Sir John Betjeman's Cornwall

The British Poet Laureate 1972-1984 described the beauty of Cornwall at Camel estuary along the now disused 260-mile rail line on the final 6.5-mile stretch from Wadebridge to Pastow. He subscribed to the romance of the North Cornwall Railway until this final stretch served by Bodmin trains closed in January 1967. It's now re-opened, operating as a heritage railway between Wadebridge and Pastow. It's also a gorgeous hike/cycle/horse trail known as The Camel Trail. I'd really love to return to check that out on a hack.

The golden and unpeopled bays/ The shadowy cliffs and sheep-worn ways/ The white unpopulated surf/ The thyme-and-mushroom scented surf/ The slate-hung farms, the oil-lit chapels/ Thin elms and lemon-colored apples

Everyone's making the best of the last bits of the English sun before mid-autumn flops in wet and windy. So yeah, sitting outdoors is certainly a thing here at 17°C. No mozzies too. Lovely to have a meal and drinks looking out across the water, although I still don't advocate downing a few drams before noon.

The gentle rolling hills and all that blue. Something about coastal towns and their vibes. As bleak as those cliffscapes can be, they're breathtakingly magnificent. Nothing stark or dreary about it this season.

Cocooned in Time, at this inhuman height, / The packaged food tastes neutrally of clay, / We never seem to catch the running day / But travel on in everlasting night / With all the chic accoutrements of flight: / Lotions and essences in neat array / And yet another plastic cup and tray."Thank you so much. Oh no, I'm quite all right". 

At home in Cornwall hurrying autumn skies / Leave Bray Hill barren, Stepper jutting bare, / And hold the moon above the sea-wet sand. / The very last of late September diesIn frosty silence and the hills declare / How vast the sky is, looked at from the land. 

~ 'Back from Australia' by Sir John Betjeman, 1974