I was so happy to see the sun come out this morning as we ate breakfast! We had time for a short stroll around the tiny harbour in Padstow before we hitched our ride back up to the car and then collected Erin
it took about 45 minutes to drive to Tintagel. The small town runs down the hill to the site of the ancient castle that teeters on the edge of the sea, the mythical place that is reputed to be the birthplace of King Arthur. (However it really is largely a myth !). The sun was shining but the wind was blowing wildly as we set out down the path and across the bridge to the island. It’s such a beautiful place, wild and striking.
Another 50 minutes drive north and we arrived at the visitor centre for Clovelly. It’s an extraordinary and beautiful little village that tumbles down an extremely steep cobbled path to the sea . Originally the estate was owned by William the Conqueror, who gifted it to his wife and then had many royal associations until 1242 when it was first acquired by the Giffard family. Until the middle of the 19th century Clovelly was unknown to the outside world. It was partly as a result of Charles Kingsley’s ‘Westward Ho!’, set in and around the village, that visitors began to come. We walked down the street into the town , which is really just too cute to be real. However people really do live in the tiny cottages. Erin said they must have amazing glutes to cope with climbing the road all the time!
We stopped at one of the tiny cafes to have lunch and a classic Cornish cream tea with a lovely view over the sea.
From Clovelly we had about an hour and 50 minute drive eastward across Cornwall and into Somerset to visit the parish church in the tiny village of Hatch Beauchamp. Why was this place on our sightseeing list? Because in the churchyard is the grave of John Rouse Merritt Chard, Officer Commanding , Rorkes Drift. If you know anything about the Anglo/Zulu wars or have ever watched the movie Zulu you will know all about Rorkes Drift. This battle took place on 22-23 January 1879 during the Zulu War (1879). A huge force of Zulus attacked the small British garrison, but were eventually repelled after more than 12 hours of bitter fighting. It was such an amazing victory that 12 of the soldiers at the garrison were awarded the highest order for gallantry in battle, the Victoria Cross. Neil has loved the movie from childhood and has always had a yen to visit Rorke’s Drift someday. When I discovered in my trip research that we would be so close to John Chards grave I knew we had to go! The church yard was empty when we arrived but it was interesting to see that there were three wreaths placed on Chards Grave.
WE didn’t have to far to go from here to our destination for the night, the tiny city of Wells. Neil and I were booked into the Swan Hotel in the very centre of town and Erin only a couple of doors down in the Ancient Gatehouse Hotel. Our hotel was supposed to have parking but the lot was full so we spent a tricky 20 minutes trying to find overnight parking nearby. We ended up on the roof of the nearby Waitrose supermarket! So we trundled our luggage for the ten minute walk to the hotels. Ours had been frequented by a few famous names such as Winston Churchill and Anne, Queen of Denmark; and Erin had a good view of the cathedral from her room. Ours didn’t!
WE left it up to Erin to select a dinner location and she found an excellent burger bar nearby, we were all happy to have a burger for a change and this place offered some excellent American style BBQ burgers as well as some craft beer for Neil.
We were pretty tired and were glad to head back to our respective hotels for a good sleep.