Too early for bluebells

We left Barripper and at the main road headed back in the direction of Praze towards our declared destination, the Bluebell Cafe and the attraction of double toasted teacakes. Our hopes were raised as we spotted a chalk board sign for the Bluebell Nursery indicating ‘Cafe 100 metres’. After about 300 metres our hopes were dashed when we encountered the locked gates of the nursery, with a sign explaining that the nursery is closed until the 21st January. Don’t people realise that this sort of information should be posted on their Facebook page? Undaunted, however, we turned back and headed for Camborne and our default refuge of choice in this area – Miss Molly’s. We were not disappointed when we were provided with proper pots of tea and the food of our liking. Phil3 even ordered the large breakfast (double everything) and generously began distributing sausages, bacon and mushrooms to anyone that might fancy them, although this led to unlikely combinations such as toasted teacake with sausage. There’s no accounting for taste.

Miss Molly’s proved to be a popular venue, as shortly after our arrival the 9.30 group also turned up. No doubt the lovely sunny weather and gentle wind had attracted everyone out, although it is a puzzle as to why there were only five OGILs in the 9.00 group. Must be the skiing season taking its toll. Still, we all had great fun over our tea and coffee debating the merits of What3words and its ability to define your location anywhere on the globe with just three words. Apparently we were sitting in stiffly.remaining.thinker or possibly somewhere else, depending on the vagaries of the GPS satellites or exactly where in the cafe you were sitting – obviously although we were sharing refreshments we were not necessarily sharing the same 3 metre grid. We were not sure whether the three words given were always English or were language or territory dependent; Phil1 declined a suggestion to change the language setting on his phone to Mandarin as an experiment on the spurious grounds that he would then not be able to change it back again as everything on the phone would be in Mandarin. Still, worth a try.

Eventually we paid up and left for the journey home. Having enjoyed an outward circuitous route via Black Rock, Crowan, Carnhell Green and Barripper, it was decided that we would return by the ‘usual route’ – that is to Carn Brea by the cycle track, past St Euny church to Four Lanes and thence to Stithians. At the crossroads we decided to liven things up a bit, with two of us turning right and the others heading straight on, to settle once and for all which was the fastest route. Not that any of us was racing at all, but we were all equally amazed when the two groups converged on the Halvasso turn on the main Helston road at pretty much exactly the same time. All proffered excuses such as meeting vans or horses or having to mend a puncture were dismissed and the exercise declared a tentative draw, although this is not really surprising when Mr Google declares the two routes as being the same length to within 37 metres and the elevation gain identical to within 5 metres. What is more surprising is that the two groups must have been making roughly the same pace over quite different terrain. Not exactly a controlled experiment, and one that could no doubt be repeated many times in the future.

A welcome tailwind hastened our return to Falmouth. A nice 67km for me.

Paticipants: Kath with a K, Phils C&S, Dean the Elder and yours truly.

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