Martha and I headed on down to Cornwall on the Motorway, it was a relatively trouble free run and the countryside was beautiful. It is about 275 miles from Oxford to Lands End but we were headed for Newquay which was a bit closer as we were meeting up with Jan (see woman with monkeys on her head in Bali). Jan was staying with her nephew Paul and was also taking her grandson Darius with her to have some quality time with uncle Paul. Martha and I stayed at the Tir Chonaill Bed and Breakfast pretty much in the township of Newquay. Like most Cornish seaside towns, which are built into the crevices of the Cornish coastline, Newquay was pretty much a bun fight when it came to driving into the township to find a feed but it was not impossible to navigate although we do have a tale to tell about Jan and her navigational abilities but more of that later. Newquay is quite big really so it has all you need plus the usual seaside town essentials like penny arcades (probably called pound arcades these days) lots of fish and chips and yukky food, seagulls and even a resident harbour seal. He, or she was gorgeous and Jan said we were not allowed to leave until we had seen Newquay harbour and I am glad she bullied us. The Harbour was quite crowded with people and it was interesting but the seal was my favourite.

We didn't actually see the seal until the last day, the first day after our drive we went to Fistral Beach which Jan said was very famous but I said I hadn't heard of it. Apparently they have surfing competitions there but since I am not into surfing it comes as no surprise that I remain ignorant of its notoriety. It was a nice big bay and the waves were quite fierce, no sign of surfers on that evening. Martha and Darius mooched around on the rocks whilst Jan and I went to the supermarket for some essential supplies such as chocolate. While we were gone Martha lost her footing and fell face first into a rock pool, no photo evidence but apparently Darius couldn't stop laughing, nice boy. The second picture is of a house which is built on an island and accessed by a bridge from the mainland, the gap is not that wide but the concept of building a house on this lump of rock just off the mainland is amazing.

The next day Jan picked us up and we three headed off to Boscastle and Tintagel. When I go to places I have a main priority, a secondary priority and a few other things on my wish list of things to see. Tintagel, Boscastle and, of course, Lands End were my main ones for Cornwall and we saw all those and some extras so Hazel is happy.

Boscastle is another quaint Cornish Village nestled in a crevice of the coastline and it was very well organised with parking signs easy to follow and a very well kept parking area so we did not suffer any confusion upon arrival. Boscastle has lots of gift shops and food places for the weary tourist looking for a place to leave some money, all reasonably priced though so no complaints from me. The town is lovely, it suffered a huge flood last year but the damage has been repaired and it is business as usual. The harbour is small and nondescript but the town hosts the Witches Museum which was well worth a visit. There was ample broom parking outside and also a Royal Enfield motor bike I know some of you will be interested in and it was sign written as belonging to the witches museum so it must be acceptable transport for the working witch these days. We walked down past the harbour and the weather changed for the worst, Jan put her umbrella up and nearly took off like Mary Poppins.

After Boscastle we headed for Tintagel, another coastal town not far away and one famed as the place King Arthur was born or lived and thus perhaps the site of Camelot. Tintagel's main street was well equipped to draw the tourist dollar and some of the items were very overpriced which is a shame. Still, there was local produce made and sold which was reasonable, cornish pasties being one of the things on offer. We talked of having a Cornish, Cornish Pasty but they give me indigestion so I didn't want one, since the others didn't partake I couldn't take their photo eating the genuine article. The old post office looks amazing and you can go in it but by the time we got to Tintagel it was getting late and I wanted to see the castle so we parked the car in King Arthur's car park (I didn't know he had a car) and walked down to the lane which led to the castle steps. Fortunately the Coast Guards run 4 wheel drive transport up and down the narrow road so we opted to save our legs for the climb up to the castle and hopped on board. It is a good way for them to raise money for the coast guard and it certainly did make the journey quicker and easier for me. Once down the bottom of the hill it was pay up the money and climb the steps but it was worth it.

When we got to the main part of the castle, Martha choofed off down a path and I decided upwards where I was going. There were several things to see up there, the castle is built on two sides of the cliff and there are the caves below as well as the coastal path Martha took. My stamina and legs would only cope with one so upwards I went. The steps are pretty safe but uneven so some are shallow and others quite deep, I was not the only one struggling on the way up and I learned from Skellig Michael to just take so many steps and then rest. As I stepped aside people thanked me for letting them pass little realising I was catching my breath and resting my legs and I never told them otherwise, I just smiled and said"you are welcome"

