on several doors, and finding that the locals were very friendly, but had no spare rooms, I was directed to a road which led down the side of a hill to a beautiful beach on Whitesands Bay. On the edge of the bay was a little fishing village called Sennen Cove. It is basically a street along the edge of the bay, with houses on one side and the sea on the other. At the end of the street, I found a place to stay at the Old Success Inn. There was only the one inn, and they had no Coca-Cola, to my disappointment. A strange thing for an inn not to have. I found when I looked at the maps I could probably get to Land's End faster walking along the coast, than I could by horse on the roads.

From Sennen Cove I walked the cliffs, and scrambled up to check out gun emplacements, left there from the last war. There were snails everywhere crawling around the cliff, but they displayed no animosity towards me. I, in turn, tried not to crush too many of them with my boots.

I found a life station built into the cliff, and a beautiful view down a gorge. I looked for a standing stone that was said to be in the area, but was not sure if I had found it or not. I would try again the next day.

Here's a picture of the Minack Theatre.

- The previous adventure: Castles and hut circles on Dartmoor.
- The next adventure: St. Michael's Mount, a castle on an island.
- Return to Grannus' circle.
- Go back to the front gate.
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