Land's End or bust!

[Stuart Davis AO - Devon Cornwall & Somerset]

Cornwall, Devon & Somerset Area are just back from a pretty awesome trip over the weekend down to Land's End. We were fortunate to have superb weather throughout, which certainly contributed to towards making it such a successful event.

 

Wanting to make a full day of the trip down there, I planned a meet at Ralegh's Cross on the edge of Exmoor. I met Matt at Ilminster Services for some fuel and then to head up together, Colin drove up the night before from Dawlish and Gareth and Linda drove across from Umberleigh, all meeting up at 8.30am to enjoy a hearty breakfast together. A super nice surprise was when new member Harry turned up in Marcus's old car, having only driven it for twenty minutes prior to Saturday! Quite a baptism of fire . Five cars then headed South, through Tiverton where we stopped for a quick top up of fuel for those that needed it, then stopping at Bickleigh Mill to meet Mark T in his lovely blade-engined orange 'weapon' so five became six.

 

 

After a catchup and quick chat, we were on our way again, down to the outskirts of Exeter. The Devon County Show caused us some delay, but fortunately all the cars behaved in the hot weather and we were soon clear and on our way South West towards Moretonhampstead and Dartmoor. Some good roads on this route, which then became pretty narrow and windy as my route took us down to Widecombe in the Moor and a refreshment stop at The Rugglestone Inn, which has a beautiful beer garden. We were all still full from breakfast so just had drinks, nibbles and a chat.

 

At this point I must make an apology to Pip Parsons, who was planning on meeting us in Princetown. I gave him an ETA, completely forgetting that we were stopping prior to meeting him so that by the time we got there he had other commitments; my apologies sir, I owe you a pint for next time.

 

So, across Dartmoor and on to our bid for points in the Funny Place Name Challenge! Crapstone was our target, and we managed six cars, six owners (mostly in their cars apart from me taking the pic), so I have submitted a bold claim for 13 points! I do hope we will be suitably rewarded for our efforts by the esteemed judges.

 

It was at this point that things went a little awry! Gareth indicated a need for a call of nature, and I said we would head into Crapstone to the Tea Room for a comfort break. I then proceeded straight out of town, leaving Gareth to attempt driving with his legs crossed! I soon made a bit of a navigational cock-up, leading us down some very dodgy, steep narrow roads ending in a down hill, very sharp hairpin bend named 'Death Corner' by Mark , followed by missing a turn over Denham Bridge resulting in a quick and embarassing three point turn for yours truly.  Somewhere in this chaos, we lost Gareth and Linda, but super navigator Linda knew where we were heading so we continued on, crossing the Tamar via the small bridge and finally pulled up in the Asda services near Gunnislake to allow them to find us. 

 

United with six cars again briefly, we immediately said goodbye to Harry who had to head back to Salcombe at this point; great to meet you Harry and look forward to catching up again soon. Conscious of time, I thought it best we push on to Land's End without too much more phaffing around, so that's what we did. I lost my bottle regarding fuel at St Blazey, pulling into a Gulf station (Yay!) which only had E10 fuel (Boo!) which we reluctantly filled up with, Gareth almost choking at the thought.

 

From there, it was a long slog down to Land's End, taking in St Austell, Truro, Helston and Penzance on the way. Alot of fairly slow or boring going, stuck behind slow traffic at times but we made it there by around 17.30, much better than I feared during planning stages! A short lunch break certainly helped.

 

Expecting to be a little longer than the free 20 mins, we opted for a bargain £4.50 parking charge each to allow a bit more time for a comfort break, wander around and photo op at Land's End itself. We even chanced a line up infront of the main building which was great. We had had some thoughts about meeting up in St Ives for dinner, but with the time as it was, the B&B contingent (did I say older? ) headed off to their comfy beds, leaving the hardcore campers to head for the campsite alone. We opted for the coast road, rather than going via Penzance and boy am I glad we did. It was 20 miles, 45 minutes of heaven! Cracking roads, not much traffic and, er hmm, let's just say we had some fun! It was the best driving of the weekend for me.

 

We (Matt, Mark and myself) stayed at the Trevalgan Farm Holidays site just West of St Ives, and it was a lovely, well kept and peaceful place (well it was until I started snoring that night, but that's for later!) We pitched tents, had a quick refresh and then Matt started negotiating with Taxi firms to get us into St Ives. A sterling job he did too, securing us one in around 10 minutes when it looked like over an hour at first due to the St Ives Food Festival which was on that weekend. We avoided the festival and just stuck around the harbour for a drink and very nice fish and chip supper before heading back to the tents.

