Day 47 (5th August 2022)

 I didn't go into Looe after all - will do that tomorrow hopefully. I had to do boring chores like laundry and while collecting tokens for the machines, noticed there was a monkey sanctuary close by and visited there instead. 

Almost all their animals are rescues from people who kept these beautiful animals as pets and it made me think about when I was 18 and bought a common marmoset from an advert in Loot. I had absolutely no idea how to look after this poor little thing, and after a couple of months, I contacted Drusillas zoo in East Sussex to come and give him the home, care and attention he really needed. I had a long long chat with one of the keepers, a man called Steph who was so non-judgemental and understanding about what I told him. I left feeling slightly better about the awful mistake that I had made all those years ago, especially after hearing some of the stories about their rescues and the state they were in. Considering the times we live in where so much information is available online and that the keeping of animals like these really should not be happening, it is sad that sanctuaries like this even exist. I'm very glad that they do, and that the message they are giving to people about our relationship with other primates (as we too are primates) means that hopefully no one who visits would ever contemplate even having their picture taken with one is acceptable. 

I decided to go for a long drive, by-passing Plymouth and ended up at the utterly stunning part of the coast that is stop #103

GARA ROCK

I have to say, my sat-nav (Guy had bought me a second hand version of the one that died a death a few weeks ago) took me through some tiny picturesque villages, another rickety old ferry and some of the most challenging roads (I use the term loosely as they were barely bigger than ancient holloways) I have yet attempted. 

When I finally arrived, I was initially somewhat disappointed. There was a big exclusive hotel of the same name and a lot of very flash cars and tanned posh people around. But once I found the coastal footpath, I was rewarded with some stunning coastal views.

Another part of the coast I will definitely be returning to one day. I thank Sea Power from the bottom of my heart for this discovery. 

Long drive back to Looe but feeling full of good cheer.

Allons-y 

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out 

Day 46 (4th August 2022)

 With Guy & Morgan packed off and heading back home and only one place to visit on the Germinal CCXXIV list of wonderful places, I had most of the day in the city of Truro, somewhere I'd never been to before. I was due to meet up with my old mate Helen (aka Hellun!) at lunchtime but I got there a couple of hours earlier so I could visit the cathedral. It is one of the newer ones but old enough and grand enough to get lost in for almost two hours.

The blue light is the sun shining through a replacement piece of glass that was replaced after a local lad shot his gun at the window during WWII - the only damaged sustained during the war. 

Hellun and I visited the older church at Kenwyn looking for bits of pagan influences before wandering into Truro and having a catch up in one of the parks. I'm really touched with how after over 3 decades, time just fell away and that we seemed so at ease with each other. I can't wait for Guy & Morgan to make her acquaintance!

It was over an hours drive through some lovely countryside and a rickety old ferry 

to the fabulous village that is stop #102

POLPERRO 

Polperro really is a delightful place and it almost pained me that Guy wasn't here to see it with me. Although it is understandably very touristy, it still had the feel of a working fishing village, something that places like Clovelly and Boscastle seem to have lost.

 I ended up in a pub sampling some of the local fish (and a local gin) before getting pulled back into reality when my campsite for the next two nights rang me up to check if I was on my way. So here I am near Looe (definitely spending some time there tomorrow) finishing today's Germinal CCXXIV adventure with you. Only two weeks left... and still absolutely no idea where on earth is Moist Covert!

Allons-y 

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out 

Day 45 (3rd August 2022)

 Rain woke us both at 5am-ish. Boo hiss. We started de-camping at 06.45 as I still had a somewhat unrealistic fantasy that some kind boat owner would be willing to sail out to the Western Isles if I got onto the quayside early enough and pleaded with the best sad puppy dog eyes I could muster. I even took a Germinal CCXXIV mug with me so that I could point out all the difficult-to-get-to places I'd managed so far.

To no avail. No one was willing to sail out west, even though by 09.30, the sun was shining, the wind was barely a Beaufort force 3 and bus loads of tourists were queuing up for any boat any where. The most westerly any boat out of St.Mary's was heading was St.Agnes, so that's what tickets we bought. We had 45minutes before the boat left St.Marys so I decided to cheer myself up by doing an unscheduled pic of the place that Sea Power kicked off their "The Decline of British Sea Power " tour in 2003. Stop #99

THE SCILLONIAN CLUB 

I mentioned this to the woman selling the boat tickets and she couldn't actually remember this momentous occasion, even though she was on the committee. She is quite elderly though, so I put this down to memory loss.

But back to our day trip... don't get me wrong, St.Agnes is lovely, but I'd already done Porth Conger, and even worse, when we got there, discovered that the Turk's Head didn't do lunch on a Wednesday. 

So, I dragged Guy & Morgan to the western side of the island in the hope that the view would be better than nothing. My view was what should have been stop #100

BISHOP'S ROCK

Once again I'm relying on your good will to believe that there really is one of the biggest, tallest and most impressive lighthouses in the picture!

This picture, like so many distance photos I've taken on my phone really doesn't quite capture what you see with your own eyes. Bishop's Rock really does dominate the horizon and looks so much more impressive that the above pic would have you believe. Which is just as well when I tried to bluff stop #101

RETARRIER LEDGES 

To the old sea dog captains credit, he did admit that even if I had gone out to the Western Isles at this time of day, because it was high tide, the Retarrier Ledges would have been under water so 6 meters or 6 miles away, I wouldn't have been able to get a picture of them. I was mildly comforted by this realisation. 

