The Ham Nomads

3 Sep 2014. <GB-ENG> Falmouth, Corn —

A strange day. Dawned with a cloudy sky and a mist, not dense, but most noticeable. Drove into Falmouth, to Pendennis Castle, but did not find the carpark at first (the Garmin insisted on taking us to the Disabled Parking). Drove back out and parked at the top of Cliff Road. Turning our heads, we saw a sign pointing towards the car park. Turned the ignition — nothing! The van's battery was totally flat. Couldn't believe it — we had started up without incident this morning, driven 12 miles into Falmouth, turned off the car — and then nothing! The only reasonable explanation was that we had thrown our alternator belt, or else the alternator had given up the ghost. A call to the RAC, and an hour or so later the mechanic arrived. This was not his usual patch — he was based in Bodmin, about 50 miles away, but he was the nearest available, and he didn't mind a little drive to the seaside!

While we were waiting for him to arrive, we enjoyed the foreshore at Falmouth. The mist/haze was deepening, and some of the ships anchored offshore, unable to proceed in such limited visibility conditions, made their presence felt when their automatic foghorns started to sound. We knew what was happening, because the attendant at Lizard Point Lighthouse, which has the same sort of system, had explained that fog will activate the foghorns, but so will some moisture in the wrong place, or smoke — almost anything that gets between the two sensors.

Turned out that the alternator belt had failed, and was lying doggo in the bottom of the drip tray under the motor. He didn't have the right belt on board, but a source 10 minutes away had one. To cut a long story short, after about another 40 minutes we were mobile again, and had made another friend in Cornwall!

We drove out of Falmouth for about 5 miles, and about 5 miles back (to make sure we had recharged the battery), called in to a Lidl to pick up some freshly-baked bread rolls (they were really great!), and then went up to Pendennis Castle car park, where we had the bread rolls with pastrami, ham and cheese for lunch — it might not sound much, but with first-rate ingredients, it's a magnificent repast! — before we walked round to the Castle.

Pendennis Castle is strange. There is this little round fortress set in what appears to be a vast parkland. This is a Tudor gun emplacement, constructed in the time of Henry VIII, and worked in concert with St Mawes Castle on the opposite headland to protect Falmouth Harbour, one of the world's major deepwater harbours, from invasion by the French or the Spanish. (Falmouth is third in size to Sydney Harbour and Rio de Janeiro.)

In the second level of the Castle there is a display of a typical firing action — as we went into the Castle, we were wondering why there was so much gunpowder smoke inside it, and this explained everything! The whole site is so important that it was kept fully functional, with appropriate improvements, right up to 1956 when it was decommissioned. The last guns to be installed here were a pair of experimental long-range guns in the half-moon battery, that had a range of about 15 miles, and were only in action for the last 6 years of the fort's activity. (The half-moon battery was set up in 1793, considerably closer to the headland to gain an increase in range, and subsequently became the main gun emplacement for the site.)

Inside the Storehouse (now the English Heritage ticket office and store) there is an exhibition of cartoons by George Butterworth from the Second World War. He so lampooned Hitler and Mussolini that Hitler had him put on his 'hit-list'. The cartoons are even more fascinating because in the margins are instructions to the engravers to ensure that the printed result was exactly as Butterworth wished.

We had a wonderful afternoon here, its quiet and calm probably a result of the mist, which permeated the whole day — it was misty, but sunny — beautiful! We're not sure the ships stuck outside the harbour would agree though!

While we were at Pendennis Castle, we asked when we need to phone the powers that be to arrange for early access to Stonehenge, which is not far from here. We were told that calling on the day before would be sufficient, so we have laid into our plans a visit to Stonehenge in the next week.

After this, we left to travel a little further east, and have parked off just past Truro in a layby that is well secluded by an embankment and trees from the highway nearby.

Distance driven — today, 36 miles ( 58 km ); to date, 6,929 miles ( 11,152 km )