Bound for Boscastle

After the obligatory clean up and “how have we accumulated this much stuff?” we departed Mullion for the last time en route to Truro. Sam and Bonnie were catching the train back to London and we were continuing further north to our next stop in Boscastle.

We arrived with time to kill and so wandered the pleasant streets of Truro on market day and recounted the tale of South Australia's infamous Truro to Bonnie.

Perranporth beach

Leaving Sam and Bonnie on the platform Russell and I headed for the coast once again to find a suitable lunch spot. We stopped in Perranporth which has a beautiful sandy beach but not much else to recommend it really. Hordes of English holidaymakers thought differently though and the beach resembled a camping ground with everyone's wind shelters erected on this lovely 'beach' day 🙂 Clearly this is how the English do a 'day at the beach' and they were having a lovely time.

We had a quick forgettable lunch and then drove on to Newquay which has earned a reputation for being a bit of a party town in recent years and to us also lacked the more unspoilt feeling that we had observed in south Cornwall.

We did make time to have an ice cream there though because the “pay and display” parking spot happened to be just above the local bowling green!

Russell managed to watch his two favourite sports (bowls and surfing) from one vantage point 😉

Newquay bowls!

Back on the road again we passed turn offs for Padstow and Port Isaac, both on our hit list, but decided to push on to Boscastle and save them for a day trip later this week.

Driving down the hill as Boscastle came into view was spectacular ( I know I've over used that word but it really is!) and after a small hiccup finding the right email with the code for the key lock, we were in.

The apartment we have here is owned by the National Trust and is situated over the National Trust Visitor Centre and two other rental apartments. Boscastle is situated in a deep valley with a small protected harbour and this was to be it's undoing on August 16th 2004 when unseasonably heavy rain, the timing of the high tide and debris forming a temporary dam created a catastrophic event.

75 cars, 5 caravans, 6 buildings and several boats were washed into the sea; approximately 100 homes and businesses were destroyed; trees were uprooted and debris were scattered over a large area. In an operation lasting from mid-afternoon until 2:30 AM, a fleet of 7 helicopters rescued about 150 people clinging to trees and the roofs of buildings and cars. No major injuries or loss of life were reported.

Boscastle floods Aug 16 2004

I had read about this when booking the accommodation months ago and now that we are here it is hard to imagine the devastation of ten years ago – the village has been rebuilt and is absolutely beautiful.

Boscastle 2014

The Riverside Inn (three storied building just to the left of the bridge) is the same building pictured in flood photo foreground. We had a lovely dinner there after strolling down to the harbour and checking out our new surroundings.

The Harbour entrance

 

 

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