Cornwall; May 2018
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A Pasty at Padstow
The weather was looking promising for Thursday and Friday, 17th and 18th May, so I booked a night at the Camborne Premier Inn and headed west for Cornwall. Like all Brits, when the weather is good you feel like you have to get out. I planned to go on my old unfaired CB1000F "Big One" so I thought it a good idea to put my warm liner back in my jacket. Just as well because although it warmed up as the day went on it was chilly first thing. I left from Wimborne around 9 am on Thursday morning. The blue waypoints on the map show where I went on Thursday while the red waypoints show where I went on Friday.
From Wimborne, I rode to Bridport and then from there took the coast road (Lyme Regis, Beer and Sidmouth) to Exeter. After Exeter I rode to Launceston and onto Davidstow to photograph the nearby Cornish Round Britain Rally landmark. It was then a swift ride on the A30 to get to a second Cornish Round Britain Rally landmark near Hayle. This set me up for a ride along one of my favourite roads, the road from St Ives along the coast to St Just. On the way I stopped at the remains of the Carn Galver mine to have my lunch. A lovely spot that.
After St Just I headed for Land's End along the road that runs past Land's End airport. Land's End was surprisingly busy for the time year. I rode up in front of the Land's End hotel and took the obligatory bike photograph. I then had a brief walk around the Land's End visitor centre but I have to to admit it's not really my thing. A disadvantage with taking the CB1000F is that I don't have a hard luggage option for it. I don't like to leave it too long with a tail bag sitting on it.
After Land's End I circled back towards Penzance visiting the Minack Theatre and Mousehole on the way. Again, both very busy for the time of year. The last time I was at Mousehole was with Chris on a CB400F, circa 1977! After Mousehole I continued on through Newlyn and along the front at Penzance. Still no Jack Nowell (rugby player) statue at Newlyn where he's from!
I got a good view of St Michael's Mount as I left Penzance on the way to the Lizard. I continued on through Helston, past RNAS Culdrose and Goon Hilly to the Lizard. I've always wanted to try one of Ann's famous pasties but when I get to her shop at Lizard village it was closed! I rode on down to the Lizard cafe and took in the views of the sun setting. With the sun going down I headed off to my bed at the Premier Inn, Camborne, and a 'Billy-no-mates' dinner at the adjacent Table Table restaurant. Solitary eating is the only time that I fully enagage with my mobile phone!
The next morning I left the Premier Inn around 9:30 am intending to get to my Brother's in Plymouth around 3 pm. I couldn't make up my mind whether to go via the south or north coast. Initially I started off heading south for Falmouth but I changed my mind as I was riding through Redruth and headed north to Padstow instead. Padstow has good memories for me. I had set the 'curvy roads' navigation option on my Garmin satnav and it was a nice ride to Padstow. The surfer dudes were out in force. At Padstow I parked up at the front, transferred all my valuables from my tail bag to my tank bag and clipped my helmet onto the bike's helmet lock. I then went for a stroll around Padstow with my tank bag. I bought myself a Cornish pasty and something to drink and had lunch back at the bike. I had a good chat with a Dutch guy who had ridden to Nordkapp and Gibraltar, but not both in the same ride.
Padstow is often know as Padstein, the reason being that Rick Stein owns a fair bit of it. He owns restaurants, cafes and a cookintg school there. I remember taking Chris to his restaurant there for one of our big wedding anniversaries. Not cheap. After Padstow, I headed for Callington to cross the river Tamar back into Devon crossing on the bridge at Gunnislake. Back in Devon I went to visit a mate who lives at Bere Alston but I should have phoned ahead as he was out. Never mind, a chance to visit a place where my Devon ancestors lived. After that it was onto my Brother's in Plymouth where I spent a pleasant couple of hours.
I got back to Wimborne just before 8 pm. I made good time taking the A38/M5 to Exeter and the A30 to Honiton. The elevated road between Bridport and Dorchester was quite bracing at around 7 pm. The old CB1000F was brilliant to ride. I had forgotten how good it is to ride an unfaired bike in good weather. It did around 550 miles in the two days and has now done 2000 miles since being put back on the road this year. It really is running well.