3rd July
Having joined the National Trust, we decided to visit the Levant mine at Trewellard. We walked into Penzance bus station and bought a day rover ticket and took a bus towards St. Just. On arriving at Trewellard, it was raining heavily as we walked the mile slightly downhill to the mine. We listened to a talk, watched a video about the history of the mine and walked round the various display rooms which all gave an insight into what it must have been like to work in the mine almost one hundred years ago. It certainly makes you realise how lucky we are these days.
When we left the mine, the heavy rain had reduced to a steady drizzle and we were pleased to reach the main road and find a warm, dry pub for a hot lunch. Suitably refreshed, we returned to Penzance by bus ready for onward journeys, first to Mousehole (pronounced Mowzal) and then on to St. Ives. We had previously walked into Mousehole but had not stayed long, so our return trip was to make sure we had not missed anything. We did spot a boat mentioned by Tom and Linda, the Barnabas, which we took a quick photo of to let them know we had seen it. Mousehole is a pretty little harbour and must be a fantastic place in the warm sunshine.
We then caught a bus back to Penzance where we waited for the next bus to St. Ives. Almost an hour later we were in St. Ives and the sun had come out making our walk round the town and harbour a pleasant one. It appeared to have a sheltered anchorage for if we sailed this way again. The next bus was an open-top one, but as the rain had now returned, we opted to stay dry on the lower deck.
Isles of Scilly
4th July
the Isles of Scilly as we knew that we could not sail there in seaduction as the weather was not settled enough. The ferry runs every day and runs from the pier outside the Harbour. We only had four hours before we had to catch the return ferry, so after a quick lunch we had a stroll around then took the community bus around St Marys Island. The bus was not the newest of models and had rope and bungy to operate the bus doors. Although our visit was short it gave us a taster what the Islands are like should we return.
Penzance
5th July
According to the weather forecasts, there looked as though there was going to be some better weather on its way, so today we did laundry, cleaned, shopped and prepared to leave Penzance the next day, but instead of heading west and north, we had decided to head back east, visiting some of the places we had missed on our way, We are, of course, disappointed that we won’t get to see Wales, Ireland and Scotland but, as everyone knows, the weather has been awful, at times more like winter than summer. Chris settled our Harbour bill for our stay, which was a pleasant surprise and so we treated ourselves to dinner at the infamous Admiral Benbow Inn. We enjoyed a lovely meal and looked forward to moving on to our next port tomorrow