A Day in Cornwall

As I was going to St. Ives…

No, we’re not getting into that argument. Having arrived in Penzance on the overnight sleeper train I had all day to explore a bit of West Cornwall and 5 hours before I could check into the Western Hotel in St. Ives. My plan was first to take a walk along the coast to the picturesque harbour village of Mousehole via the fishing port of Newlyn. It’s a pleasant 3.6 mile stroll. At least it would be in nice weather. Unfortunately this morning the weather wasn’t nice. Grey skies emitted a fine drizzle into a light breeze making it just wet enough to need a waterproof coat while at the same time being warm enough to make wearing a waterproof coat uncomfortable. I set off trying to convince myself that it would brighten up imminently.

Organic Maps routed me out of Penzance centre via back roads and alleyways which at least kept away from any traffic before returning to the coast where the Larrigan River meets the sea, near a desolate looking and weed filled Mennaye Boating Lake. From here I walked along the causeway above the beach to the outskirts of Newlyn and passed the fishermen’s memorial statue “Throw Me A Line”.

Newlyn is a working fishing port and has more wet fish shops than I’ve ever seen in one town centre. It hadn’t brightened up yet. I climbed out of Newlyn via Fore Street which at least afforded a good view of the busy harbour, the many boats injecting the only colours into the scene.

This walk follows the route of the South West Coast Path long distance trail and for a while diverts from the motor road along a foot and cycle path next to the sea below the cliff. At the entrance to which I was nearly hit from behind by a lycra-clad bell-end-on-a-bike determined to get through the entry point before me. There are probably some good views along here but they were hidden behind the worsening drizzle on this morning. Thankfully at least some philosopher with a ladder and a pot of yellow paint had been out to brighten up the scene 😀

The path climbed up and rejoined the clifftop road with fine views along the coast and I could even see St. Michael’s Mount in the distance. When I say see it I mean there was a slightly darker shade of grey where it was located. See if you can spot it 🔍

Past Penlee’s disused Lifeboat Station the drizzle eased off a little so I could clearly see St. Clement’s Isle and intermittently unzip my coat to cool off a little on the way down into Mousehole, which I reached at about a quarter past ten.

"Mouseholians" it seems are not early risers. The only places open at that time of the morning were an upmarket looking restaurant and a twee tea room, the latter was full. This despite the fact that the village was busy with visitors most of whom had had the good sense not to walk there. At least the drizzle had stopped so I could take off my coat and steam gently by the harbour. I had a mooch about the village, laughed at what I assume was a joke about Mousehole property prices (the blackboard against the lean-to building reads "Compact + Bijou Home with lots of potential. Offers over £100k")

and joined the queue for the bus back to Penzance.

The M6 bus between Mousehole and Penzance runs every twenty minutes during the day. It was not a pleasant experience because they use vehicles not much bigger than a mini-bus with seat spacing that appears to be designed only to accommodate children so I was jammed sideways into a seat on the back row. The bus was almost full leaving Mousehole and picked up more passengers on the way resulting in some juggling of people, seats, and baby-buggies along the way. I was hot, damp, and the windows didn’t open. Even the little old lady next to me remarked on how unsuitable the vehicle was though she said occasionally they go completely to the other extreme and you get a double-decker. Which must be very interesting when they have to turn it round in the centre of Mousehole. I was relieved to get off that bus in Penzance Bus Station I can tell you. I went and found a bakery and had a very large coffee and a sit down. Then since breakfast had been 5 hours ago I went hunting, I got a large Cornish Pasty because when you are in the county why wouldn’t you? This I took to the railway station platform and ate it while waiting for my next train. A big yellow thing started to appear in the sky and a big feathery greedy bastard appeared on the platform nearby. The sun was welcome, the seagull could bugger off. Also it is still a mystery to me how they get Cornish pasties so hot and how they appear to get hotter while you’re carrying them so that when you come to eat it it’s like biting into a volcano? It was a very nice pasty though - the very antithesis of a Ginster’s 😁

As I arrived at Penzance station so did one of GWR’s Intercity 125 HST “Castle” trains. These are soon to be retired and I can remember them when they were first introduced on BR’s Western Region in the 1970s. I was tempted to skip a departure to have a brief ride on it to St. Erth for old times sake. In the end I got the next boring Hitachi IET instead which gave a shorter wait for the St. Ives train at St. Erth.

