Dublin to Cornwall via Devon

I went to Dublin for 14 hours to have black pudding - for any of you who love it as much as I do this will make a lot of sense. Having spent a lovely couple of hours with Kay, Jim and Jen including delicious rhubarb tart and the black pudding, I headed back to the airport to catch my flight to Exeter. 

Last time I was in Exeter I was 11 years old and smart phone were something you saw on Star Trek. I didn’t spend any time here apart from a lovely interaction with the Europcar employees and the bus driver making my tired dirty jetlagged self, feel welcome and excited about my time in the South West of England. The first stop was a slight detour to visit my cousin Emma and her family who live in a cottage straight out of Pride and Prejudice England just outside Totnes in Devon. The weather was fabulous and we sat in garden surrounded by wonderful plants and flowers while we munched on Emma’s homemade bread, local sausage rolls and locally-made Labneh, which I gave my Middle Eastern taste’s stamp of approval. It was lovely to finally meet Emma’s family and spend a short amount of time in their lovely home – the bonus was that my aunt Marie was visiting them at the same time. 

Onwards to Saint Agnes through the winding narrow back roads of Devon and into Cornwall, I blasted out ‘Surveillance Capitalism’ determined to defeat the jetlag – a fascinating book so far and I find myself consistently saying yes Yes YES…

Showered, unpacked and clean I got to relax with Pauline, Ber, Noelle, Tom and Paddy in the wonderful cottage – cottage being in name only as we had lots of space. I found myself confronted with the realization that I had no idea about where I was, all I knew of Cornwall was from books and films and I was excited to explore. English villages are a bred onto themselves with the word ‘quaint’ being a precise adjective that comes to mind. The traditional stonewashed cottages line the narrow streets, fronted by exquisite gardens and iron gates are picture perfect, Saint Agnes is no exception. 

I was excited to explore the village after some sleep as well as the Cornwall Coast and its history. As well as being the source of Cornish pasties, clotted cream tea and the Cornish accent, the history of the county is rich in mining – at one stage English copper (normally found at about 15% of mineral in the soil, in Cornwall it was/is 30%) from Cornwall was supplying most of the global needs. The county is also a source of tin, tungsten and iron, and often the miners were excavating all three from the same source. The mines began operating in Cornwall in 2150BC (so they have been around a while) and officially the last mine closed in 1998, although large deposits still exist and there is talk of reopening them (an economy after BREXIT??). The landscape of Cornwall is dotted with mine shafts and old engineering houses which have phenomenal turret style chimneys. Getting land assessed by a quantity surveyor in current times can be a dangerous and costly endeavor if an old mineshaft is discovered under the land! 

The famous Cornish pasty was the food of the miners, many of whom began working at age 8 and life expectancy was only 34 years, being a good combination of meat, vegetables and carbohydrates. The crust was used to hold the pasty before being thrown away – the miners’ hands were covered with arsenic. We arranged a kayaking trip, my first in an open kayak and fully covered with a wet suit, to paddle up the coast north from Saint Agnes to see the cliffs from the sea side – the colours providing evidence of the many metals that were still embedded deep in the soil and rock. 

Many English people travel to Cornwall to walk the Cornish coast and so we followed suit and conquered a couple of different sections over the days I was there (the others had covered some more before I arrived). The beauty of the cliffs is truly magnificent in a very different way to the mountainous temperate rainforest region I call home. The vegetation in sparse but the colours are kaleidoscopic particularly the purples, yellows and greens. The hills roll down to the cliffs and then along by the Irish sea weaving their way along the coastline. In total I covered 49km of walking around the different parts of the county we visited. We also visited Saint Ives, Landsend, Saint Just, Pendeen as well as Saint Agnes – all located along the coast. My driving escapades took us to Truro, Pool, Redruth, Penzance and Plymouth so I can safety say I have covered Cornwall! The coast and the smaller towns I would certainly return to, but my romantic notions of Penzance and Plymouth from fictional stories have been quashed.  

I end on food – it’s a good start to the day and an important aspect of any good holiday. I ate! I tried all the local delicacies including the Cornish pasty, the clotted cream tea, the local seafood and the Cornwall made gin (I’m not a gin drinker but I could be converted in Cornwall). It is a food place I could not survive more than the five days given the amount of dairy, but I indulged and I enjoyed! The company for the indulging in the food was great and nice to catch up with family.

A quaint picturesque part of the world, and now I know a little more about Cornwall. 

Onward to Stockholm…  

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