American Boomers travel Cornwall, England

American Boomers in Cornwall!  That’s right. Over sixty five, and now you have a little more leisure time.  Perhaps you’ve visited London and walked both sides of the Thames; made a side trip to Bath or Oxford; and been out to Hampton Court.  But it is my contention that you haven’t seen the real England, haven’t met the real working people, haven’t walked the real countryside until you’ve discovered the Yorkshire Dales, the Peninines nestled in the midlands, walked Hadrians wall or, and this is the main focus for these ramblings,  discovered the balmier and sunnier climes offered by the Devon and Cornwall coasts.

  Would you believe that in over thirty five years of hiking through England my wife B.J. and I have never crossed paths with another American couple?  We’ve met Danes, Germans, Canadians and Aussie’s clambering over stiles, hopping over stepping stone bridges, and quaffing local ales in village pubs, but where is that couple from Paducah, Portland, or Portsmouth, VA.? 

Oh, we have seen them on occasion: checking out of four star hotels or starring myopically out of tour bus tinted windows.  Canned tours, “If you’ll look to your left ladies and gentlemen. . .”, shops-on-the-take  selling packaged fudge and cellophane wrapped chicken salad sandwiches, a convoy of air conditioned behemoths convoying from rest stop to rest stop --- no, absolutely not.  Oh, the grand cathedrals are grand. I recommend that you see at least one: Salisbury, Bath or Wells.

  And the sprawling estate houses with attendant gardens are sumptuous: Longleat, Castle Howard, and Hatfield House. To haul out the old phrase, “Once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all” isn’t quite fair, I must admit, but I wouldn’t trade a look at the great swells crashing against the North Cornwallian Coast, the smell of a hillside covered with gorse, a bluebell wood,  or the gurgle of a brook running by a thatched cottage, for another weary  portrait of some lord  somebody or other, and the never ending parade of signs that say, "don’t touch" and "don’t sit" . 

 

So, get off your duff. Go country.  Be prepared to ramble through the countryside. Clear your head of the diesel miasma of tour buses, and the canned rhetoric of tour guides, and experience the English countryside the way it should be, with walking boots, trekking pole, a compass, and Ordinance Survey Map.  Go circular.  Every tourist information center is loaded with books and pamphlets that can be picked up for as little as 50 pence (about .75 cents) , and which provide circular walks encompassing the local sites  ranging from 3 to 10 miles in length.  These will guide you along river banks,  through farmyards,   over ancient barrows, around stone circles, through hamlets, villages, churches, cliffs,   beaches, gardens, backyards, and tea shops. 

So, let us carry you along with us on our adventures.  We will be taking you on a sojourn through various areas of Devon and Cornwall, not for the purpose of having you replicate our experiences, but rather  that you will be encouraged to create your own personalized encounter with the more pastoral aspects of English country life.   We have walked Wales, Northumberland, the Lake District,  the Midlands, Hereford, Suffolk, Oxfordshire, Kent, Somerset, Dorset and more. (All but Norfolk, I’m afraid. Not enough hills to provide the panoramic views we so cherish.)

We won’t be telling you where to stay, rather HOW to stay, providing an alternative  to the tour bus  mentality, and sanction  instead  the "getting down and dirty" approach, which could have you washing underwear in the shower and knocking the mud off your boots before you return to your B & B or rented bungalow. 

So on with the adventure......