 

I must apologise to the guys for the aforementioned snoring. I blame the fact I have a cold and all the fresh air for making it worse than normal, but you can see from Mark's picture that his night was not a peaceful one!
 

 

Up at 7am the following morning, we were greeted by a stunningly beautiful sunrise, very promising for the day ahead. We headed over to The Badger Inn, Lelant to meet the grown ups( ) and enjoyed a hearty breakfast, joined by Geoff Pym, a Cornish member I had managed to make contact with prior to the trip. He had agreed to lead us on a nice route for the first part of our return to avoid the A30 as much as possible. Despite some annoying traffic which slowed our progress, we had a fun run behind Geoff; I had fun chasing behind and hearing the lovely sounds from his 919cc Blade engine, but the group got a bit spread out, and we again lost tail end charlies Gareth & Linda who struggled at a junction with continuous traffic. We pulled into our agreed BP fuel stop, topped up, and soon after they again rejoined the group.

 

Geoff left us at this point, and now fueled with some proper E5 we headed off up the A39  towards Bude, stopping at Widemouth Bay just before it. The views as we crested the hill overlooking the bay were spectacular, and we enjoyed them all the way down towards the sea. There was yet another 'Chuckle Brother's' moment when I missed the car park, led us a little way down the road to turn round, to be told the one I had been thinking of was actually further on, so I turned round again only to see poor Colin following me! We got sorted in the end and rolled into the dusty carpark in search of a well deserved ice cream and to enjoy a last chat together before heading off our separate ways.

 

Colin, Gareth and Linda and Mark headed left, Matt and I right up to Blackmoor Gate and a nice pint of Thatchers Zero. The last leg was across Exmoor to Simonsbath, and back to our original meeting point at Ralegh's Cross, some good fun driving to be had here, although some of the time spent stuck behind very slow cars. Strangely I actually enjoyed following a camper van being driven with gusto at around 50mph, quite amusing to watch! From Ralegh's cross we were back to Taunton, then Illminster where I waved goodbye to Matt, and had a final blast home down the Chard road into Crewkerne which has some fun corners to it.

 

For me, it was 404 miles in two days. The weather could not have been kinder, and really made it a memorable trip. It was great to meet old and new faces and to be able to drive with a good group who are excellent company. To them I say thank you for committing to the trip and to trusting my at times dodgy navigation, it was a blast, hopefully to be repeated in some guise or other in future.

 

I will add pictures later this evening!

 

EDIT

 

A clarification has been requested by Mr and Mrs Homfray-Davies so their detachment from the group is not seen as them getting lost through any sort of incompetence on their part😊

 

In the first instance, after an acceptable and necessary emergency comfort break, they followed the correct route but sensibly chose not to follow us around Death Corner. Using their resourcefulness and calmness under pressure, they used Sat Nav to meet us in Gunnislake.

 

The second instance is put down to obeying the Highway Code to allow a million grockles to pass, only to find that we had b*****red off by the time they got past the obstruction. Again, skilful navigating from Mrs Homfray-Davies allowed them to find us at our fuel stop.

 

I trust that this clarification avoids any impact on their hitherto unblemished reputations 😉😊👍

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flying Carrot Steve]

 

Well impressed Stuart! Great job!

[Craigieboy]

Brilliant write up and great pictures. 👍

 

Synchronised parking too...

[Julie Hall - WSCC AO Representative]

FANTASTIC loved reading that, great pictures, lovely to see thank you

[Stuart Davis AO - Devon Cornwall & Somerset]

Some snapshots from the Insta 360 footage. Will try to post some video up on YT later.

These are me passing Mark just to sort ourselves out after a somewhat confused stop in a lay by. Trying to decide whether to wait for Gareth and Linda or not 🤪

 

 

 

Harry following me, then waiting patiently for me to reverse and take the turning I had missed 🤪

 

 

Approaching Death Corner!

 

 

Filling up in the Gulf Services with rubbish E10!
 

 

[Marcus Barlow - Show and Events Co-ordinator]

7 hours ago, Stuart Davis AO - Devon Cornwall & Somerset said:

 

 

 

 

Nice looking Westy this one ............. slightly biased opinion though 🤣