Golitha Falls

A grey morning dawned on Sunday, but, undaunted, we determined to go on another adventure.

Golitha Falls is quite close to Liskeard, we noted. Strange how it took such a long time to drive to it... we were almost at Jamaica Inn when we realised that we had missed a turn. Sure enough, when we came back, there was the sign almost completely covered in rampant grasses.

(This was our second Long Drive in three days. On Friday night we were going to a BBQ feast with the same group of Wayne's colleagues that we have eaten with on a couple of occasions. We were set to follow a car to the destination. Trouble was, the leader got lost. We had a lovely explore of the local area, from Duloe to St Keyne, with many a turn up a pitted farm lane. It took us one and a half hours for a 15 minute trip. Wayne and I broke into the chicken wings we were taking along... 8:45 before we had dinner! Lovely night after the journey, though...)

Anyway, we drove over an Ancient Stone Bridge (as guided by the internet earlier) and actually parked for free in the parking lot. We then took a picture of said bridge, as you see...

Off we set along the rushing stream, which is at the head of the Fowey River.It was a beautiful wide path, with trees arching over us. No flowers here in the shade - all ferns and mosses and leaves. Terribly green! One expected Robin Hood to leap out at any minute.

The falls were really a lot of rushing rapids. Very pretty... two men were at various spots with professional looking cameras. I thought of Peter Dombrovsky and those watery Tasmanian pictures. We just had our tiny red digital. Wayne forgot the tripod, but tried to rest the camera on a rock to take a family shot anyway. However, it was tricky moving quickly on the mossy, steep rocks. So, here's a funny shot of Wayne rushing to join the group... (We should have asked a camera man to help. They might have sneered at our amateur set-up, though!)

Eventually we climbed up from the stream to our right, on a narrow steep path. It did not look like the carefully groomed one we were on earlier. The children harboured great doubts. Wayne and I had to gently encourage them (hem hem) to press on. We were in the middle of the forest, but there were walls and the odd remnant of a well or chimney at regular intervals. It was not exactly virgin bush, so the children were reassured eventually. Here are the big kids in a tree...

And Eleanor in one as well. We got back to the car just as it started raining. We will return to this place!