Harry Safari

Today was my day to be a tourist. Leaving Mikki at the camp to continue her college work, I headed off to Penzance to join up with ‘Harry Safari’, billed as a trip with ‘spectacular scenery and over 4000 years of history in a tour that is fascinating and fun’. We’d discovered on Sunday evening that Mikki’s brother-in-law was a good friend of Harry’s, so I made my introduction on this basis, and climbed aboard the mini-bus.

The tour was entertaining and informative, but didn’t hold much of interest for the serious megarak. Harry’s forte is Cornish history, with particular relevance to the industrial heritage of the area, although he admitted that he’s had to bone up on some of the older stuff as that’s what tourists like to hear.

We did visit Towednack Church, reputedly on the site of a stone circle, but with no stones in evidence. All members of the tour were urged to try dowsing in the church, and everyone got a reaction at the prescribed spots. We also visited Treen Common enclosure, touted as a circle, although there is currently some doubt as to its antiquity in some archaeological circles (ouch!) The final Neolithic site visited was Lanyon Quoit, where Harry pointed out the inscribed date of its reconstruction, which I’d not been aware of before.

All in all, an entertaining 4-5 hours, which I’d recommend to anyone visiting Cornwall, but don’t expect a serious tour of Neolithic sites.

So then it was back to collect Mikki, and we pottered over to St Ives for a browse in the bookshops before returning to the camp and a roast dinner.