The Island

Saturday October 22nd
In Which we Visit a Famous Doctor

In the extremely popular TV show Doc Martin, the eccentric and always grumpy Doctor Martin Ellingham operates his dysfunctional surgery from the seaside town of Portwenn in Cornwall. In reality there is no such place as Portwenn, the TV show is actually filmed in the town of Port Isaac, about 10 km from Tintagel.
Since we were already heading west from Tintagel to St Ives, we thought it might be interesting to make a small diversion and have a look at this famous location.
As you get closer to the village it is easy to see that the TV show has obviously resulted in changes to the life of the place. There are numerous posters advertising "Doc Martin Walking Tours - only 10 pounds a head". While that might be a money spinner for some local entrepreneurs, I suspect that the newfound fame has proven to be something of a poison chalice for the rest of the small town.

I wonder how the 700 permanent residents really feel about the busloads of tourists who daily descend on the village, trying to take selfies of themselves in every well known location used in the TV show. At least, while we were there, the production crews were nowhere to be seen, although there were still around 200 or more people who were wandering around the narrow streets. I could only wonder how busy it would be in the peak summer season.

There is no doubt that it is a magic location, with its cluster of stone and white washed cottages clinging tenaciously to the steep cliffsides. There is a small working harbour, protected from the worst of the seas by two large concrete breakwaters.

We spent around an hour wandering around the streets and lanes before resuming our journey to St Ives. It was a relief when we finally left the tiny, narrow (and somewhat claustrophobic) hedge lined back roads and turned into a wider motorway. This allowed me to drive without having my nose pressed against the windscreen and my fingernails embedded in the steering wheel.

We arrived at the outskirts of St Ives early in the afternoon and soon discovered that, even at this time of the year, it was a very popular holiday destination.

The narrow roads were blocked by a succession of cars, none of whom seemed to know where they were heading. This confusion was not helped by the large sign which advised all drivers to "Ignore the Directions of their GPS units".

Well that's easier said than done. How else were we going to be able to find our B&B, if we did not rely on the Tom Tom ? We did not have the local St Iveways Street Directory, so just proceeded blindly into the spaghetti tangle of clogged alleyways that constituted the St Ives CBD. While squeezing along one miniscule road, the voice from the Tom Tom clearly told me to "TURN RIGHT". I did. It was a mistake.

I soon discovered that I had turned too soon and was heading straight into a private car park, perched in a dead end on the side of a cliff. The car behind me probably had the same directions and had dutifully followed me into the abyss (as had the large Mercedes in front). We all ground to a halt, pondering what to do next.

With some expert white knuckle maneuvering, I somehow managed to get far enough to one side to allow the Merc to turn around and creep past on his way out. The car from behind then pulled alongside, wound down his window and asked "What do you suggest we do now ?"

How the hell would I know ? I am just an old man from the other side of the world. We don't have stupid roads like this Australia.

I made some sort of suggestion that sent us both into a coordinated series of synchronised driving moves that would probably have scored at least an 8 if it was an Olympic sport. After about 5 minutes, somehow I had escaped the tangle and was inching along the correct road. There was still no sign of the B&B and the road signs made so sense whatsoever. A local walker saw our predicament and kindly came to our aid. He walked around the block looking for the Blue Sky B&B and finally returned with the directions we needed. About 5 minutes later we were sandwiched into the carpark (I hoped that the other cars never wanted to get out) and knocking on the front door. It was a relief to be able to finally relax.
Later in the day we walked down to the township for dinner at the very popular Blas Burgers. The meal was superb, although things got a little complicated when we tried to find our way back home in the dark. Everything seemed quite different and all our familiar landmarks went missing. We wandered up and down a succession of alleyways, blindly looking for the church we had passed on the way down. It had obviously been moved. It took us around 30 minutes to eventually get back on the familiar track and stagger through the front door.

We will be staying in St Ives for 3 nights and will use this time to explore some of the surrounding region between here and Lands End.Read more