Day Seventeen from Melissa

Hi! 

We woke up to fog outside the window!  I was pleased, even though it meant our day might be complicated. 

Breakfast was very complete. 

Yes, that is orange marmalade. And the sausage was very, very good. 

It was raining as we went to the coach. Seeing as most of our day was to be spent outdoors, that was rather disconcerting. Still, we pushed on to our destination. 

Now, our bus/coach is very wide. These little roads were very narrow. Several times, we would meet a car coming the other way, and we or they would have to slow down, stop, or even back out of the way. 

Well, these roads have what they call hedgerows, which are hedges probably at least ten feet high, made out of matted gorse and berry brambles and ivy and who knows what. They run alongside the roads and make it hard to see. We almost got got once, as a little car came whizzing around a corner. The guy stopped, unrolled his window, and hollered,

"Oi!  Take a smaller vehicle!"

Needless to say, we couldn't. 

Our first stop was the most wonderful beach!  You couldn't see it at all, until you came down the path quite a way. Then suddenly it opened up into a little cove. 

Honestly, one of the prettiest beaches I've seen. Cliffs all around and the sea on one side, like a little semi circle. It was a bit tough navigating with crutches, because they sank in the sand, but definitely worth it!

At this point, the group split up. Half went on the Porthcurno hike along the cliffs. The other half, made up of people who didn't feel like doing a six mile hike in three hours, went on the bus. Miriam hiked, and took my phone with her because it has a data plan. I went on the bus. 

For that reason, you won't get any pictures of this next part. At least not yet. They're on my camera, and to get them off I need my computer, which is in London. I'm blogging on my phone now. 

But it was beautiful. We went to a place called Land's End, which is the furthest west you can get. 

This is me wearing my Land's End jacket at Land's End!  I think we were both quite pleased. 

Porthcurno beach is the furthest south, Land's End is the furthest west. It is made up of stunning cliffs that plunge into the sea. 

Above those cliffs is where we were, weaving our way along paths that were more ruts than paths, dodging mammoth boulders. It was too salty for grass, but the ground wasn't bare. A sign I saw claimed that 80 varieties of lichen grow there, as well as many varieties of flowers. So we walked on a lighter green carpet of lichen, surrounded by flowers. Thanks to Cecily Mary Barker, I recognized most of them, and I read the signs to discover the names of the others. Thrift, gorse, sea campion, wild thyme, a blue flower whose name I didn't know - they covered the ground and grew in patches on the sides of the cliffs. Below the water surged up against the rocks, all blue and white. 

Blue!  The water is so blue!  Not the turquoise of Cancun water - it's just really, really blue. Beautiful, and very clear. The sun shown down and the wind blew in gusts, and seagulls dipped and swooped around. Some of the girls saw seals. 

I dropped behind the rest of the group, since I knew I couldn't go as fast and would get back late. Also, I wanted to collect flowers for my book. A lot of people passed me, and most of them took one look at the girl picking her way across the rocks on crutches and had two things to say. 

#1:  Do you need help?

#2;  You're brave!

I could tell most of them were scraping the dregs of their English to say either one. I don't know if brave was the right word, but I tried very hard to be careful and not hurt myself. 

Yes, absolutely lovely. After we met up with the hikers, Miriam and I ate Cornish Pasties. They're made of very flaky pastry with meat and cheese and vegetables inside, with some kind of white sauce filling. 

Yum. Anyway, we hopped back in our coach and headed off to Mount St. Michael. 

If you've ever seen Ever After - I think that's the one - where she gets taken away to a castle on an island?  Well, that's a French monestary/castle, and one of the monks came to England in the 1300's and found this place, which is geographically similar. So he created a similar monestary, which later turned into a castle. 

Mount St. Michael is named that because long ago some fishermen claimed they'd seen him appear there. At low tide visitors can walk on a causeway, which you can see a portion of in the above photo, but at high tide you have to take a boat. 

So that's what we did. 

This is us having disembarked and walking up toward the castle. 

It was hard to get up there, but I persevered. Upon finally reaching the castle, the staff member stared a little as I ducked through the (chin-height) door. 

"You're the first person I've ever seen make it on crutches."

Yes, that's me. 

You see that line of stone to the door?  That's stairs. Yes. They turn and come down the right side of the picture. It's okay if you can't tell they're stairs. Sometimes I couldn't either. 

The lord and lady of the area still live in the castle. It's their main home. They have four children. One of their daughters just married a tour guide in the old chapel from the 1300's. They have family pictures around, because it is their home. Also a portrait of the last woman whose native language was Cornish. 

Incidentally, the two sons are still single. One of them will inherit the castle someday...

 This is looking straight down from the turret at the rocks and flower gardens. 

The guns come from a French frigate that was beaten here. 

This is the land of fairy tales!  Ever heard of Jack the Giant Killler?  Well, his last giant is buried under the family well, and a cobblestone shaped like a heart is imbedded in the path. It's called the Giant's heart, and they say you can hear a heartbeat when you listen. 

I listened. 

Not telling. 

I would've liked to have listened longer, but I could tell I was concerning people. They see a girl with crutches lying in a steep cobblestone path, and they naturally worry. 

Oh, this huge, inlaid mother-of pearl chest?  From Zanzibar. I didn't even know that was a place!

On the way down. 

Anyway, bone weary, we came back to the bus. Miriam put her head on my lap, I laid my head down on her, and we both fell asleep. 

Getting back, I sat in the hot tub. Not sure which was more sore - the broken foot or the unbroken one. Either way, it loosened me out for dinner. 

I had fish again for dinner. Not fishy at all. In fact, it tasted like hard-boiled egg whites. Very mild. Very good. And hot apple crumble with custard for dessert!

Tintagel castle tomorrow. After I made it up Mount St. Michael today, the leaders agreed I can do Tintagel. So I need my sleep!  So tired. 

But very happy.