Mevagissey and Falmouth in Cornwall

Sunset at Whitsands Beach

Loving my little beach side hideaway. This time of evening is just beautiful.The sun is just about setting over the water and I'm able to just pull back the blinds and watch it all.....

Had a good sleep in this morning and was able to just take my time for a change.

Two big bonuses this morning...

1. No packing of my cases ..... Yee haa!!!!

2. I did my washing!!!! In previous blogs the woes of my washing were front and centre, but this time, I've done some at the house of the lovely Audrey and also this morning at my beach hideaway.

Speaking of washing, life on the road is constantly presenting challenges! Sometime I think I am doing a Masters degree in Problem Solving 101. It took a while to work out how to actually work the front loading machine, but I still remember Katie's instructions from my last blog... Unfortunately it was early in the morning, so the idea of having multiple glasses of wine while you wait was not totally practical!!!

However... I problem solved my way through the vagaries of the washing machine and hung them all out to dry on the clothes horse that is provided!

Just on the subject of problem solving on the road.... I have never known so many varieties of showers and how they operate. I have been on the road just over a week now and I think every single shower has been different. It really can be challenge to manipulate the basics of life!!!

Anyway, having passed the tests of washing and showering, I set my Google Maps for Mevagissey, a little town on the coast not too far away. And it was  delightful place....

Mevagissey Harbour

The town is based around the harbour and the harbour is very tidal. Here's a few pics to demonstrate..

Mevagissey Harbour

Mevagissey Harbour

Mevagissey Harbour

And the coast line is lovely too...

Mevagissey Coastline

Here's a website with some info about Mevagissey if you're interested...

Two little extracts from it tell a little about the town :

Mevagissey is an attractive old town which was once the centre of Cornwall’s pilchard fishery and which still boasts a working harbour, with a few dozen small fishing boats. It has a tradition of boat building dating back to 1745. Many of the old buildings, constructed of cob and slate, bear testimony to a time when the large shoals of pilchards were the livelihood of the whole village.

The name Mevagissey is derived from the names of two saints, St Meva and St Issey. The first record is of a hamlet of this name in 1313, but there were local settlements in the Bronze Age. Two Bronze Age Burial Urns were discovered at nearby Portmellon.

Had a nice coffee there and then it was time to move on...

Now I know you're all waiting for a story about the tales of Gaby Garmin, but it was not Gaby who was the problem today. As I left Whitsands Bay, I decided not to take Gaby with me, rather to rely on Google Maps. GMaps got me to Mevagissey very efficiently... even including the inevitable back road journey, which I am now learning to cope with as part of the deal.

But as one of my good friends would've said... 

What's worse that a dodgy GPS.... No GPS !!!!!

Eeeekkkk. I was just ready leave the carpark at Mevagissey and Google said it wouldn't find a signal. This could be serious, because I had no Gaby Garmin ( although I actually did find her in the car afterwards!!) and no idea how to get anywhere including home.

Problem solving 101 again kicks in.

I had 2 thoughts...

1. Just head for the next town (Falmouth) by using the sign posts - what a novel idea!!

2. Go to the nearest Tescos or big store and use their free wifi to download a Google Map.

Anyway, I decided on option 1 as I was heading in the vague general direction anyway. I was more worried about finding my way back to my little house!

It still wasn't kicking in and I thought maybe I had used up all my credit. (Was thinking of the young fellow in the O2 store Kevin and Audrey, who was suggesting I should purchase more data!)

Anyway, long story short again, I stopped at a pull-in bay and fiddled with it and it all kicked in again.... Phew...... Thank you Jesus again!

So, after the usual drama of the day, it took me quite happily to Falmouth, but took right through the heart of the city, down the little dodgy one way streets, but I was in no position to complain. I wanted to go and see Pendennis Castle, as I still had some days left on my English heritage pass.

Got there eventually and there are some lovely views of Falmouth from the top of the hill. Here's a few..

Tudor Gun Tower

Info about Henry VIII's involvement with Pendennis Castle

Views of Falmouth from the Castle

Views of Falmouth from the Castle

WW2 involvement

You will be pleased to know that Gmaps behaved perfectly well on the way home and brought me home safely. The owners of this place had arranged to meet me here at 5pm as I had to pay a bit extra for the hire of linen. They were lovely people who live in Plymouth.

So that was another adventurous day in the great adventure of Wattle Wanderings. I had big ideas of going down to Lands End tomorrow, or Penzance, but I've decided to just take the day off and wander just gently close to home. It will be nice not to have lots of driving to do for a change. I'm sure we can still rustle up a story or two though!!!!

Here's a map of today's journey