We're off on our west country trip, stopping in Wimbledon to collect Jenny's mum. It takes a while to clear the city but we're out through Hampton Court and into rural Surrey, then Wiltshire. Stop briefly at Stonehenge. We don't take the time for the tour - Cornwall is a long way away - but get a pretty good look across the field. In fact its location in the midst of farmland is one of the most striking things about it. Though it's probable that the fields were woodland in the distant past - or would that have made importing the giant rocks not just amazing but impossible? Stop at a petrol station to pick up a little for lunch. Canadian highway stations come off very badly by comparison. The convenience shop here includes chicken Kiev and chardonnay, though we settle for bread and cheese and yoghurt.
Through fields and along Bodmin Moor, we avoid the motorways when possible and head down from Truro to Falmouth on the south coast of Cornwall. The directions break down a bit as there are road repairs in the town but a young woman gives Jenny extremely good, if complicated, alternate directions, which Jenny, impressively, remembers. So down the old cobbled high street and through an almost impossibly narrow lane, Old Church Yard, possible only with the outside driving mirrors retracted, and we're there.
The flat belongs to friends of Jenny's, originally the home of Jenny's friend Jessica, who now uses it for holidays and also lets it. And it's absolutely brilliant - would be the envy of anyone looking for a coastal film set. It's in the oldest part of the town, set on a harbour that has been a centre of ship repairs, fishing and travel for centuries. There is a flat below (currently being renovated) and one above, but they're all nestled into the rock of the embankment so that the one below is invisible and the top two look like separate little cottages. It's lovely inside as well - particularly the living room which has a large floor to ceiling window in front, incorporating French doors to a little balcony overhanging the harbour.
The harbour is quiet but alive, with dozens of sailboats, loading quays, freighters, and even a large military ship of some sort in battleship grey. It's equally fascinating in daylight, with the circling gulls and activity on the boats, and after nightfall when the shipboard lights come on.
A short exploratory walk along the harbour and its shops. We pass a restaurant where celebrity cook Rick Stein has a new fish and chip shop opening Friday - it's full today with "practice" customers eating and workmen finishing off the paint. No more volunteers needed, so we go home and Jenny makes an omelet and vegetables and we all turn in.
JAWORSKI TRAVELS