No one knows if King Arthur and Camelot existed and the current ruined castle buildings are from a later period but some of the buildings on the very top of the cliff date back to 300-400 AD, it seems that the site has been used for many purposes over the centuries and most likely by people of great importance judging by the origins of the pottery they have found there, a dish from North Africa and a wine jar from Eastern Mediterranean. There was a film in the visitor centre which really drew no conclusions and so one was left wondering. The castle that we see today was built by Earl Richard of Cornwall after he acquired Tintagel in 1233 but there is evidence that a ditch was dug out around 500 AD. The name Tintagel is taken from Din Tagell, The Fortress of the Narrow Entrance. Tintagel was an amazing spot and I liked it very much. Jan and I spent quite a bit of time up there on the top, at once stage Jan was leaning on the wind and when the wind changed she nearly fell over, fortunately inland and not over the cliff. Lots of fun there, good place to visit if you are heading to Cornwall even if you don't find Arthur. We didn't have time to investigate the Arthurian Centre to see what it had to offer, by the time we finished investigating most of the shops and places had closed. Oh well

Next day we picked Jan up and headed down to Lands End. On the way we called into St Ives but parking was weird and so we didn't stop for long. It was another quaint but large Cornwall town built in the crevices except this one was quite open and had a nice beach. When we arrived at Lands End it began to rain so we sheltered in a gift shop for a while and then set off to the bottom of the country. A debate ensued as to why they classified this spot as Lands End when The Lizard was, in fact, further south but it was decided that it was the most extreme end of the south western coast, perhaps the furthest from John o Groats, the northern most tip of the mainland in Scotland. Who knows, I only went there to have my picture taken. The weather was very dodgy the whole time we were in Cornwall, sometimes it would rain while at others the sun would shine. When I got to the bottom it decided to rain, blow a gale and in came a genuine Cornish fog. At Lands End there are a series of "attractions" one of these is Dr Who "up Close" We didn't do the attractions we just walked past them to the "end". Once we had bought our gifts and taken our pictures we decided the weather was horrible and that we should retire to the "First Inn in England" for lunch. This hotel had a tunnel in the floor which was used for smuggling. The Inn was founded in 1620.

After lunch we headed over towards the Minack Theatre, an open air theatre built into a cliff face that Jan was particularly taken with and wanted to show us. All these things are pretty close to Lands End but there is so much to see down in Cornwall you can spend days in one small area. The Minack Theatre had a performance of Gulliver in progress so everything but the gift shop was closed but the lady said to come back about 5 pm and we could have a look through before the 6pm performance so off we went again this time to Mousehole (pronounced Mouzle), a quaint Cornish fishing village just up the coast. We decided, well Jan and I did, that we needed to have a cream tea since Devon and Cornwall are famous for their clotted cream. I don't really know how the cream is clotted but I can say it is supreme. Mousehole was so cute we wanted to take it home with us.

After Tea we walked around for a bit and then headed back to the Minack around the windy and narrow roads. Minack was spectacular and the information centre told of the dreams of Rowena Cade who built this theatre into the cliffs with just the help of two men. The view across the ocean was amazing as well as the concept itself. If you are heading down to Cornwall make sure you book yourself a ticket for a performance, it is not expensive. www.minack.com

After we left Minack we tracked back towards Mousehole and called in on the Merry Maidens, a stone circle we had seen earlier in the day. Dated at some 4,000 years old it appears that there are a number of such sites dotted around Cornwall and we did see many authentic Celtic Crosses along the side of the road.

Back in Newquay Jan suggested we go down to the Harbour as we were leaving the next day and hoping to do the Eden Project on the way home. Jan was staying an extra day but Martha had some commitments and we decided we wanted to head towards home. Anyway, the harbour at dusk seemed like a good idea so Jan directed Martha down and around some windy streets. Some of Newquay's streets are one way and you have to go a fair way in one direction to access them so we headed west and then she directed Martha down what looked like the right road only to find it narrowed and came to a fork, one leg going downwards and around a bend we couldn't see around, the other fork was straight ahead but it was so narrow we were not sure if the wheels of the car wouldn't fall over the edge. I could hear the hesitation in Jan's voice but Martha did as she was directed and took the upper left fork, then went around the corner where the road narrowed and Martha said, are you sure this is the way, yes said Jan so she drove on slowly. Martha said this is a walking path, no it isn't said Jan and Hazel said well why does it say walking path only no bicycles allowed on that post? Oh said Jan, the vehicle now being sandwiched in the lane, there was only just enough room to open the doors to let Jan take the wheel as she had to reverse it right out of the lane and around the corner. I must say her driving skills are better than her navigation skills but then she does drive an articulated vehicle for a living. We laughed afterwards but Martha was not looking forward to backing over that narrow bit of road and I am sure we would have ended up over the edge. Jan just backed it up cool as you like and turned it around in a very narrow space so we didn't have to go over the scary bit backwards. Then she drove us into town and parked in the supermarket car park and we walked down to the Harbour.

