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In May 2005 Rosalind celebrated a birthday, I will not say which one, but she was born in 1955! We decided to have a change from our Devon cottage & have a  holiday in Cornwall.

We stayed in Perranporth in a caravan with a view down to the surf beach, the caravan was very nice & only 2 years old but it is not an experience we will be repeating, The last time we were in Cornwall which was 28 years ago the roads were terrible it took you ages to get around so we tried to stay central & was unable to find a cottage with a sea view.

We could not believe how the road infrastructure had changed! there are dual tracks virtually going into every town, so next holiday in Cornwall a cottage with a sea view anywhere.

      Pictures from the caravan looking down to Perranporth surf beach.

We are members of the National Trust & thought it would be a good opportunity to visit some in Cornwall. I had always wanted to visit the Marconi Station at Housel Bay  & also the Marconi station at Poldhu both of these places are now owned by the National Trust.

    See the link on the links page for the National Trust.

The other place I wanted to visit was BT Goonhilly the Satellite Earth station this has a special interest as I work for BT.

For Rosalind birthday the weather was not to kind in fact it poured down all day, but we had decided to visit Landyrock on Bodmin which is a NT property we have visited this property before, we drove down from Appledore in Devon for the day in 2004.

Sunday the 15th weather was dry a little overcast so we decided a trip down to the Lizard, arrived at the Lizard but could not see any NT signs, saw a shop/restaurant with a tower & beam behind it & I knew it was definitely a radio ham & they would know where it is, called into the shop & spoke with a lady who told me the chef was the Radio Ham, but he was to busy to talk as he is cooking, so I asked the question where is the Marconi station? she stated as you go back to your car turn first left down to the hotel then left along the coast path for about a 10 minute walk.

Well that was the start to a very memorable day we dove down a short lane & came to the Housel Bay Hotel & Restaurant we pulled into the car park & the views are stunning.

Please visit their web site & see the stunning views for yourself, it has great slide show  www.houselbay.com

Rosalind went & spoke with the manager who very kindly allowed us to park in his car park, I do not think this is the norm but it was in May and possibly a little quieter part of the season on saying that we did have the last parking space!

We walked a little way up a path onto the cliff walk, it was breathtaking we could see for miles, we turned around &saw the Lizard Lighthouse.

  Looking back to the lighthouse & also looking down to the wild flowers from the coastal path.

As you walk along the coast path you first see the Lloyds signal station.

Unfortunately the picture does not do it justice.

We then arrived at the Lizard Wireless Telegraph station Bass point. I was so excited about it being open as it is not always manned due to weather & other commitments by the staff. Here we met David Barlow G3PLE, such an interesting man had so much knowledge about Marconi, I think I brought an item from everything he had for sale which is making excellent reading.

I wish now that I had taken a photo of the outside of the hut (but we could go back next year!) did not take enough film & wanted to take some at the Poldhu Station, I have now purchased a digital one as a back up.

My photo's will not do this place justice also, so please visit the excellent web site www.lizardwireless.org

        Photo's taken inside the Marconi hut & the special event station.

    I have scanned in the QSL but seeing the place was a dream come true.

I wish we could have stayed longer but we had planned to visit the Lizard Lighthouse & Poldhu on the same day!

Arrived at the Lizard Lighthouse parked in the N/T car park. Walked across to the Lighthouse which is run by Trinity House who still own all our Lighthouses, a gentleman inside gave a tour of the Lighthouse and a talk on it's history had a climb up to the light & reflectors what a view.

Can this day get any better! well yes it did we drove around to The Marconi Centre at Poldhu about 15 minutes away, made a mistake & parked the car in the car park near the beach & had a long walk/ run to the centre was concerned would miss the opening.

What a place so well run, 2 gentlemen on the reception both Radio Hams so helpful & informative, as you walk in the door straight in front of you is the 2 club stations where they operate from & use the club Callsign GB2GM. I have worked this station on the 09.02.03 at 13.40 on 7.586MHz & spoke with Carolyn.

Then you walk around the building where there are displays & information plus video presentations all about Marconi.

I left the building to look outside at the Towers & Antenna Farm  & had a walk over to the Marconi memorial.

         Pictures of the Towers & Antenna also looking back at the centre & the memorial.

I left Rosalind in the car with Biggles our doggie he was getting upset by us keep stopping & starting & leaving him in the car, I think he would have been ok if I had parked in the correct car park for the Radio Ham Club!

On the way up looked to the right & the surfers were out so decided to take a picture but unfortunately they came out as dots in the water but you can see the wonderful coast line.

Surfers in the swell. 

Yet another excellent web site from our fantastic day www.gb2gm.org.uk

On Tuesday 17th we drove down to BT Goonhilly Earth Station another excellent place to visit if you intend to visit this place you will need to allow yourself at least 2hours & the coach trip around the dishes is very informative & interesting.

One of the Satellite dishes at Goonhilly.                  

The web link to the site http://www.goonhilly.bt.com/

We visited other N/T Properties & Gardens during the week but ran out of time to visit everything we wanted to do, but that's a good excuse for a revisit next year.