Had a fantastic day today but I'm completely exhausted!
Hopped on the bus to Penzance this morning, then changed and got another to Land's End. As I boarded the bus I heard a girl travelling by herself talking to a couple about the Minack Theatre. A few people had mentioned it to me but I thought it would be too hard to get there. It turned out the bus I was on went right there though, so I spur of the moment decided to have a look!! On the bus along the way we passed so many farms (you could smell them too - I braved the open top again!). It was quite cold and I had "I can't feel my face" by The Weeknd stuck in my head, had a good laugh at myself for that one.
I got off the bus and it turned out the girl's name was Shine and she was from China. We went to the theatre together to have a look around. A lady called Rowena Cade built the theatre here from 1923. Unbelievably she carted all the sandbags, beams and everything up the hill by herself and made the theatre with just the help of her two gardeners. 'Minack' means rocky place and the theatre is carved into the side of a cliff face. The first show to play here was called 'The Tempest' and people loved it, the theatre started becoming more and more popular. During WWII obviously this stopped abruptly and instead a gun post was built above, and Rowena helped house evacuee children from London. The telegraph station nearby played an important part (today it's a museum).
In 1949 after much hard work by Rowena the theatre reopened and shows were played every year. Rowena passed away in 1983 just short of her 90th birthday, and shows are still played there today. From Easter to September shows are on every day with a capacity of 700, with 80,000 tickets sold each year and 130,000 visitors coming to see the theatre. There was a matinee on today but it didn't fit in with my buses - never mind!
The views from the theatre were beyond words, I'll let the photos do the talking. Today's weather was absolutely insane. The uk is forgiven for all the grey, miserable, gloomy days I've had this summer. Today's weather made up for every single one. Stunning! I found myself questioning if I was still in England all day haha.
After looking around the theatre we walked down to Porthcurno Beach. The water was a beautiful aqua colour and we had a bit of a paddle. Then we went back to get the bus.
Our next stop was Land's End. I don't know if you read my blog in Scotland, but a few weeks ago when I travelled to the Orkneys we stopped at a place to get the ferry called John O'Groats. It's the point in the UK furthest away from Land's End, 874 miles away. Land's End is the westernmost point of England. We saw the signpost, skipped the tacky theme park and walked to Sennen Cove. The walk was beautiful, lots of heather everywhere and stunning views.
We saw a shipwreck and a fort and ended up in Sennen Cove where Shine kindly shouted me a lovely Cornish I've cream! We walked along the beach and watched people madly grabbing their belongings as the tide quickly came in.
Then for the next 4 hours we walked from Sennen Cove to St Just. It took longer than we thought as we stopped to take in the views. But the South west coastal path made it easy, you just follow it literally for miles!! Again can't describe the amazing views, check out the pictures below. At one point it was very secluded and we didn't see another person for ages. It was fantastic having Shine's company and she was very easy to talk to!! We ended our walk near Cape Cornwall, at a place known as Portnanven in Cot Valley. Apparently a lot of tin mining used to go on in this area!
We each got a bus back (Shine to Penzance, me to St Ives) and now I've just had some veggie soup for dinner. Think I'm meeting Shine in St Ives tmro!
GO PIES!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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