Homemade tomato soup and crab rolls for lunch, a swim opposite Porth Conger and some more drama. Cries of "GET HELP GET HELP GET HELP!" from a canoe at the tip of Gugh got people scrambling to their feet and phones and within minutes a fast boat from St.Mary's was on its way to deliver aid. A man without a life jacket had got into difficulties but not serious enough to be taken back to St.Mary's. I didn't get any of this on my phone unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, who knows. 

Trip back to Penzance was hot and uneventful, and sadly our digs for the night are atrocious, but at least we are warm and dry! Guy & Morgan return to London tomorrow, and I tackle the South Coast in the last leg of my Germinal CCXXIV adventure!

Allons-y 

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out 

Day 44 (2nd August 2022)

 Windy and cloudy weather greeted us as we emerged from the tent. A phone called to the boatmen confirmed my worst fear  - no trip out to those elusive Western Isles. 

Our neighbour Heather gave us two ferry tickets as her husband Norman has sprung his knee, so we decided to spend the day on Bryher, Tresco's little neighbour. It is a far more relaxed Island with a nicer pub so I was able to chill out a bit. Even went for a swim.

I had a chat with the old sea dog captain of the ferry before we headed back to St.Mary's. I showed him my Sea Power Germinal CCXXIV Tshirt as well, telling him where I still needed to get to. Thank Neptune I did, as he pointed at one of them and said "there's one of them on this here island". I got out my phone and showed him the OS map of St.Mary's and he showed me the exact point I would find stop #97

(BIG) JOLLY ROCK

Not to be out done, I had to include its smaller namesake as stop #98

(LITTLE) JOLLY ROCK 

They both sit just around the corner from Peninnis Head with its disused lighthouse. 

The rocks around here are just stunning and it is little wonder people used to believe in Giants. 

I really wanted to linger but Guy was back at camp wanting to start supper. In my rush to get back I almost trod on this remarkable Moth who landed on the path in front of me.

We are due back on the mainland tomorrow, but I'm determined to try one last time to get out west, so will be up and packing at the crack of dawn.

Allons-y 

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out 

Day 43 (1st August 2022)

 Wow, it is the first of August already. I left home on the 20th of June. It seems a very long time ago now. 

As pleasing as it is being on the Scilly Isles, today I have had this mounting feeling of dread that I won't be able to achieve Germinal CCXXIV completion (OK the Rockall cheat obviously doesn't count). I thought spending five days here would be more than enough, especially after our visit here in 2016.

Today we took a trip out to St.Martins Island as there was no boat heading out to the Western Isles. The last two days, the weather was to blame. Today, the sea was almost dew-pond still, so I felt particularly hard done by. However, St.Martins is one of the loveliest of the inhabited Scillies, has fantastic beaches and a pub that provides an alternative to fish and chips (regardless of how fresh the fish is). I had a soft-shelled crab burger, much to the horror of a child sitting on the next table.

The table on the other side had a miserable parent. I had fed some of the sparrows some bits of bread and almonds. The birds have a bravery seldom seen in our neck of the woods and soon loads of them were chirping away at the end of our table. 

When the child of miserable parent fed them some of his crumbs, he got a telling off; "Don't feed the birds, it will only encourage them!". It's not like sparrows are rats. This only encouraged me to give them even more, and soon they were eating nuts off the palm of my hand.

Plants here look like aliens 

I'm waffling. Fingers crossed for tomorrow, but I made the mistake of looking at the weather forecast and it isn't favourable. Guy keeps telling me not to get too despondent but I can't help myself! So close and yet so far...

Allons-y 

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out 

Day 42 (31st July 2022)

 We were woken once again by the sound of rain and my heart sank. Some of the Germinal CCXXIV places in the Scillies are pretty far flung, accessible only by boat, and out here it doesn't take much in the way of bad weather to cause leisure trips to uninhabited islands to be cancelled.

So instead we got on a boat to St.Agnes as between her and the Island of Gugh (pronounced "Goo") is stop #95

PORTH CONGER

Porth Conger is the inlet on the North side of the two islands, the southern inlet is known as The Cove. At the top of Porth Conger are two tiny islands know as Cow & Calf. Whoever named these geographical features had a very vivid imagination. We had over-priced fish and chips at the one and only eatery on St.Agnes, had a look at Obadiah's Barrow and Guy went swimming with Morgan while I fretted about missing some of the Germinal CCXXIV places. 

On the way back, while looking at my map, I suddenly got very excited and scrambled to get my Germinal CCXXIV Tshirt on, get my camera ready and scribble on my white board. Some of the surrounding passengers started to get excited too, asking what had I seen? Was it Puffins? A Seal?? No, a rock, I replied. However, by the time I was ready to take the pic, the moment had past, much like the rock. But now I knew where it was, we realised it would be easier to photograph from the land. So after shopping for supplies, I headed off back to the shore for stop #96

BARREL OF BUTTER (2)

Who knew there were two? Not me until today. Apparently one of the big rocks landside is shaped like a barrel of butter, but these rocks were probably moved or broken up during the building of The Garrison. A canon now stares out along where I was standing.

Some of the rocks were quite buttery coloured, and had interesting little gangs of limpets living on them.

Our little hedgehog friend did come back for a visit but we managed to scare them off in the scramble to get our phones out!

Allons-y 

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out