We drive cross-country - well, really cross peninsula tip - to Jenny's brother Andy, who lives in the country near Hayle, actually walking distance from St. Ives, across the fields. More flowers out here than further north, including fields of daffodils grown commercially. Andy lives on a narrow country road in the end cottage of a row of old stone miners' cottages. His place is wonderful - originally it was two units, each wih a single large room downstairs and the same up. This has become a large kitchen, living room and study downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs with added bathrooms. It's a beautiful combination of original features - the thick stone walls and fireplaces - and modern touches like the bathroom skylight.
Andy is welcoming, with coffee around the long wooden table and J, looking around at the hob in the original fireplace with its massive single stone top and out the deep stone window to the heather and the birdfeeders, warms him we may never leave. And then we get the grand tour, as Andy drives us all over he ti end of Cornwall. Starts with St. Michael's Mount, impressive mansion topped island - at high tide - accessible by causeway at low. Through Penzance and along the coast to Mousehole (pronounced Mousel).
Hard competition for the most stunning spot of the day, but Lamorna Cove is a strong contender. Through narrow, twisting lanes (back up if you meet another car) to a little coastal cove surrounded by rugged cliffs, with huge waves crashing against the rocks. There's a massive breakwater and Jenny points to a sign on it warning of uneven steps - eroded into non-existence would be more like it. There's a little restaurant as well, with a pretty impressive local menu. Jenny's mum and Joe and I have crab sandwiches with salad while Jenny has a smoked haddock pasty and Andy seafood soup. The crab sandwich is the best we've had - enormous and thick with fresh sweet crab on granary bread and a plateful of salad.
Then to Minack Point, home of a theatre, where we look down on an amazing cove - whilst nearly being blown off the cliff. Through Zennor, where there's an old stone with a hollow where, the sign says, there was a vinegar dip in times of plague and coins from outside the community were dipped to disinfect them before being taken by a local. A quick look at St. Ives, promised for tomorrow, and home. Andy's booked us at his local for seven.
Andy's loca, the Engine Inn at Cripplesease, is a bit of local history itself. Cornwall is tin mining country and the stack remains of the engines are scattered through the country like small ruins. The Engine Inn was the counting house where miners were paid. Lovely stone building - with good Cornish bitter and nice meals - mine a roast vegetable quiche with a lovely salad. The treat of the evening is readings from the poetry of a now deceased local (well, not local as Cornishmen reckon it as he moved here as an adult), Arthur Caddick. His daughter and others reminisce and read from his poems, some of which are quite funny.
JAWORSKI TRAVELS