Wandering: our Tintagel Adventure

Actually we're not supposed to have an itinerary or destination so we're not totally following the book (or rather the web site "the other 999 rooms") Irene and I decided to wander in the direction of Tintagel. We would make the journey be as important as the destination, more so. If we never got there, we vowed it would be okay with us. We didn't plan ahead. We just took the first bus. Before we left I read a passage in The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle,  which would serve as a guide: The how is always more important than the what. In other words we must  give more attention to the journey than to the destination. To figure out if I am able to remain present,  I can ask myself: Is there joy, ease and lightness in what I am doing?  

We started out at the bus stop in Falmouth

The bus winds it's way through the countryside and we saw much more of it than from the train. 

In Truro we stopped at Costa's for cocoa, before walking to the train station for the next leg of our journey. Truro has a beautiful church and and aquaduct which I wouldn't have seen if we hadn't had taken the bus, rather than wait for the train. 

Train station in Truro

Train Station in Bodemin Parkway

This station turned out to be in the middle of nowhere. We had an hours wait for the bus to Wadesbridge so we took a walk among flowering bushes and pastures. 

On our walk near Bodemin Parkway station

The  bridge over the Camel River in Wadebridge

The nice little pub where we ate dinner.

A delicious meal: aspargus, green salad, onion rings and water!

The old rickety bus that took us to Tintagel. The same bus took us back to Wadebridge. 

Tintagel

Irene

The start of the footpath

The footpath continues. You can see the castle gate and the sea in the distance.

A gull on the ruins of the castle wall.

We took the steps down to the beach... 

...and explored the caves.

Merlin's cave and the castle above.

Back in Wadebridge there were no more busses, and we decided to walk the Camel Trail to Bodmin and take the train from there. It was supposed to be 6 miles. 

Camel River just outside Wadebridge

Camel River further on. 

Camel River through the trees.

A bridge over the Camel River

The trail goes under a bridge.

A farmhouse (I think)

Vineyard along the Camel Trail

The end station to the Steam Railroad.

Here I had one of my brilliant ideas. Or not. I thought the train tracks will take us straight to the train station in Bodmin. Well, not straight as it turned out. The tracks skirted the village in a large circle, and when we finally got the the train station it was closed. The regular trains don't stop there, they stop at Bodmin Parkway (out in the sticks, remember?) 

Anyway, we saw a beautiful sunset while following the tracks. But it was evening and we were tired and footsore by this time. We walked over 2 hours altogether, and our intentions of being in the present moment were really put to the test. It was dark as we got into Bodmin, and Bodmin Parkway was God knows how many miles outside of town. Too far to catch the last train to Truro. So we called a taxi from an almost deserted Chinese Takeaway, which got us to Bodmin Parkway a few minutes before the last train. From Truro there were no more trains to Falmouth. Or buses. So we went in search of a taxi. Luckily we came upon a young couple also looking for a taxi and agreed to share. And that was the end of our Tintagel Adventure!