31/8/26 Singapore

 

  We made it to Singapore after about twelve and a half hours . Arrived at 7:15am in the middle of a thunderstorm , it was chucking it down , but we made it into the terminal without getting wet - only just , the weather sealing around the airbridge and the aircraft was tested and only just passed . Due to lightning , the workers unloading the baggage etc , were stood down until the storm had passed , so that held all the baggage up . We were kept well informed with announcements , emails & messages , but it didn't concern us as we had plenty of time to spare - check in time at the hotel was 2pm . Town minutes after the email , luggage started coming out of the carousel , so we waited , grabbed ours and headed to the MRT , and got on a train . 25mins later we were out of the train and into 30 degrees of Singapore warmth . We walked around to the hotel arriving at 10:15 am , they checked and said our room was ready and gave us complimentary access to it - winning ! Unpacked and into the swimmers , it was up to the pool to wallow around for a while to help keep us awake . We headed out for some lunch , before having a little wander around the local area .

There's plenty of murals in this neighbourhood .

There's even some on the ceilings of the walkways .

Went back up to the pool area to check out the night views , not too terrible !

We crashed at about 9:15pm , not bad , getting up at 8:30am - got to be happy with that . 

25/8/26 Corfe Castle

 

    Well after a good nights sleep , ( about the only redeeming feature of this property ) we packed & loaded the car and headed off to Corfe Castle . We thought we'd have a look at the castle before heading back to Woking . It's a National Trust Property , so that was an added bonus for us . We arrived to the carpark and got ready for our wander around the castle . These are some of the views of the castle as we walked the 750m around to the entrance .

 

Perched up on top of a hill , the ruins are an impressive sight . 

A small creek was on the other side of the path , with a great old stone bridge .

Sections of the castle have fallen down the hill , done when the castle was made unusable by those in power at the time , such shame as it would have been a magnificent structure .

We reached the entrance and flashed our National Trust card , and walked straight in across the bridge over what would have been a moat .

There were activities for kids to keep them amused , the view was enough to keep us amazed .

The town is also called Corfe Castle and looks great .

Here's higher view of it .

This is massive and would have been quite the spectacle when it was all in one piece , rather than scattered over the hillside .

They have spent 2million pounds restoring the castle , most of that was making it safe and repointing some of the original stonework with traditional mortar .

    Love the old style thatched roof . It isn't a lost art though , we have seen several places having the thatching replaced during our week around Cornwall .

Doesn't seem to matter where you walk , the views are quite amazing .

                                   

     A steam train runs regularly bringing visitors to the town and castle , another old diesel loco brought another train load in later .

     It must have been a huge job demolishing the castle to the state it's now in .

After wandering around for several hours , we headed back to the car . We decided to do the loop back to the car and found this small man made waterfall tucked away amongst the foliage .

What a way to finish off our week , such a great day , we headed off back to Woking , returned the hire car and settled in for the remaining few days with the family . Isla enjoyed it very much , as did we . 

   Sunday came too quickly , and we were driven to Heathrow and checked in before the hugs and tears flowed . It was an effort to tear ourselves away from them , I don't think anyone wanted us to leave , specially us !! 

  Anyway that's how it transpired , we are still amazed how quickly our time in UK & Europe has gone . We have seen & done some amazing things in wonderful places , and enjoyed it all . The weather has been more like Australia than UK , and we did enjoy that . Singapore tomorrow , another chapter in the journey. Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Ffz9pCNS33TzhrIriDYKSjte0525hsw&usp=sharing

24/8/26 Portland Bill & Weymouth

 

   Today we head to Portland for a look around , not worried about town so much , as we had a great day yesterday exploring Polruan . The road took us through a lot of rolling hills and brought us over a hill to this view of the coast . A long lagoon appeared that disappeared into the distance , with what looked like a sand bar between the lagoon and the ocean . 

Down the other end of that lagoon is Portland , and right on the point Portland Bill Lighthouse . When we got down to the carpark , the wind was near gale force , the ocean was covered in wind swell and waves - did I mention it was cool , no?? it wasn't cool it was bloody cold with a real chill about it .

There's an interesting stone fence near the roundabout .

The wind was blowing hard enough for a flock of starlings to take shelter on the back side of the roof of the lighthouse keeper .

Back in toward Weymouth and just above Castletown is a great lookout , it even has a hotel to go with it . We went to the lookout & Olympic Rings . This is where they held the sailing events when the UK had the olympics in 2012 .

Here's a closer look at the beach and lagoon which is called East Fleet and West Fleet . The beach isn't sand but is actually all pebbles - that's a lot of pebbles !!

Castletown down below is an older town and a wonderful range of colours in the houses .

The weather wasn't being user friendly , so we headed off up the road a bit further before finding somewhere to stop the night .The road took us through Puddletown , so we found a rugby complex where we could park and have our lunch . We found a place that sounded okay near the town of Lychett Matravers . It was Dolmans Hill Manor - sounds good ??? we got an email shortly after our purchase , stating that they are aware that the bathroom is in need of a renovation - it was scheduled for next month - alarm bells should have rang , but it was too late , they had our money . We got some food in at Lychett Matravers and headed out . The manor was a farmhouse in the country , so it was going to be quiet . We were in a section on the side . It had a kitchenette , lounge room and a large bedroom with dining table & 2 chairs - yes the dining table was in the bedroom . The bathroom was indeed in need of a renovation , I will leave it at that , but I won't recommend this place to anyone - AVOID it !! There was also a strange smell - like sprayed insecticide or oil and it was right through all the accomodation . It wasn't the ideal end to our little jaunt around Cornwall , but it's not over yet . Here's map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1qB78lcEhwSdBwGDLe4S1r1U7ftIM5hE&usp=sharing

23/8/26 Fowey & Polruan

 

Today we are going to the Town of Fowey - pronounced Foy apparently - and it's perched on the banks of the River Fowey . Again parking is at a premium , so we drove around town a bit before finding this elevated view over to Polruan - the town on the other side of the river . 