Thursday morning we were heading north again and had intended to do The Eden Project but both Martha and I were rather second hand so we decided we would head to Jamaica Inn at Bodmin Moor and see how we felt then. Jamaica Inn was made famous by Daphne Du Maurier but it also had a reputation of its own long before she came along. The Inn dates back to 1750 and it was used to hide smuggled goods. The Inn now has a Smugglers Museum attached to it with a rather cheesy if informative interactive display. Jan followed us in her car and we all stood in the foyer of this museum when this strange and rather glum woman came in. She was rather brusque and abrupt and wanted to know "how many" and was Jan paying for all of us. Then she gruffly said do you want any of these, pointing to some brochures on the counter. I thought immediately of Basil Faulty of Faulty Towers which was in Torquay, not that far away from where we stood and I had to turn away to hide the fact that I was laughing. She warmed up later, we just must have arrived too early or something. Before we went in to the museum we stood beneath the Jamaica Inn sign which is the one in the top right hand corner and as it swung it made a very eerie creaking noise just like in the movies, fortunately it was day time or we might all have turned tail and run.

Anyway, we had morning tea at Jamaica Inn which is supposed to be very haunted and Jan sat in a nook seat which turned out to be a very cold spot. I wonder who was there? Jamaica Inn has accommodation now www.jamaicainn.co.uk I dare you to stay there. By the time we finished in the museum and having morning tea we decided it was time to head home so we didn't get to The Eden Project, maybe next time.

Hawaii
Hawaii - The Big Island - week two	Hilo, Hawaiian Tropical Botanic Gardens, Honomu Village, Night Flight over Volcano, Day flight over volcano, Mauna Kea observatories, native village and Holualoa
Hawaii - The Big Island - week one	Holualoa, Kailua Kona, Kilauea Iki, Pu'ukohola Heiau
Hawaii - Maui	Lahaina, The Road to Hana and some beautiful sunsets
Hawaii - Kauai	The Chicken Island - Oops I mean the garden isle
Hawaii - Oahu	I spent 6 days on Oahu and in Waikiki and 2 days on the way out
Asia
Indonesia - Bali	I spent 10 days here having fun with Martha and Jan
Malaysia - Singapore	A stopover on my way to and from England
Australia
The Glass House Mountains	In the Hinterland north of Brisbane
Australia Zoo - Beerwah	Crikey !! The Late Steve Irwin's Zoo in Beerwah, Queensland
Australia - Kuranda Queensland	The Village in The Rainforest
England, Ireland Scotland and Wales
England - Oxford	Radley Oxford, Abingdon, Cheltenham, Belas Knapp, Cotswolds, Guiting Power, Oxford Castle Medieval Fair
England - Oxford, London	Bus lotto in London, the Tower of London, Trafalgar and Hen racing at the Radley Fete,
England - Oxford, Cotswolds	Oxford City, St Mary The Virgin Church, Christchurch College, Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Bourton on the Water
Forest of Dean and Wales	The Forest is just beautiful. Soudley, Coleford, Rhaglan Castle, Newent Gloucestershire, The Shambles Victorian Village, Chepstow, Symonds Yat, Monmouth, Tintern
Anglesey and Ireland	Journey to Ireland and the adventures of two mad women on the loose. Corwen, Betws y Coed, Snowdonia mountains, Anglesey, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch better known as Llanfair pg, Dublin, Amagh, Port Rush, Giants Causeway
Ireland	Boyle, Mullaghroe, Tobercurry, Gorteen County Sligo, Drumanone Dolmen, Arigna Mine. Ballina, Ceide Fields County Mayo, Killala, Strokestown, Tulsk, Elphin Windmill, Mullingar, Roscommon Town, Lough Key
Ireland	From top to bottom what a maginficent place. Galway, Cnoc Suan, Spidall, Ailwee Caves, The Burren, Listowel, Valentia, Portmagee, Skellig Michael, Waterford Crystal, Wexford
England - The Ridgeway	Martha and Adam did a charity walk along an ancient route, I played chauffeur, did some sightseeing and got stuck in Swindon. West Wycome, Wayland Smithy, Barbury Castle, Avebury
Wales - Cardiff	Cardiff Castle, St Fagans
England - Cornwall	Newquay, Boscastle, Museum of Witchcraft, Tintagel, Lands End, Minack Theatre, Mousehole, Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor
England - Coventry and Manchester	Banbury Cross, Coventry City and Cathedral, Spon Street, Lady Godiva, Althorpe (Lady Dianna Spencer's home) and Manchester
England - Lake District and Scotland	Ing near Kendall, Lake Windemere, Gretna Green, Glencoe, Inchcree, Invergary, Loch Duich, Kyle of Lochalsh, Portree, Isle of Skye, Kilmuir, Uig, Dunvegan, Dumnadrochit, Loch Ness, Corrimony Cairn
Scotland, Oxford and Journey Home	Inverness, Cullodden Battlefield ,Brora, John O'Groats, Orkney Islands, Flotta, Burwall, Stromness, Skara Brae, Ring of Brodgar, Standing Stones of Stenness, Kirkwall, Edinburgh Castle, Cheviot Mountains, Newcastle, Segedunum, Hadrians Wall, Sandford Loch, London airport, Singapore
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My Mobile Telephone is 0438 318 180
My Home telephone number is : 07 4031 8181 (61 is country code)
Address: P.O Box 7666, Cairns Qld 4870, Australia
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