We left the house, in a blaze of sunshine (Yeah!!!), at 10.15am in the car, I dropped John, Dad and Little Betty (dads little mobility scooter) at Par station, and went and parked up the side of The Royal pub. John got the tickets to Looe, he got a group ticket which worked out at £5.70 each…this was the cheapest way for us to travel in Cornwall….this was different than earlier in the week because then we were going across county bounties into Devon as well as Cornwall, so individual tickets were cheaper. John carried Little Betty over the bridge and we were soon on the train to Plymouth….3 stops later we were at Liskeard. We’d never really realised how many Rhododendrons there are lining the railway line as well as the little lanes in Cornwall. So the short trip was very colourful. We disembarked at Liskeard and walked across the road to platform 3 to catch the branch line to Looe. John managed to pull Little Betty very easily….it was her first time on a train so it was all a bit trail and error. We waited only a few minutes for the little two carriage train to arrive….
……it’s important to remember that if you prefer a forward facing seat start with your back facing down the line because after just 5 minutes it’s stops and the Train Manager puts a key in a junction box which instructs the signal department in Exeter to change the points. The driver walks from one end to the other and the train starts again going in the opposite direction so you are then facing forward. It is an entertaining trip, we saw a deer. A grass clearing, sheep, cows and calves. The train runs along the east side of the River Looe, which is tidal with lots of water bird life on the mudflats when the tides out.
Looe is a coastal town in south-east Cornwall, England, with a population of around 5,280. It is 20 miles (32 km) west of Plymouth and seven miles (11 km) south of Liskeard divided in two by the River Looe – East Looe and West Looe are connected by a bridge and the two town centre are separated by the harbour and quaysides of the river.
It is renown for its lovely Sandy beaches.
The train station is a short distance from the East Town Centre. Dad hoped on Little Betty and we were soon on our way.
We prefer the East Looe side and we weaved our way down the predominantly pedestrianised main high street. I stooped off at one of my favourite shops ‘Whistlefish’ to pick up a little something extra for my sisters birthday. It’s a lovely shop and I always call in to buy something, basically because it’s nice seeing shops like this survive in these hard times.
Looe remains a fishing town, and has retained a fish dealer operating from the East Looe quayside. It has a fleet of small fishing boats returning their catches to port daily, Looe has a reputation for procuring excellent fresh fish. The town is also a centre for shark fishing. When you walk along the quayside there are lots of adverts for fishing trips and boat trips, also lots of shops selling ‘crab lines’ and pople stood hanging their lines over the harbour edge. We crossed the road from Whistlefish to the dock side where the fish shop is. I purchased 3 dressed crabs for tomorrow nights supper…..I naively thought they would be cheaper than in our fish shop at home ….after all the ship offloads it’s catch here so there is no middle man or transport costs…but my husband says I don’t understand the basic rules of economic business so I was flabbergasted hat 3 crabs were £29.96…. Nearly £10 a crab…I hope they’ll be tasty !!!!!
We continued along the quay to the end where the Life boat house and shop is. Behind it is a lovely area with the Pier Cafe both an indoor and outdoor eatery. We chose to eat inside and all 3 of us had Fish Goujons chips, we had 2 Pepsi Max and an apple juice which cost is £52.00 …it was really fresh and had a lovely taste…a very nice meal.
After lunch we used the public toilets which were a very good standard and we sat enjoying 5he sun watching people swimming in the sea and playing on the sand.
We retraced our steps back to the station, stopping at one of the many cake shops to pick up a tasty morsel to go with our sandwich for supper.
We were quite impressed that Dad managed to get all around Looe on this little scooter, although the pavements are quite narrow he is a skilful driver and the pavements have drop down kerb’s in all the strategic crossing places. We were very pleased we had taken the scooter with us because by the time we got back to Par I had done nearly 7000 steps….far too many for these little legs!!!
A lovely day out in such a pretty, typically English seaside town.
