Friday 1st October Port Isaac – Bath

The weather bureau forecast heavy rain and they were not wrong! We left Port Isaac in light rain but by the time we had completed the 9 miles to Tintagel, it was pouring rain. We took the easy option by paying 1pound 50p to the Land Rover driver to take us to the coast. Although we were hopeful that it would ease up that was not the case. It was pouring!!! It is a serious climb up many, many steps to reach the castle so we decided it was too wet. Caught the Land Rover back and wandered the streets of Tintagel waiting for the rain to cease. It had other ideas so after a Devonshire tea with clotted cream, we decided to set out for Bath. Thought it would be easier to walk around a city rather than steep slippery steps and rocks of Tintagel.

Arrived Bath in peak hour traffic, as usual, to find the town was booked out as there is a rugby game on in Bath and the Rider Cup in Wales. We lucked it again and must have found the last bed in Bath. It was in the centre of Bath. By the time we had found the accommodation, the rain eased and we were able to walk the streets and see the city in the evening light. Even had a wonderful rainbow.!!! We have seen many rainbows on this trip but this one tonight had to be the best!!


In reality, we were on a literary, TV tour!!! Stayed in Torquay where you can do the Agatha Christie literary tour. Then on to Doc Martin’s Village. We also were in the region of the Poldark series of historical novels by Winston Graham. Next stop was Midsomer Merton and the Midsomer TV series. Finally, we were in Bath where Jane Austin lived and gained so much inspiration for her books.

Tomorrow we head back to London. Our trip is over. Neither of us can believe that we have had almost 8 weeks travelling over 4800 miles traversing some spectacular countryside in Scotland, Ireland and England. We have honed our skills in map reading, in fact we covered that distance with a couple of maps that Jan stuck together from a travel book and we seldom got lost.

We have surprised so many people with the fact that two women have driven all these places by themselves!!! We have been told how brave we were. We have learned to follow our gut instincts. We can drive a manual car, over single lane roads, up and down steep inclines. Fred Flintstone, our car in Ireland and Barney Rubble, our car in England, sometimes needed extra encouragement to get up the hills!!! Several gear changes in fact. We have turned around in some really tight places in Mousehole and Port Isaac and the fishing villages of Scotland and Ireland.

We have met some wonderful people who were always welcoming and friendly. For example, the guy who helped Jo when her port was lost was fantastic. Our trip has been fantastic and one that we will remember for many years to come.