We drove down through the main street in Fowey , and were amazed at what we saw , I made sure Lyn was taking photo's , and then a video  , just to jog our memories later . The main street looked like it ended in front of a shop , but no it continued with a 90degree turn down the next narrow section , pedestrians hopping out of the way as we drove through at 5mph .

Couldn't believe we were driving through this .

After what seemed a long way , we came out at a ferry , so we stayed and waited for the ferry . It was 7pound 50p to go across ( about $14 Aus ) for a 100m trip across the river , but we could access Polruan , so away we went . 5 mins later we were across and off up the road , google leading us down the road .

Google then told us to turn right , so we did and it turned into a very narrow goat track - it was still bitumen , but only a small car width wide , grass was growing in the middle of the road - it was like driving down a farm track !! Hoping not to meet anyone worked for a while , then someone came zooming around a corner and found us . I reversed back , as we knew there was a gateway about 50m away , then proceeded up the track again . Managed to get to the top without more dramas , some other cars had to give way to us though .

We stopped at the obligatory top of the hill carpark , paid and wandered down to this rocky outcrop down below for some great views of the coast . The weather was amazing , and the breeze was picking up , so lots of yachts were coming out for a sail , by the time we left there were over 50 out there enjoying the water & weather.

The walk down to the harbour was great , lanes , steps & more , as well as the awesome views of Fowey on the other side of.

A couple of yachts heading out .

This was the end of the lane , for cars anyway , I'm sure you could fit a motorbike down there though .

There were some level sections of the lanes , but not many . A lot of these homes are also holiday rentals .

Continuing down to the harbour , we went past so many entrances to houses down below - they were just steps that descended out of sight . Interesting fact , they have flood gates fitted at the top of the steps to stop water running down the steps and straight in the front doors when it rains heavily . After a quick toilet stop , we headed back up the hill to the carpark . Yes the street was as steep as it looked . We actually turned into another laneway to get to the carpark in a shorter way , and it was steeper again , yes it got the heart rate up !!                                

We paused at the top to take in the view again , it was awesome !!

Some of the fishing boats were in dry dock for a repaint etc , getting ready for the season .

This was the track we walked up .

We reached the car and set off again , google took us back down the same track again , so away we went . Better luck this time , didn't meet anyone till we got back to a 2 lane road . From here we headed back toward London , finding somewhere to stay in Honiton for the night . 

Here's a map link:- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1JNordo0LJ6qwCS0IuqT19QflAn0_VP0&usp=sharing

22/8/26 Port Isaac , Trebarwith Beach & St Austell

 

    Today we head to Port Isaac , better known for the location of the Doc Martin Tv Series . We arrived to some glorious views of the coastal cliffs . There's  a parking station at the entrance to town , so we pulled up and parked there , paid for 3 hours of parking and went for a walk - about 800m down to a walking track along the cliff tops . This is the view from the carpark .

There's some magnificent houses lining the harbour .

 Most roads are narrow, steep and drop down into the valley & the harbour .

Here's the harbour beach & boat ramp .

To say it's a popular destination is an understatement , we arrived early before most , but they caught up .

There's lots of little laneways that go in & around the village - you're not sure if you should be walking up these or not - it looks like you're going into someone's yard .

We walked around and dodged people , then decided we'd wander back to the car . Found a laneway that wound its way round some back lanes and gradually took us upwards . It then turned from gradual to steep in a couple of turns . Across one wall of a house was the following quote for all to see .

This laneway turned into a street - definitely one lane only , complete with pedestrians .

 

 We left Port Isaac a bit underwhelmed , yes it was a pretty little village in some beautiful coastline , but spoilt by some over tourism - yes we were part of that . We headed up the road to the next village along the coast - Trebarwith . We wanted somewhere we could just pull over for lunch , and the carpark fitted the bill nicely . It was nice & quiet with about 20 other cars and room for plenty more . After lunch we walked down to the village to check it out , some holiday houses , a bakery , a pub , a beach complete with lifesavers , all they need is a beach . There's a tiny creek running down to the beach , it's walled off and is on the right handside of the photo .

And this is the beach , I'm sure there's some sand down there somewhere , maybe ???

There was a hotel up to the left of the beach where everyone was , but we chose to wander off again . This little house used all the available space between the road and the the rocks .

Back to St Austell , and this is our apartment - The Old Chapel .

We headed down the street for a walk , we've driven up & down the streets here every day without looking too much .

There were alleyways going in all directions . cars also drive along these 

Down on the pedestrian mall was this globe , it had lots of different patterns & designs on it . It is to represent the clay industry , all these tiles were hand made from the local clay and designed for this sphere. 

We enjoyed our walk around , chatted to a local about a strange smell , turns out it was the local brewery , so now we know . We headed back to the apartment for dinner and get ready for tomorrows adventures . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1XseR_M5wjPvyYW0g1HtCRD38t6nCNkk&usp=sharing