I was glad to see that summer time four coach train arrive into the crowded platform at St. Erth (outside the summer there are only two coaches). Anxious to get a good seat I forgot that the views were on the right hand side and indeed that side of the train quickly filled up with people, although not the polygamous, sack of cats carrying kind. Anyway, as we rode down the branch line the weather finally improved and we arrived at St. Ives in bright sunshine.

St. Ives was very busy. I walked from the station to the harbour and from the harbour to the Western Hotel, located in the town centre. What can I say about the Western Hotel? Here’s the review that I posted on booking.com which I think sums it up:

Good location, comfortable, not cheap, not very organized.

Liked · Nice big room, comfortable bed. Good central St. Ives location.

Disliked · Arrived to check in at reception, reception is a phone on the desk. Call was answered and waited for receptionist to come and complete check in. I was handed keys and given directions to my room. On finding my room it was immediately obvious that it was already occupied by someone who was fortunately out at the time. Return to reception, call, wait, wait, wait, eventually allocated a different room and given keys. No explanation other than “the booking system made a mistake”. Inconvenience aside this error has security implications if they are giving out keys to rooms already occupied. And of course when I went for breakfast the restaurant staff had not been advised of the room change.

However the room was pleasant, overlooking the Royal Square (bus stop) outside and I was glad to have a shower after which I had a nap for a couple of hours, dunno why I was tired. Later I went for a wander around St. Ives. It was still very busy. Hmm, that’s a lot of clouds and yes, those are spots of rain.

Cue retreat to hotel with snacks and a bottle of cider. Later: there is music downstairs let’s go and investigate (and get another cider). Ah, Tuesday Night is Jazz Club Night. 

Nice 👌

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The audience demographic was pretty much exactly what you’d imagine, the band was four old white men, it was heavy on the double bass, drums and trumpet. I caught the last half hour which in jazz terms means three tunes. What’s with the applauding half way through a song? Is it a jazz thing? At ten past ten they finished and most of the audience rushed across the road, bus passes in hand. I went to my bed and slept like a log.

The next morning I rose, showered, dressed and headed downstairs for a cooked breakfast which was pretty average and preceded by a discussion about why my room number wasn’t on the breakfast list.

I checked out, by which I mean left my key on the empty reception desk as instructed, and made my way to St. Ives station in hazy, humid sunshine with just a trace of fine drizzle. There was quite a crowd on the platform awaiting the train to St. Erth. I remembered to sit on the left side for the views.

 

 At St. Erth my train to Reading appeared on time and I settled down into my seat up the front in 1st Class. What? You can’t take it with you, you know. Anyway it was only eighty quid Advance Single with a railcard, half what the trip down had cost.

The Americans appeared. They seem to be travelling with everything they own, they put all their huge suitcases in the wheelchair space, whined when told they needed to move them and complained about there not being enough space for their luggage. There was plenty of space under and between their seats. As soon as they got aboard they started stuffing their faces and wanted to know when lunch would be served - it was ten-thirty in the morning at this point. Then they started spreading out the John Lewis tote bags of food onto adjacent seats because their table was full. As the coach filled up through the journey they had to retreat and at last went quiet and disappeared into their devices. Deport them to El Salvador I say 😉

For once the rest of the journey was unremarkable and I arrived home at four in the afternoon, about 46 hours after I’d left.

Would I do the night sleeper again? Well I’ve done it, don’t regret it, don’t need to do it again. It’s always nice to visit Cornwall though, however briefly so if you’re short on time it’s worth considering finding out if you can sleep on a train.

For anyone who avoided spoilers in the previous post here’s a FlickrAlbum of photos from my trip.

The Night Riviera

The Night Riviera is a sleeper train which runs from London Paddington to Penzance in Cornwall (and from Penzance to Paddington) 6 nights a week. I’d long fancied trying it to see what it was like so booked a brief trip to Cornwall to find out.

