Dodgems

The day looked promising and the forecast was good. The Silver Vixen was a little shakey, first thing, so we decided not to do anything too strenuous.

During our last trip, we had taken a boat trip down to the Helford River and up towards Frenchman’s Creek. It had looked pretty from the boat, so we decided to drive to Helford and have a look round the village. The SatNav selected a route and we began our journey down the county lanes and single tracks that led round the Helford River to its south side. The whole route seemed to be an exercise in dodging or stopping for oncoming cars and farm vehicles. Helford is 5.1 miles as the crow flies. Our route was about 20 miles by road and took almost an hour.

We parked up and took a gentle stroll into the village of Helford. It really is a picture postcard spot. The tide woes low so the creeks were almost empty, but it took very little imagination to see what it would be like in flood. 

It will come as no surprise that we stopped at The Shipwrights Arms for a drink. We sat in the sunshine, out on one of their terraces. We watched as boats bobbed at anchor and the occasional motorboat puttered along the River.

Moving on, we took the path along to the Ferry. This is a small passenger ferry which shuttles pedestrians back and forth across the River. We had no intention of using it, but though we should explore.

We returned to the car and decided that as we were in the general vicinity we would head down to The Lizard. After the first few miles, this got us onto a decent road and we seemed to arrive in no time.

Having parked we asked the attendant if there was tea room - as you do. We were given instructions to follow the path and directed to a couple. We decided to stroll up to the lighthouse first, then grab a tea. We didn’t climb the lighthouse but did have a wander about before heading for the tea room. 

This is where it went south (well, The Lizard is the southernmost tip of England). We followed the path as directed, but then it clearly became quite steep as we could see the tearooms down below us. It was too steep to risk for the Silver Vixen. Going down might have been all right but coming back up would have been a challenge. We returned to the car and drove back to the village where we grabbed tea, a pasty, and an ice cream and sat in the sun watching the world spin by.

We plotted a less challenging route to get us back to Falmouth. We stopped for some groceries and to fill up with petrol, then headed to our parking place. This is where it all went a bit wrong. The Gorse Fox turned into the spot at the wrong angle and managed to catch the wheel arch on the parking bollard. Having spent the day dodging all and sundry, he ended up hitting something that was stationary! He wasn’t happy… this will need some popping out and a splash of paint!

We had a quiet hour or so before heading out for dinner. We chose Pizza Express tonight. The food was entirely predictable, the views were wonderful, but it was incredibly noisy. So much so, that when Urban-Cub phoned, we had to give up and call her back later.