A change of location, some education and a lot of rain

Saturday 30th September 2017
Awake ridiculously early again, we pottered about having breakfast, doing the final packing and looking round for the last time. The weather this morning was a bit colder but dry so far. It’s due to rain this afternoon. We didn’t see any sign all week of our hosts.
Drove to the Coop for some supplies at St Blazey, then on to Wheal Martyn, near St Austell for some culture – learning about the china clay industry history.  The first call was at the café for a reviving coffee. The tour starts with some history of how china clay was discovered as a potential material for porcelain, by a local apothecary, although it had had earlier uses in the area. The extraction turned into a massive industry, the resulting waste from which has completely altered the landscape. The pointed tips are all old – nowadays, they make more of an effort to create natural shapes. The tour carries on up to the Victorian workings, which are quite derelict – the choice was made to leave them in that state, rather than recreate them. There is a walk up through beech woods to a viewpoint overlooking a modern pit, which was working today – with very few people involved. 
When we got down to the museum entrance, it was lunchtime and the rain had started.
From there, we drove on to Truro, to have a look at the cathedral. The city was very busy with the same shops as everywhere else. Into the cathedral, which looks old, but was built by the Victorians, when it was decided that Truro should have a bishop and cathedral. Neither of us felt that it had the same atmosphere of a medieval church, and were disappointed – I think it was the ceiling that I really disliked.
On towards St Ives, in quite heavy rain. I was staggered to find huge out-of-town shopping centres really close by and we made use of a Tesco. Having found the right road, I was completely at a loss when it came to seeing the entrance to the flats’ parking space. We are on one of the main roads through the town, and the garages are reached through an archway into a very dingy, low, concrete area. Getting into the garage is a bit of a nightmare with the lack of space and the narrowness of the garage.
Up some steep concrete steps onto a balcony serving all the flats above the garages. Our flat is quite spacious, except for our bedroom, and does have a view out towards the harbour – in the distance. I felt quite disappointed with the place, but it is such a contrast to the studio. It was too wet to go out this evening. 

6,500 steps   roasted vegetables, feta and couscous. 

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