Finally, I had a good night’s sleep and was enough awake before six.
I looked at the Adventure Lab app and, only being less than ten miles away, chose a couple of series in St. Ives.
The drop was nice and quiet and I was pulling into the station car park before half six.
The Pay and Display sign said that I had until 09:00 before I’d have to pay. I had no intenton of still being at St. Ives by then.
The first AdLab was at the station then it was into the town proper for the rest.
Most of the locations were along the sea front but at the end of the prom, the next AdLab was at the top of a headland that they call The Island. Atop this misty lump was the chapel of St. Nicholas. Built in 1434 this granite chapel was fully restored in 1971.
On a clear day, I guess that the views are incredible but no so great today, although rather atmospheric.
The remainder of the AdLabs where ticked off returning through the town although two were not easy as they were INSIDE of a couple of pubs. A session on Google, later, revealed the answers.
Returning to base for a spot of breakfast and a bit of planning for the rest of the day.
“Any ideas?” asked Linda.
“Falmouth?” I suggested.
The motion was carried.
From the campsite, Falmouth was only about twenty miles away so we arrived just before eleven. The weather forecast was predicting DRY conditions – fingers crossed.
Parking up at the harbour end, near the excellent Maritime Museum, we started a perambulation up the main drag into the centre of town. I had a few AdLabs to attempt so would, occasionally, shoot off to answer a question then catch up.
Not far from the museum, we heard a group singing sea shanties. Sue, in particular, is a fan of the genre, especially the Fishermans Friends, so we headed for the voices.
Across the harbour where we were stood, we saw an expanding group of RNLI lifeboats and a crowd gathered on their sid eof the harbour. This is where the singing was coming from. There was also a throng of people, some looking quite dignified, milling around the blue and orange boats.
A quick peek on t’internet revealed that the RNLI were naming their new Shannon Class lifeboat, Decibel Too.
Eventually, we returned to the main street and the multitude of shopping opportunities for two women on holiday. Probably tired of Pete and I hanging around, we were dispatched to find some caches whilst the call of the craft shops beckoned the girls.
Reunited. and seeing it was near enough to lunch time, it was into Costa for drinks and light refreshments before wandering around the corner to the Prince of Wales pier where numerous charter companies were plying their trade. Someone suggested a ferry across the estuary so as the others went in search of tickets, I nipped off for a couple more AdLabs.
On my return, I was presented with a ticket. “Thirty eight quid!” I exclaimed, “That one there”, I said pointed to a nearby booth, “Is only a tenner each”.
“Oh, we’re not doing the ferry”, I was informed, “We’re going on a cruise up the river”. Fair enough.
At our allotted time, we were called down the steps to board the Dixie Belle. This vessel was built to carry one hundred passengers but today, there were only about a dozen, so there was plenty of room.
As we were waiting to depart, I noticed that I had been recording a track of my meanderings via a mapping app that I had opened earlier. Hopefully, I should be able to transfer the track to Strava later.
The boat departed heading up the River Fal along a strip of water known as Carrick Roads. As we progressed, the skipper would indicate various points of interest interspersed with some pretty bad Dad Jokes – really groaners.
After turning around and heading back, Pete and I were dispatched to the on board bar, returning with bottles of Tribute and Rattler which were consumed in the sunshine.
After our nearly two hours cruise, we pulled back into Falmouth. We were rather proud of Pete who has a bit of a thing about boats and has managed to avoid getting on one for some time. Today, he made a big step forward on his newly found sea legs.
As a thank you to Linda and Pete for asking us to spend some time with them, Sue decided that a meal that evening would be nice. After a little thinking, Linda suggested a place just outside of Hayle. I checked out their website and booked us a table for six (even though there were only four !).
After nipping into another shop or two for those, “Did you see that … earlier” purchases, we arrived back at the car. With a couple of hours until our meal we needed something else to do.
“There’s a crazy golf course and beach at Swan Pool”, I was told. “Why not?”
A short drive brought us to a small beach with adjacent pool (the Swan Pool). Next to the car park was the course. Nowhere near as good as our last golfing experience, this course was rather unloved and was probably named crazy after the cracks in the concrete that made up the fairways.
We managed alright except for one particular hole that was set atop a raised dish. We agreed that we could take a maximum of twenty shots after which a score of twenty would be recorded.
I recorded a twenty. Linda recorded a twenty. Pete (the lucky sod) holed it in nine and went on to win the game.
Post-game, I nipped off to record an AdLab while the rest hit the sandy beach.
A slow drive took us to The Old Quay House, arriving just before our booking but where told that the table was ready and we we lead through.
Some very nice seafood was consumed but we delayed dessert until we had driven to ASDA. We didn’t eat in ASDA but took some nice muffins and trifle back to be eaten in the comfort of Linda’s and Pete’s ‘van.