A long weekend in Cornwall - Wild About Italy

Just after we realized that we are going to have a really long weekend available to spend around, we bought two cheap ticket to Bristol, rented a car and got excited :).

This was also a good opportunity to meet a friend of mine and use his lovely book Wild Guide South West.

So we packed our backpack as usually, and jumped on that flight. I also used this trip to give a first real use test to the Crumpler Light and Delight Backpack, that I used as a poach for my camera in the main backpack and as a day hike backpack during the trip.

We spent the first day and a half around Bath, where my friend lives. We dined at the Hope Pole Inn were I had a great cheeseburger made with local foraged meat.

Then we head south, following the suggestion of our friend and his book, but first we stopped at Glastonbury (yes, I used to be an avid Marion Zimmer Bradley reader).

_DSC1745.resized — The famous Tor of Glastonbury

We walked thought the nice but quite “turisty” streets, feeling the surreal atmosphere of the town. We visited the nice ruin of the Abbey and searched and found the Gog and Magog. Two ancient oak tree that is supposed to be more than 2000 years old. Before leave we hiked a hill to get to the famous Tor.

The weather turn really bad, so we went back to the car. Driving on the A30 south, we get stuck in a traffic jam, so we escaped crossing the Dartmoor, but the fog, the heavy rain and wind, made any walks really hard. We had anyway the possibility to visit Postbridge and have a walk on the ancient site of Merrivale.

After a long and cold day, we stopped at the beautiful Elephant Nest Inn, where with the lovely served food and the warm atmosphere of the fireplace and the company of a funny old dog we restored our energy.

The Elphant Nest Inn — The Elephant Nest Inn

Intrigued by some picture we saw somewhere we stopped the next day at The Lost garden of Heligans, and have a walk in that nice places. The weather was still bad, but we enjoyed the visit.

_DSC1876.resized — The Lost Garden of Heligans

_DSC1881.resized — The Lost Garden of Heligans

When we think at Cornwall we think to lovely fishing village clinging to the cliff, so we end up spending some time in slippy Portloe.

We had still some hours before the sunset, so we hiked to the Boscawen-un stone circle, and we got enchanted by the magical peace of this place.

As we enjoyed this so much we also visited the Marry Maidens circle and the surrounding area.

_DSC1969.resized — Walking through Marry Maidens

_DSC1950.resized — Field near Marry Maidens

At the end of the day we hike up a hill (search in the suggested book for name and directions 🙂 ) and we got a stunning view over a Cornwall sunset.

We hit Mousehole to spend the evening exploring the small village and looking for some good food and hopefully to rest!

We woke up with a nice sunshine, so we headed to one of the most fabulous beach I ever seen, and we spent large part of the day walking on the shoreline.