Thursday 9^th March 2018

Today we had a busy day scheduled. We were therefore away from the Ice Cream Lorry prompt. A short walk to Gerrans village to catch the bus into St Mawes. This was a twenty minute ride. There is no doubt the Roseland peninsular is beautiful even this early in the year. The only problem is if one wishes to get to Falmouth from this area it’s either an hour’s drive around or a slightly shorter journey using the King Harry Ferry over the Fal River or the passenger ferry from St Mawes. The pax ferry is a twenty minute journey and is not cheap. Ten pounds return. We made our way to the small harbour in St Mawes for embarkation but found we had time to kill.

Today was a bright blue sky with a little sea running and a fair breeze. It was damn cold. Fortunately, there on the harbour wall was a small tea/coffee shop which also sold pasties and fresh bread etc. In we popped, ordered some hot drinks and endeavoured to make friends with the crowd of builders and fishermen who were ensconced within. Most seemed to be from ‘up country’ By this I mean North country. The fisher folk were true Cornish. I knew this to be the case ‘cos they kept saying ‘dreckly and ‘are you going to have another coffee or no?’ We received veiled threats about ‘crib time’ and taking Tom’s seat. “He’ll stare at you like a mad conger” we were threatened, “We’re Devon stock, us don’t scare easy.” I replied. “ I can outstare a statue.”  I think they warmed to us slightly.

We walked to the end of the pier. The Road to Wigan Pier immediately pops into mind! Long time since I last read that. The wind is fresh. The ferry chugs into view. We board.  Jackie insisted on staying aloft, in the open.  It was a cold crossing. Quite a few sailing yachts were ‘running before the wind’ around Carrick Roads.

We landed on the Prince of Wales jetty and there before us was the memorial to Operation Chariot. The Allies attempt to deny the Normandie Dock at St Nazaire to the German battleships on the Western seaboard of France. If you scan back through this blog you will see our visit to St Nazaire France in June 2017.

Delightful as it was here in the sun on the jetty we needed to get on. We entered the cold sunless area that forms the main shopping street through Falmouth, running parallel to the river frontage. We popped into a few shops and managed to purchase matching boots, scarf and gloves for Jackie  to complement her new teal coloured Osprey bergan. Aren’t we lucky!

The next assault was upon the ‘mountain’ that forms the backdrop to Falmouth town. Tim’s Providore Resto is situated at the top. It was here we intended to take lunch.

The Providore Resto, Falmouth.

Falmouth is a warren of back alleys, passages and granite steps, steeper that a climb up Snowdon! Well after traipsing around shops all morning we arrived breathless and gasping for a G+T. Bev, Tim’s wife remembered us from our last visit, a breakfast, eggs benedict, delicious. It was on that occasion I made the gaff of suggesting that Tim had cooked a delightful breaky. Strewth! Bev very politely rounded upon me, with some justification I might add and made it clear that she cooked breakfast and lunch and Tim controlled the evening dinners. I scraped and crawled like Basil Fawlty.

Tim was today at a food trade fair in Wadebridge so we missed him. We must call again for dinner and catch up long before our next scheduled meet in Sweden canoeing! Lunch was Kati, a type of Indian wrap/ chapati with chillies, cauli, yogurt and mint. Quite delicious but the chillies caught both Jackie and I. Thank goodness I was on a Cobra beer. Jackie could not resist some home made carrot cake for dessert and we washed all this down with a Turmeric Latte and Brazilian ground bean espresso. The staff here are always so friendly they are a joy. We bade farewell to Bev and made our
way downhill towards The National Maritime Museum.


There was we felt insufficient time to allow a ‘proper’ visit to the museum as the ferry and bus connections were critical. Late for one meant missing the other and this would then be a taxi ride as the distance was too far to tab given Jackie’s recent twisted knee issues. We reconciled ourselves with a wander around the Gift shop area which surprisingly was not filled with the usual amount of tat. This also gave us some breathing space to save for our entry fees on our next visit.

We walked slowly back through town. Browsing various shops, mostly hippy gear it seemed, usual holiday gifts featuring plastic mackerel and pictures and mugs from the Poldark series recently shown on TV. Jackie was unable to pass an Italian Ice Cream shop without buying a ‘lick lick’ as Poppy would say. Now back at the Prince of Wales jetty we had thirty minutes or so to kill. There was a Rowes pasty and café shop on the corner. We ducked inside and found some very nice comfortable arm chairs and had a coffee to pass the time. Somebody also had a slice of millionaire shortbread.

We were soon back on the ferry for a rather lumpy crossing, spray falling upon the open deck below. There had been a suggestion of Dolphins but none showed today. Arriving back at St Mawes harbour we marched smartly to the bus turn point and made it with a few minutes to spare. We sat at the rear of the single decker, our backs to the engine compartment and were once again toasty warm. We alighted at Gerran beside the church and within half a mile we were soon back at ‘The Lorry’.

 Time for a brew, put our feet up and got stuck into our books.