A Cornish Easter

Sea, sand, countryside, flowers and wind are the five words to round up my recent Easter getaway. Cornwall has always been described to me as an amazing beautiful place in the UK to visit. To be honest, I doubt those people have been to the warm coastline of New Zealand and seen what it feels like to dip your feet in water that doesn’t freeze, but I digress.

Unaware of the ‘Sunday service’ buses operating over Easter in Cornwall I trekked out to Lands End to start off my solo Cornish adventure. While I did manage the typical tourist signpost at the most westerly point of England I was still able to appreciate how brilliant the coastline is. Sure I feared for my danger as I climbed up towards the edge of the cliffs to get photographs since the wind was so strong (I’m not a big person and I’m pretty sure if I’d chanced it a bit longer I could have been blown off). The cliffs were pretty impressive and reminded me of the more warmer times when I was at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland a few years ago. Soon after that I was freezing enough to wish the next bus wasn’t another hour and a half away and that a decent coffee shop was open.

Things were looking up as I visited the coastal town of St. Ives later that day. The thought of cream tea overlooking the harbour while it was raining was every bit as appealing as the Cornish Pasty that I also indulged in earlier (when in Cornwall eat as the Cornish eat I say). Even the rain couldn’t get me down because St. Ives is a little boutique coastal town with lots of neat shops to browse through in and out of the rain. I’m sure it would be even better in the summer time.

This is sounding like my Easter only consisted of rain and wind. Well, it mostly did, but I had one lovely sunny day where I decided to check out The Lost Gardens of Heligan. Heligan is an incredible estate that has been through many hard times of neglect and even a hurricane, but has come out shining and a great developing plot of land. Despite daffodils being the only flowers out, I was still pleased with what I saw and somehow managed to feel more like I was at home in New Zealand rather than in the UK. Not only did they have a New Zealand garden, but they also had an amazing jungle with a fern gully that could have transported anyone to the wilderness of New Zealand bushes as they wander through the fern covered ponds and paths.

The Cornwall gardens didn’t end there, I also visited the incredible Eden Project, but more about that in my next post.

I said goodbye to Cornwall by walking in to a headwind and having waves crash over me (literally and I was on a path not sand) as I did my determined costal trek out to St. Michael’s Mount, an incredible little island separated from the mainland by a stone causeway that is only open at low tide. Atop this island sits the typical castle and gardens that I’ve come to expect of the UK and Europe, but is was still a lovely sight to see before leaving the sea air and fresh coastal waters for long train journey back to London.

To see more photographs of my Cornish Easter and other images check out my Wales and England photo galley »