We were up early to head out to St.
Michael's Mount. The weather wasn’t on
our side – but it was exactly what we expected from England, so we were
prepared.
St. Michael’s Mount is a little
island off the coast from Marazion, a small coastal town about 40 minutes drive
from Perranarworthal, and right next to Penzance. It was blisteringly cold when we arrived. We
found a park on the edge of town (the parking for St. Michael's Mount ferry is
pretty well signposted) and fought our way through the wind to the ferry point…just
in time to see it leaving. A friendly woman in a heavy-duty rain coat
approached us as we arrived and sold us a ticket to the next ferry, which she
said would be about a half hour. With half an hour to go and no shelter at the ferry
point, we decided to walk in to town and get some cash out; as we weren’t sure
if they had card facilities on the island (we found out that they do, for
reference). Marazion is a tiny town, so it took us all of 10 minutes to reach
the centre of town by foot and find what we were told was the only atm in town,
hidden at the back of a small convenience store.
With cash in our wallets we headed
back to the ferry point to join other shivering tourists. The Ferry to St.
Michaels Mount was, thankfully, enclosed, protecting us from the cold. It was
one of those hybrid land/water vehicles (think the Surfers Paradise Aquaduck)
so it pulled in on the beach for us to get on board, before bumping over the
sand and into the water for a quick 5 minute crossing. The Island is very close
to the mainland – in low tide you can walk across a causeway instead of use the
Ferry.
It was apparently mega-super-off
peak season when we visited, so we had had to plan our visit specifically for
this day, as the Mount was closed all other days of the week. Only 2 tours ran
of the castle that day, and we made the 11.30am tour just in the nick of time.
Our tour guide took us up to the –
I guess you would call it a castle – via a steep, stony footpath that had my
feet aching in no time at all. Being an island, there were obviously no cars,
and we were told that this is how the Lord and Lady of the Mount walked to and
from their home every day. I forgot to ask how often they get drunk on the mainland
and have to stumble up pissed. The only exception that was made was when the
Queen visited once, and her security had special training to drive a golf buggy
up.
The castle was not huge, but it was
much bigger than your average house. The furnishings also weren’t very regal
looking, but I really liked that. It felt like a home, with all sorts of
trinkets bought back from holidays. I even saw 2 skateboards pressed against a
window in one of the areas we didn’t get to see in (the living quarters).
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| Cannons |
Occasionally during the tour we
would emerge outside, either to see the cannons (yep, they had cannons. And
something called a murder hole.), or the turrets overlooking the gardens (where
we got told a depressing story about one of the previous girls who lived there,
who fell off the stone walls and into the garden and ended up in a wheelchair
for the rest of her life. Thanks for that guys. I really wanted to look into
the garden after that tale), and the area outside the cute little chapel that
they had.
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I feel like this belongs at Hogwarts |
About 1 and a half hours later we
were led back to the footpath down to explore the little township on the island.
Somehow the weather had decided to get even more freezing (I didn’t even know
that was possible at this point, but it was) so we headed to the open café and
had another pasty for lunch (Why wouldn’t we. Cornish pasties. Enough said). It
was nowhere near as good as yesterdays, but I think that’s because this was a
commercially made pasty as compared to a bakery pasty.
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| The township - before we did the tour, when blue sky existed |
I stopped to get my fridge magnet
from the souvenir store on the island and we headed back to the mainland via
ferry again.
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| On the Island |
The mainland was even colder, with
strong winds pushing rain hard into us as we walked back to the car. We were
completely sodden when we unlocked the car, and I couldn’t feel my legs
anymore. We fiddled with the spaceship until we could get it to heat properly
and drove back to Perranarworthal, where we picked up Chris before heading off
a few minutes down the road to Hugh’s uncles house. It was an old English
family house that I’d heard about a lot from Hugh whenever he talked of
England, so I was keen to see what he was always talking about.
Hugh’s family were lovely &
gave us a tour of the property & some tea with biscuits. The tea was heated
on the oldest stove I had ever seen. I thought it was awesome. English people
seem to take a lot more pride in their heritage and history than we do.
Probably because half of Australia can’t even spell the word heritage, much
less care to find out about it.
After tea, we swung back home to pick
up Margie, and then headed out to the Pandora Inn. The Pandora Inn was found by
following forests and skinny single car width laneways lined with hedges. We
had to stop more than once to dance with other cars coming the opposite way. I
even saw a badger off to the side of one of the roads on the drive there. It
wasn’t really alive anymore (It was quite dead, actually) but I still saw it,
so I counted it as having seen a badger in the wild.
The Pandora Inn was a charming pub
set next to a little lake of sorts. It had a thatched roof, and a cosy
overheated interior. I was all in for more English pub food (except pork pies),
so it was a great end to the night.
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