Around Cornwall on CB125F Day 7 – Lizard to Penzance

At 7:30 on my feet for breakfast at 8 and start at 9 am for lovely ride from Lizard to Penzance. Beautiful, sunny day with light breeze. Not too hot, just right to enjoy. The route I planned for today is rather short (39.4 miles) but it features few places worth stopping by. It was also very convenient for the next day.

My first stop was planned at Goonhilly Earth Station. This is a places with an array of massive satellite radio dishes pointing into the endless cosmic space. It is one the pioneering deep space communication systems and also it gives access to all type of satellites. Some time in the past it was open to visitors and it had a visitor centre but now shut and without any known date if ever again to open. Pity, as it is very interesting place, which is located just around 7 miles North off Lizard.

Currently you cannot enter any part of the Earth Station, so only view from the road or the closest is from the before the main gate. However, I wouldn’t be surprise if access could be arranged. I didn’t ask, I took my chances hoping that some part of it might be available for a short ride around. Unfortunately not but it is also a training and education centre for future space experts, so if you have some inclination and interests in this respect I could try.

RNAS Seahawk base

The next place I wanted to see is Royal Navy (RNAS) Culdrose Seahawk Helicopter base. It is the largest helicopter base in Europe, hence its great importance, as it is marine engineering, deck crew and pilots training location. There is a viewing spot from where you can observe take off and landing or some training or other activities like air shows.

I went there only to take a look. There were no events scheduled or at least I didn’t find any details on their website, which is now archived. I mean the page you get link from Google maps leads now to the ‘Sorry, the page no longer exists’ message. It has a link to the archives site but as it is, it has no use anymore. The past events definitely were interesting for aviation enthusiasts.

Still, if you are around it maybe worth to pay a visit.

Porthleven

Six miles to the West from Culdrose there is charming, small town of Porthleven. It has nice but drying harbour with many small boats.

Looking at Google satellite view you may not realise that streets and houses surrounding the harbour are on different levels. Actually, this apply to almost all places I have been to. So, if you want to experience the lovely view over the town and harbour, the Peverell Terrace provides one or from the other side the Beacon Road is a good spot.

By the harbour, you can enjoy tasty pizza, ice cream and coffee or any other meals of your choice from number of local bars and restaurants. Below is an image which I would do 1000x better myself but it is to show you how gorgeous it is there.

The town is gigger then that visible above, it stretches to the North-East in relation to this view. It is such a place that you could stay forever. But there were other adventures on my list for today, so after having a delicious coffee, at the outside table of Go Nauti and enjoying the views, I went towards Penzance.

Penzance and Marazion

Because it is only 13 miles I have arrived at my B&B in Penzance in 24 minutes. I have checked-in, dropped my bags and now light, went couple of miles back to Marazion. It is another small town or village on the coast, from which you can get to the St Michael’s Mount and castle.

I do like to take time, don’t rush and be mostly at location well before any scheduled event, meeting or like in this case an entry slot to the Mount. This way I had more then enough time to find a parking and take a walk around the place. I had time even for a mouth-watering Cornish ice cream, sit on a bench overlooking the Mount and enjoy the sun, wind and the sea views.

St Michael’s Mount

When the time came, I made my way to the Castle and you have to do at the right time. This is because the access is by means of two options: at the high water it is only by a boat and at the low tide it is only over the causeway. At the time I was there, causeway was the only option available. Tide times are changing daily and I was very lucky to get a ticket. If I planed to arrive two days later it would not be possible and the next available time slots after that was 10 days from then.

Simply, they manage visitor’s access based on the tide tables and within specific daily hours and when they are open to visitors. In August 2019 at the time of my booking only gardens were open. But few days before my arrival they opened the castle as well, so double luck. 🙂

The mount or a rock is rather an unusual place. To get to the castle you have to claim over the rocks by taking big steps at times. Practically the stairway(s) does not exist. There is no lights at night on the path or any kind of lift to help with goods delivery. The steep, uneven path is the only access route, so everything that is needed in the castle, such as food had to be carried by hand. I guess, that after only doing this twice you will be completely exhausted. So, truly I don’t know how they could managed that for so many years of castles’ existence.

The Gardens

The St Michael’s is a granite rock which collects sun heat and radiate it over night. Even in the winter the temperature on South side never drops below zero. This creates specific micro-climate for many tropical plants to thrive, hence to locate the Garden there was a natural choice. Also, those plants which doesn’t like too much water were planted between gaps in the rocks, so the excess of water drains out. The design, the variety of plants including Lavender, Aloes, Agave, Ginger Lilies, Fuchsia, Pelargonium and many more it a feast for the eyes and nose. The colours and scents are overwhelming.

On the day of my visit, temperature was around 19C, which felt sometimes less because of the fresh breeze from the sea. However, in the gardens which are well protected by the mount it was around 30C. Yes, 30C and the reason for it is what I mentioned earlier, the granite radiating collected heat and the sun shining from the South. Practically in no wind condition.

After an uplifting tour through the Gardens, I took a short break for a coffee and pasty on village lawns.

The Castle

It is time to begin the claim 🙂 Yes, it is kind of odd, having not many steps to cover fairly long path to the castle. In some places you have to stop on a side to let people walking down pass because is narrow or rocky stones are to big to go over. It takes time to get up there.

When there, the long history begins and I think some of it is better told on their website but the best way it to pack up and visit it yourself. I my humble opinion, it is one of the most fascinating places in my travels around Cornwall. One of the reasons for it is that, it is still standing firm, encapsulating time and telling the captivating story off the past.

Another interesting element is that this is one of the very few castles where owner’s family still lives in it. Most are more of ruin or if in good condition, then usually it will be owned and managed by National Trust or English Heritage or any other similar organisation and being converted entirely into a museum.

Penzance

Two hours down the line I was on my way back to Penzance. I stayed for two nights in a Duporth Guest House.

Before booking I have read few reviews and it looked like the breakfast was part of the deal. In reality there was a self-catering. Although most of the ingrediencies for the so called continental breakfast were in the room / fridge and ready to use. Not all were to my taste, so I paid a visit to the local Lidl.

The room I had was small but comfortable with an-suite bathroom, maybe a bit dated but for the price acceptable.

I asked the owner (very laid-back, happy chap) about the breakfast comments stating the he makes splendid one to which his replay was: “No, I never did that. It was always self-catering and anyway, I don’t read comments” 🙂 Fair enough, I asked for places to have a decent diner and he made very good recommendations. One of those was The Turks Head, a 13th century pub with really fine food but on the high end pricing. On my wanders around the town, I passed The Yacht Inn. I liked the name but … the menu was short, quality – hm, way to order – only via app or webpage. Not many choices of anything. It was disappointing.

That many steps

Penzance was one of four places where I did the most of walking. My mobile counted for today 14911 steps, that is 395 more then I did the day before in Lizard. And I thought that I did a lot. The third place takes Slapton with 11842 and the firs place goes to Bath with 15670 steps recorded. We will come back to it a bit later. Now you know what was my last place before retuning to London 🙂

Lastly, here is a map of the route.