Holywell Bay

We left our B&B on the south coast of Cornwall (the first ‘B’ was OK, the second ‘B’ was excellent) and started out for the northern coast - about 40 minutes drive to our first destination - Holywell beach.
The weather wasn’t looking promising but by the time we reached the coast the cloud had cleared to a magnificent morning.
Holywell beach is a beautiful location in its own right, but was also of ‘Poldark’ interest as it was the location where many of the beach scenes (swimming, horse riding etc) were shot. Gull rocks just off the beach were unmistakable.
From Hollywell beach we drove a little further west to Perranporth- a gorgeous little town and a lovely surf beach in its own right.
Based on what I had read on Trip Advisor, there were rave reviews of the coastal cliff walk that runs from Perranporth to St Agnes.

The distance was 7.5km one way (with some rock scrambling, photo stops etc) which took us 2 hours. It was spectacular and the whole area is also punctuated with the remnants and ruins of old tin mines (see Ezekiel 27:12).
We managed to time our arrival at St Agnes just in time to catch the local bus back to Perranporth where we sat and enjoyed the view while we had some lunch before continuing on to visit the remnants of Wheal Coates tin mine just a little further west again.

Once having finished our inspection of this spectacularly positioned mine, we started east with Port Isaac (aka Portwenn) as our destination. The roads enroute are quite extraordinary- 2 way roads with barely enough room for a single, small car to drive between high hedges and houses on either side. Much stopping, pulling off into passing cutaways and occasional reversing to allow opposite direction traffic to pass brought us to the top of the town of Port Isaac.
I expected the roads to be narrow, but the roads into and through this town made famous by ‘Doc Martin’ are next-level. Large vehicles are prohibited altogether and once you have driven in and dropped off your luggage the car had to be driven up away from the town and parked.
We enjoyed having a look around the town before getting some takeaway to sit and enjoy down at the boat ramp area in the late afternoon sunshine.
The fish and chips last night at Charlestown were excellent but we thought we might try something a little different tonight. However, no matter where we looked it seemed to be ‘fish and chips’ on offer.
No problem. We’ll change it up a little, add a little variety, I thought.
‘We’ll have a serve of fish and chips please- but could we possibly have the fish grilled rather than deep fried?’
‘We serve fish and chips, sir’
‘Hmm, Ok, so would it be possible to have some salad with the fish and chips please?’
‘We serve fish and chips, sir’
So, fish and chips it was….
Whilst sitting there enjoying the ‘fish and chips’ Loss managed to be ‘deposited upon’ by an overflying seagull in quite a thorough fashion - on both hair and clothing (but fortunately not on the ‘fish and chips’) - so I am writing this blog now while she is showering away the results of this interaction with one of the locals.

We plan to stream Riverwood meeting again shortly - the WIFI here at ‘The Slipway’ B&B is surprisingly good.

For those who are Doc Martin fans, I will add a separate blog to this one.
I feel a disturbing kinship with this health practitioner with poor interpersonal skills.
If Doc Martin means nothing to you, then feel free to ignore it.Read more