TINAS TRANSGENDER WORLD

This is the story of the two weeks i spent in Cornwall and the wonderful people i met and places i saw.

Saturday the 14th came round and after finally getting packedlate friday night,along came saturday morning and the taxi arrived to pick me up a little early from home .

The sun had at least made an appearance and the rain that had poored down all day yesterday had finally sopped and you kept getting a fleeting glimse of the sun through breaks in the cloads .

I made it to broad marsh bus station and took my position on the bus stand on bay 13,and the 330 service to cornwall came about 10 minets later,and after checking it was the right service,and being told yes i pulled my large sued trolly case wear they load the luggage under the coach.

The driver came felt the large looking case and commented this is over weight ,it should only be 20 kilos ,well what could i do i kinda looked at him fluttered my eye lashes ,and he let me put it on board .

The first port of call was Leicester .wear wemade a breif stop and picked up quite alot of people ,but most of these once we got to birmingham got off again ,and the coach thined down in numbers again.

We stopped at birmingham for about 60 mins ( 1 hour ),and i thought no wonder the journey takes so long with i hour stops like this .

Well at least ive got a double seat to myself and am right at the front across from the driver , lets hope i can keep the seat to myself ,at least then there is more room .

We eventually got to bristol and had another stop there for an hour ,and as we passed the docks i saw The Great Britain  a famouse ship from bygone days that was lying in dry dock .

And we now pressed on to Plymouth to drop off and pick up more passengers ,and a problem had now accured the coach coming from london to meet us had got stuck in traffic getting out of london .,so was going to be at least 30 mins late ( Plymouth is the place famouse for the pilgrim fathers ) ,any way by now we were running late and the schedule we had kept up with so well was now behind .

Eventually the other coach arrived from london and just two passengers changed on to our coach ,and after that it was a matter of dropping odd people hear and there at differant places ,and we crossed the great bridge that took us from devon into cornwall across the river taymar at saltash ,you just couldant help but notice the landmark put there and built by Isambard Kingdom Brunnel ,the first great bridge across this mighty river taymar .

Eventually we got to Newquay the capitol of cornwall ( a place wear i spent many happy holidays with my family in my early years )

We left Newquay after dropping a few people off there ,and headed for one of my faverate places in the whole of cornwall St Ives .

A truly wonderful magical place thats graced by so many artists ,and has the other tate galley outside london .

We soon arrived there and seeing the place as the coach dropped down into the tiny coach stop ,rekindled many happy memeries from days past .        After a short stop we were on our way again for a couple of more minor stops and then onto Penzance .

We pulled into the harbourside bus station there and after nearly 12 hours i had made it to the end of the line and my destination ,and me meeting with Gloria ,my freind i was going to stay with there for two weeks .

Iwas pleased to finally get off the coach and took a seat and waited for my hoast to arrive to meet me on the bus station .

After about 15 minets i spotted a face that looked familier and went up and introduced myself ,yes it was gloria ,and after the usual greetings and a big hug we headed off to her apartment with my luggage .

Goria soon made me feel at home and set me up in a nice bedroom that had her computer terminal right next to my bed ,so after unpacking and stowing all my stuff away ,i had my first fish and chip meal for many years in cornwall ,and after we had chatted for a while i decided to get some sleep as this had been one very long day and quite a journey

Sunday the 15th turned out to be a shopping day finding my way round Penzance with the aid of gloria ,and while doing this , i ran into the towns ,town crier ,and the following photo shows us together .

Monday came round and because gloria had problems with one of her knees ,i decided to head off out myself ,and decided to go to Marazion ,this is wear the medievil castle sits out on Penzance bay and is know as St Michaels Mount.

The following photos show my viset there ,and it was great to be able to walk across the stone causeway because the tide was out .

Gloria has a close freind hear Steph ,who is cornish through and through ,and i quickly made freinds with her ,and she took us both on a run out the next day to Porth ,and there we met up with another of there freinds Lear ,and we all sheared a drink in a lovely harbourside venue there .

Its wednesday the 18th of july and it was time to go sailing .

Gloria and Steph own a yaht between then and its called "TOMARA"

They have Tomara anchored in a little harbour a few miles from Penzance ,so steph roll up this morning with the car and we piled all the stuff in the back we would need for a couple of days sailing along the cornish coast on the yaht .

We quickly got to the harbour and had to inflate the blow up dingy and fit the little outboard moter that would propell us out into the harbour to get to the bigger vessel anchored to a boy out in the harbour .

Yep this was all real fun and quite a change for me to be doing this ,but i loved every moment to be honest .

We got all our stuff on board and steph did the safety checks and we were soon underway and of into the sea outside the harbour .

Stph used the engine on the yaht to get us outside the harbour and then dropped a couple of sails out ,but unfortunatly the wind deserted up with not anough blow on and the sails seemed prity useless ,and after pulling down the sails again we reverted to the large deisel engine in the yaht to propell us up the coast .

Our first port of call was Falmouth one of the biggest harbours in the uk ,a real spectacle with its hundreds of vessels all anchored there .

The following couple of photos show Tomara ,and myself and a couple of views off the yaht .

After sailing round part of the coast and into falmouth we made our way to a tiny bolt hole on the river estuary and dropped anchor for the night .

The following morning it was amazing to get up on deck and see all the fish jumping in the river estuary round the yacht .

After breakfast we took up the anchor sailed out the estury and headed back out into open water ,sailed a while and then headed up another tributary inlett that would take us up river to Truro .

The followings photos show Truro catherdral in the distance and also the king harry car ferry as we sailed by it .

After arriving at the quayside in the centre of Truro we tied up there and had a couple of hours there in Truro ,got a few suplies we needed and then untied and turned the yacht round and headed off back down river .

It was then that steff got a call on her mobile phone ,one of the guys wear we were tied up had spotted our dingy drift away from Tomara ,and after checking it was prity obvious it had come adrift from wear it was tied on to the yacht .

Steph quickley manuvered the yahct round and we headed back as quick as possible because the tide was changing fast ,and if we didant beat that ,we would be stuck for leaving till the next change of tide .

As we got back close to wear we were moored the guy that had rung steph came rowing towards us in the dingy he has resued on our behalf .

We thanked him ,and tied her on the to yahct very secure this time ,and headed off as quick as possible to beat the tide .

The following photo is the cruise liner we passed on the way back out to sea .

So we took Tomara back home to Penrin and anchored her to a boy in the harbour ,and used the dingy to get back to the shore just in the nick of time as the skys opened up and some more of the rain thats plagued the uk this summer and caused massive flooding started again .

Land's End, situated approximately nine miles west of Penzance, is the most westerly point of the English mainland and the closest to the North American continent. Looking out to sea from here allows the mind to appreciate the scale of the Atlantic Ocean, seeming to stretch beyond the horizon for ever. The granite cliffs, which make up the coastline of West Cornwall, are seen at their best here where the combination of the power of the sea and the strength of the cliffs reduce man to a mere spectator of nature. On a clear day, the Isles of Scilly can be seen lying just on that horizon - a group of small, yet very beautiful, islands of which five are inhabited while the remainder of nearly 100 are given over to sea birds! Closer to shore is the Longships Lighthouse, just over a mile out to sea, while in the distance, about six miles to the south-west, can be seen the Wolf Rock lighthouse.

Please see Tina In Cornwall ( Part Two )