This is what I found out:

I booked just over a week in advance with a Railcard and paid £57.70 for a Super Off-Peak Single London Terminals to Penzance plus £89.00 for a sleeper cabin. You can forego the cabin and get an airline-style seat for no charge if you want to try and sleep in a chair in a room full of strangers instead. A cabin also gets you use of the lounges and showers at Paddington, Penzance, and Truro and a complimentary breakfast served to your cabin. Although the Night Riviera picks up passengers at Reading I opted to start at Paddington because who wants to hang around on Reading station at twenty to one in the morning, especially given that nearly everything on the station is shut by eight-thirty in the evening? That was another £21.20 for an off Peak Single with a Railcard but worth it. The 1st Class lounge at Paddington provided free hot drinks and snacks too.

As usual the train I intended to catch to Reading for a connection to Paddington was cancelled and the following one would just get me there in time - assuming it ran at all. Not wanting to risk it I left home early and got the previous departure, itself running twenty minutes late, and arrived in London with quite a bit of time to kill. So I went for a stroll around Tyburnia and had a pint before heading back to the station.

The lounge is located on platform 1 which is from where the Night Riviera usually departs but tonight we were directed to platform 8 instead.

I walked up to the front of the train to get the obligatory photo of the locomotive and then back to find my cabin in Coach F. Once aboard a nice lady came and checked my ticket, gave me the low-down on the train’s facilities, and took my breakfast order and what time I’d like it delivered to my cabin. Once settled in I went to explore the train along the very narrow corridors to the Lounge/Bar coach. This was very busy so I didn’t stop longer than necessary to drink a Coke.I went back to my cabin just as we departed Paddington at 23.46

The cabins have two bunks but for single occupancy the upper one is stowed away. The bunk is fairly narrow but because it runs across the coach it is plenty long enough for someone 6’5” tall - hence the narrow corridor in the coach. There’s a bedside table that lifts up to reveal a sink with hot and cold running water (and it is hot too) and a rubbish bin beneath. Light switches, 240v AC, and USB power outlets are located by both bunks along with a room service call button. Yes, room service is available all night if you don’t fancy going down the corridor to the lounge car in the night. There’s a connecting door to the adjacent cabin that is locked unless a party of more than two books adjacent cabins. What you will need to go down the corridor in the night for is the loo. Two are located at the ends of the coach. The sign outside your cabin will point to the ones in your coach but if your berth number is above 15 it’s almost certainly closer to the toilets in the adjacent coach and the coaches are all walk-through connected.

I sat on my bunk with the window blind open and watched the night slide by. Quite slowly especially since there were some track works going on. Not that the Night Riviera is a fast train. It takes about eight hours including stops to reach Penzance, a daytime express will do it in around five. After the stop at Reading I closed the window blind got under the duvet put my head on the comfortable pillows and prepared to nod off.

I might even have done so for a few minutes at some points in the next six hours. I have discovered something and that something is that I can’t get to sleep on a moving train. I wasn’t uncomfortable or anything like that but sleep refused to come. I think a lot of the problem was the novelty of the situation which wouldn’t let my brain switch off. The train trundled on through the dark stopping occasionally at a signal raising the question “I wonder where we are now?” and of course the temptation is to check on the map on the phone or take a peek out of the window. The tracks to the West Country are mostly smooth but not always straight and lying horizontal across a train in the dark subjects you to some odd G forces, with no visual references you feel like you are first being gently pointed head down then a moment later feet down. Onward to Devon, occasional sections of jointed rather than welded track for traditional ta-tum-te-tum train noises. At Exeter the train paused and reversed, I heard the locomotive run around the train, passing my window before re-coupling to the other end with a jolt. Clumsy bugger, doesn’t he know people are trying to sleep? 😀 A consequence of this manoeuvre that didn’t occur to me until later was that my cabin window which on leaving London had been on the left side of the train was now on the right so wouldn’t get any spectacular sea views along the coast at Dawlish 😢

By 6 a.m. it was getting light outside (although the window blinds are very effective) and I concluded that I’d had any sleep that I was going to get so cancelled the alarm I’d set on my phone, got up, washed (blimey that water is hot!) and dressed. I opened the blind and watched a very grey Cornwall passing by. Because of course the bright sunny weather we’d had all month had vanished as soon as I set off travelling - payback for having such unseasonably good weather when I was in Scotland I suppose.

