A Journey
To and from.
Despite being just on the other side of the river Severn from Wales, it takes about 6 hours to get to Cornwall by road.
Crossing the river Severn on the new Severn Bridge. The wind breaks block the view unfortunately, but they do mean that the new bridge does not close so often in high winds.
The new bridge is mostly just an elevated roadway, with very little making up the main span.
Looking through the windbreak to the old bridge.
In Britain, motorways are centrally funded, so we pay for them in our taxes. However, these bridges are owned by a French company who mistook them for payage, and have toll gates with spiralling charges to get out of England and into Wales (but not the other direction - draw your own conclusions). The money goes back to the company, not either country.
The old Severn Bridge. The river Severn is by far the widest river estury in Britain, at over 90 miles (170 kilometres) between the tip of Wales, and the tip of Cornwall (or 45 miles [75 kilometres] at the narrow point of the river mouth), with the bridges crossing its narrow point in the southeast.
A support pillar on the old Severn Bridge.
Personally, I find the old bridge to be far better looking with its slung cable supports.
The secondary old bridge over the river Wye - the border between England and Wales.
The extremely high electricity pylons over the Severn. I have always wondered if it would be possible to abseil down the inside (apart from the wind factor, of course).
The British motorways far exceed those in Norway, but Cornwall is a horribly popular tourist destination. The whole journey should take just 3 hours, but is increased to twice that by the many traffic jams on the way.
Wellington monument - a finger up to the French. Look on Wikipedia for Duke of Wellington if you need some clarification.
In UK, we use d/m/yy date format. And it seems that road workers cannot count.
While the tourists pour into Cornwall, the Cornish pour out. I am so happy not to be on that side of the road.
We pass the edge of the Dartmoor national park, famous for otters, granite, and druids. I think this is either the Cawsand Beacon (548 metres), or Buttern Hill (414 metres).
More Dartmoor. At least one of these pictures should show Yes Tor (618 metres), and High Willhays (621 metres), the highest mountains in Dartmoor. Sadly there is no picture of Cocks Hill (501 metres).
Dart more.
Then we dip into Cornwall and enter Bodmin Moor.
Brown Willy is the biggest (of course) mountain in Bodmin Moor (and by that token, the biggest in Cornwall), but at just 419 metres, it looks pretty flaccid to me.
A lake on Bodmin Moor.
A heavy goods vehicle.
A mountain range not mentioned on the map.
Turns out the whole thing is a quarry. That's probably why they did not bother to mention it, since it will disappear at some point.
Beefy Beetle.
This gives a fairly accurate picture of the Cornish countryside; just like the rest of England - flat, and quite boring, with plenty of farms.
Sometimes wind farms.
Looks like a good crop this year.
Helston is very close to where we are heading. And to help you along with some of the lingo, "ton" on the end of a name means "town". So welcome to Hell's Town. You Norwegians ain't the only ones, you know.
Cornwall is dotted with these stone towers, a remnant of the tin mining and refining.
At least the road workers here are honest. Repeat; ambiguity is not my friend, ambiguity is not my friend.
In Cornwall, even cows obey traffic signals.
Then my jaw drops as we reach the site where we are staying. Here you can see the family (!) casino, the bowling alley, and the playground.
And the three (normally crowded) swimming pools, miniature golf course, and the caravans, where we would be living as trailer trash for a week.
Go through the casino to the family bar and nightclub (again, does the word "family" really seem appropriate here?), and pick up the keys.
Throw in an extra 300 families - about 1200 people - and that is just the ones checking in today, and it is closer to my idea of Hell than a holiday. But then, we are pretty close to Hell's town, so perhaps it is appropriate. We shall see.
Crossing the river Severn on the new Severn Bridge. The wind breaks block the view unfortunately, but they do mean that the new bridge does not close so often in high winds.
The new bridge is mostly just an elevated roadway, with very little making up the main span.
Looking through the windbreak to the old bridge.
In Britain, motorways are centrally funded, so we pay for them in our taxes. However, these bridges are owned by a French company who mistook them for payage, and have toll gates with spiralling charges to get out of England and into Wales (but not the other direction - draw your own conclusions). The money goes back to the company, not either country.
The old Severn Bridge. The river Severn is by far the widest river estury in Britain, at over 90 miles (170 kilometres) between the tip of Wales, and the tip of Cornwall (or 45 miles [75 kilometres] at the narrow point of the river mouth), with the bridges crossing its narrow point in the southeast.
A support pillar on the old Severn Bridge.
Personally, I find the old bridge to be far better looking with its slung cable supports.
The secondary old bridge over the river Wye - the border between England and Wales.
The extremely high electricity pylons over the Severn. I have always wondered if it would be possible to abseil down the inside (apart from the wind factor, of course).
The British motorways far exceed those in Norway, but Cornwall is a horribly popular tourist destination. The whole journey should take just 3 hours, but is increased to twice that by the many traffic jams on the way.
Wellington monument - a finger up to the French. Look on Wikipedia for Duke of Wellington if you need some clarification.
In UK, we use d/m/yy date format. And it seems that road workers cannot count.
While the tourists pour into Cornwall, the Cornish pour out. I am so happy not to be on that side of the road.
We pass the edge of the Dartmoor national park, famous for otters, granite, and druids. I think this is either the Cawsand Beacon (548 metres), or Buttern Hill (414 metres).
More Dartmoor. At least one of these pictures should show Yes Tor (618 metres), and High Willhays (621 metres), the highest mountains in Dartmoor. Sadly there is no picture of Cocks Hill (501 metres).
Dart more.
Then we dip into Cornwall and enter Bodmin Moor.
Brown Willy is the biggest (of course) mountain in Bodmin Moor (and by that token, the biggest in Cornwall), but at just 419 metres, it looks pretty flaccid to me.
A lake on Bodmin Moor.
A heavy goods vehicle.
A mountain range not mentioned on the map.
Turns out the whole thing is a quarry. That's probably why they did not bother to mention it, since it will disappear at some point.
Beefy Beetle.
This gives a fairly accurate picture of the Cornish countryside; just like the rest of England - flat, and quite boring, with plenty of farms.
Sometimes wind farms.
Looks like a good crop this year.
Helston is very close to where we are heading. And to help you along with some of the lingo, "ton" on the end of a name means "town". So welcome to Hell's Town. You Norwegians ain't the only ones, you know.
Cornwall is dotted with these stone towers, a remnant of the tin mining and refining.
At least the road workers here are honest. Repeat; ambiguity is not my friend, ambiguity is not my friend.
In Cornwall, even cows obey traffic signals.
Then my jaw drops as we reach the site where we are staying. Here you can see the family (!) casino, the bowling alley, and the playground.
And the three (normally crowded) swimming pools, miniature golf course, and the caravans, where we would be living as trailer trash for a week.
Go through the casino to the family bar and nightclub (again, does the word "family" really seem appropriate here?), and pick up the keys.
Throw in an extra 300 families - about 1200 people - and that is just the ones checking in today, and it is closer to my idea of Hell than a holiday. But then, we are pretty close to Hell's town, so perhaps it is appropriate. We shall see.