Day 3 was a day to explore the region slightly more.
We had a couple of ideas of things to do, but on the whole we thought we would explore around the area and see what we could find. We started off on a high, in more ways than one, at Adrenaline Quarry. An excellent cash cow for the owners, this is set in an abandoned quarry site, and consists of a massive zip line and swing, and a type of orienteering you can join up on.
We went for the zip line, it is sold as the: Longest, Highest and Fastest ( http://www.adrenalinquarry.co.uk/ ) it is also I would wager the most expensive! I often moan to anyone who will listen that its not the cost, its the value – this was £12.50 each, for one run. ONE RUN. Shocking. Anyway, as I am easily twisted round the fingers of my family we signed the disclaimer and went for it.
I am not very good with heights, but this, although touted as the highest did not really give too much impression of height. Once buckled in, away we went for our 30 second zip. I must admit it was pretty cool, until half way when it felt like my rope was slipping ;o) As they only have two, Kate and I went first, then before I could get out of my harness Sian was already down. It was good, but good value? Probably not.
Next we set off to Golitha Falls, a river with some small rapids and falls, about 15 miles from Liskeard. Now this was nice. It was quiet and unspoilt with noise, it was really just a small river winding itsway through some trees, with a couple of small falls on the way. But the pathway along the river was interesting, and Kate took great delight in crossing every fallen tree in sight, both across smaller streams and the main river itself. We got to the end only too quickly though, and as we expected some real falls, were slightly disappointed, but in all its was great. If only we had packed some sausages we could have had a camp fire by the river.
After Golitha, we looked for nosh, we came across the Halfway House, which looked okay, it was quiet and the meals were adequate. Sausage and mash was plentiful and the other meals were pretty good.
After food we ventured down little roads to Carnglaze Caverns which was reasonable proice to enter and was really quite impressive. Not and long and spectacular as Wookey Hole or Dan-yr-Ogof this is just three caverns and a couple of pools. The scale of the main cavern is what is most impressive. Its huge. The caverns are used for concerts and weddings, and I was very impressed with the bar in the first cavern – the only one in Britain apparently? The next cavern is really impressive, to think it was all manually drilled/exploded and dragged out by people makes it all the more impressive. You need to read all the info signs, and take your time or it would be over very quickly. We spent perhaps 45 mins down there, and was was all quite interesting.
Once finished the rain started. We had been lucky with the weather and also the lack of people so far on the trip, so we decided to have a look at the towns in the area – the closest being Bodmin. It was rubbish. We had a cup of tea and left (and I had paid for 3 hrs parking!)
Next stop was St Austells, we thought it might have a harbour we could sit on whilst the rain rained, but if it did we couldnt find it. We found the brewery though, and spent 30 seconds admiring the outside whilst we turned round to leave, sharpish.
We also did not seem to be able to find a coast road – its not as easy to tour as Pembrokeshire, but we headed for Polperro as I had heard about this, and it was sort of on the way back to the hotel. The rain gods were kind as the rain stopped as we neared the place and as we pulled in the car park, the car park gods were also kind as someone (slightly reluctantly in the end) gave us his parking ticket. Polperro is great, I really liked it, even though by the time we got there the masses were leaving and walking back to the car park passed us. Its a nice harbour village, with many restaurants and shops and a couple of pubs. We waked though and down the the harbour, which is probably slightly nicer when the tide is in, and down on to the “beach” to skim some stones. Unfortunately the weather was not great so we had a quick pint in the Blue Peter and set off for home.
Had food in the Liskeard Tavern again, which was so unremarkable I cannot remember what I had and that was that.