We stopped at Liskeard, we stopped at Bodmin Parkway, and as we approached Par the nice young lady knocked on the door bearing a tray with a very welcome pot of tea and a sausage bap on it. Also brown sauce, tomato ketchup, and for some reason some sweet biscuits which I kept for “Ron”. 😋

I watched stops at St. Austell, Truro, and Redruth pass by and resisted the temptation to pull faces out of the window at the few early morning commuters on the opposite platforms. At Hayle I tried to get a photo of the river but mostly got the back of Asda. The penultimate stop was St. Erth where I noted the way to the platform for the St. Ives Bay Line that I’d be on later. I also noted how wet the platforms looked.

Finally at ten past eight we arrived at Penzance - that was actually 15 minutes late so I might try my luck for Delay Repay 😄 I gathered up my luggage, which consisted of one 30l backpack, and alighted onto the platform with a lot of people who had obviously come equipped for a six month expedition to the outback. I headed directly to the coffee machine in the customer lounge and a seat on which to plan my next move.

I was in Penzance at 8.30 in the morning with five and a half hours to kill before I could check into my hotel in St. Ives. What the bloody hell am I supposed to do now?

Find out in the next “exciting” episode!

 

 Spoilers: Flickr Album of my photos from my Night Riviera  trip to Cornwall

EDIT 4th July. Got £14 back in Delay Repay for being 15 minutes late at Penzance and £21.20 (the full ticket price) back for the delay caused by the cancellation on the Sandhurst to Reading journey. Result!

London Loop Section 17, Cockfosters to Enfield Lock

2nd June 

I alighted at Cockfosters Station after a long tube journey from Hounslow West and having made use of the “facilities” exited from the station and turned right down the side of the car park to begin section 17 of the London Loop. A little under 9 miles walking would get me to Enfield Lock station and I’d picked the one dry sunny day forecast in the upcoming week to do it.

Within a few yards of entering the broad tree lined path alongside the cemetery the noise from Cockfosters Road faded away as I headed into the southern part of Trent Park. Turning north through the woods I was grateful for the recent dry weather as the rutted surface of the path indicated that after rain it would have been horribly gloopy. As it was I just had to be careful not to twist an ankle in the hardened ruts. The way-marking of Section 17 leaves a lot to be desired and the directions in the guide are sometimes a bit unclear, in this case regarding which direction to take out of the woods and across a large open grass area so I reached the obelisk near the car park and cafe by a slightly longer than necessary route. After that it was easier to follow the route as it described a backward S northwards through Trent Country Park, alternating between open country and woodland.

Just before reaching Hadley Road I took the suggested short detour to George Grey’s Obelisk to “enjoy the fine view". The fine view was between tall trees framing Trent Park House, former home of Sir Philip Sassoon, in the distance. During the Second World War this became home to high ranking German prisoners of war, along with the MI-19 operatives who listened to their conversations to obtain useful intelligence information, the whole place having been fitted with electronic bugging devices. However today the view was of a huge scaffolding tent enclosing the entire building and with an even taller crane hanging over it. It is being redeveloped into a museum about the house’s history. Along with about 262 houses and flats.

From the obelisk I retraced my steps and crossed Hadley Road. Here the London Loop joins the Enfield Greenways, a walking and cycling path network. The Loop used to run down the hill here on the Jubilee footpath, opened in 1977 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee but although you can just about make out that route it is overgrown and impassable so there’s no choice but to use the newer path.

