Who needs King Arthur?

The next day started off a little rainy, but it was out of its system by the time we reached Tintagel (pronounce that yanks!). This is the alleged site of King Arthurs conception and birth. And after the introduction video, the mystery and uncertainty of it was only worsened. The long and short of it was that even the experts aren't sure, but the potential brings tourists, so, go with it. But after my visit, I found that I didn't really care if King Arthur had been there or not, it was cool either way. And old! Settlement on the strange peninsula (at least some old pots found there) date back to Roman times. It was also apparently a kind of Celtic stronghold, and what historians know for sure is that Richard, the Earl of Cornwall built a castle there in 1233. That's still pretty old by my standards, and it falling to ruin since then only makes it look more legendary and mysterious. Plus a healthy dose of fog helps. I would have been happy to jog around clapping coconuts together.

We also visited the town of Tintagel, their very old (14th century) post office, and had lunch and some delish ice cream. And from there we went near Stepper Point for a nice walk along the coast. The best part of this was Pepper Hole, which was literally a hole in the side of the cliff. And by cliff, I mean tall, scary, rocky cliff. The gorse was in bloom in the fields around there, and filled the air with a lovely coconut-like smell which was great.
In the evening, we caught the sunset at St. Agnes head, which despite the clouds was beautiful, and I'm not sure I'd ever seen the sun set on this side of the Atlantic.

The next day we walked some more of the stunning coast to St. Ives, a very touristy (with good reason) and charming coastal town. We saw a pod of dolphins playing in a bay which was awesome, and then had a great lunch of fish and chips. That is a food that gets proportionately better the closer you get to the sea. After hanging in St. Ives for a while, we took the train back to the car, one of the best short train rides I'd taken as it went right along the coast.
We drove through St. Just (I think) which was, unsurprisingly, beautiful. We stopped in cot valley where the beach has some strange rock formations that look like dinosaur eggs. Ellie then took me to her top two beaches which were really breathtaking.

On the last day we took a coastal walk around the Beacon to Chapel Porth where the beaches went on forever. It goes without saying that it was gorgeous.
I left Cornwall on a satisfyingly long train ride feeling pretty sad to be going back to my land-locked county, but infinitely happy to have spent some time in such a unique and beautiful place. (I am officially out of adjectives).

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