There are long views across open country here but these will be gone in a few years since hundreds of trees have been planted as part of the Enfield Chase Restoration Project. For now you can walk down to where the route turns right alongside the Salmons Brook while admiring the view and listening to the Skylarks. The sandy path surface makes for easy walking although it does give this section a bit of an “artificial countryside” feeling. This new route replaces now lost older paths alongside the Salmons Brook for another mile or so, first on the south bank before crossing over to the north bank and continuing up the hill to meet The Ridgeway road. Loop way-markers seem to have ceased to be a thing along this part. Because it’s an artificial construct the designers couldn’t resist designing in some pointless twiddly bits which have already started to generate demand paths where the more obvious and shorter route exists. I stopped for my picnic lunch near a small pond along this section. Appropriately there were salmon paste sarnies eaten near the Salmons Brook.

The guide directions on reaching The Ridgeway are frankly a mess, not helped by poor way-marking. The Loop path exits to and crosses the road directly then turns right along the pavement until turning left down Rectory Farm Road (which doesn’t have a street name sign). The Greenways path carries on parallel to the road to a crossing point further down. The guide talks about a dead end section of Greenways and a new path that rejoins the Loop in Rectory Farm Road. Trouble is neither are way-marked. I followed the original route as per the map on my phone. Where the new path meets Rectory Farm Road there is a way-mark pointing back up it for reverse direction Loop walkers but no others. Around the back of Rectory farm the route joins and then crosses the Turkey Brook where I walked steadily up the drive towards the railway bridge. Fortunately I wasn’t tempted to gallop as that isn’t allowed.

Passing under the railway I turned right onto Strayfield Road turning south onto a path opposite St. John the Baptist Church as per the guide - although the map indicates an earlier turning which isn’t way-marked but joins the footpath into Hilly Fields further on. After walking along the edge of an open field I entered the woods and crossed the Turkey Brook again then turned east. The rest of the section would never stray far from the banks of the Turkey Brook. Hilly Fields is a park that is exactly what its name suggests it should be but because the Loop follows the brook it avoids any steep gradients.

The winding path, popular with dog walkers, carries on past the bandstand and eventually meets Clay Hill opposite the Rose & Crown pub. It wasn’t open, probably just as well since the temptation to get inside out of the sun and outside of a cold beer might have ended my walk here 😀

Instead I carried on towards Forty Hall Park, rejoining the Turkey Brook and passing the former course of the New River, London’s new 17th century fresh water supply which still supplies some of the capital’s drinking water today although its original route has been much modified. I decided against a detour to visit Forty Hall due to time constraints and continued beside the Turkey Brook and alongside the large fishing ponds.

I crossed Forty Hill near Maidens Bridge, locally said to be the place where Sir Walter Raleigh spread his cloak over a puddle to allow Queen Elizabeth to continue without wet feet. This probably never happened, similarly he probably didn’t bring her back a sack of spuds from the Americas either. Much good it did him anyway, some years later her successor James 1/6 separated him from his head.

Not far along the Loop crosses the current (ho ho) course of the New River which on this particular afternoon was a scene of much digging activity as work was going on to resurface and or reroute the New River Path.

Most sections of the London Loop eventually have to cross a main arterial road and in this case it is the A10 Great Cambridge Road. A tall metal pedestrian bridge affords views along the road and across Enfield Cemetery but has steep stairs with narrow treads which also seem not to be level, giving the disconcerting feeling that you are being pitched forward when descending them.

A path leads up one side of the cemetery and under the railway just south of Turkey Street Station and from here on it all gets a bit urban, walking beside the roadworks along Turkey Street, passing briefly through the busy shopping area at Hertford Road, then along residential St. Stephen’s Road to a back alley that rejoins the Turkey Brook where it runs into Albany Park with a little group of dodgy-looking geezers accompanied by the sort of dog intended to impress that “we is well ’ard, innit”. Out of the park and a last climb over another pedestrian bridge over the West Anglia main railway line and Section 17 ends next to the Turkey Brook where it passes under a brick arched bridge at the end of Bradley Road.

A short walk along litter-strewn Bradley Road got me to Enfield Lock Station at about the same time as apparently the whole of Oasis Academy Enfield School. The Railway Inn wasn’t open so I joined them on the train. At least I’d got there in time to tap in before peak Oyster hours.

Here's the Flickr Album (34 photos). 

 

London Loop Section 17 ✅