We awoke to another decent morning. With another trip into St. Agnes on the cards, we decided to take a different route, this time heading up St. Agnes Beacon itself. Francine had done this little ascent on the afternoon of our arrival but it was new to me. In truth the ascent, especially the last stage to the top, is gentle though, as unused to ascents as I am, the slightly steeper lower section made me take a few breathers. The view from the top is impressive.
From the summit of the beacon, we headed down an unknown (to us) path into the town. Our new path took us into St. Agnes at the eastern end of town where there is a very good little coffee shop called Rooted. Here, we sat outside topping up our caffeine levels. The double espresso was just about the strongest espresso I have yet tasted; it definitely hit the spot.
Opposite the coffee shop I noticed the “Bearded Brewery”. I thought I should snap it to send on to my cousin, being an artisan beer fan. This place seemed to make more of its cider, though. There’s a bit of a biker connection with the proprietors, one of their ciders being called Tank Slapper at 8% ABV. I assume you’d slap the tank as you fell off your bike. More staggering though was a “small batch” cider called Super Cyder, weighing in at a mind-numbing 12.7% ABV. Strewth! Maybe luckily, the establishment didn’t open until 16:30 so I was safe.
We have had a couple of indifferent lunches out during our stay, first the largely tasteless calamari – apart from the salt & pepper coating – at the St. Agnes Hotel and then the rather oily whitebait with indifferent chips at the Driftwood Spars in Trevaunance Cove. We would both have preferred to sit on a bench munching a Cornish pastie. Today, that’s exactly what we did and very excellent pasties they were, too, from the St. Agnes bakery – good, crisp pastry filled with a handsome amount of decent steak.
Following our al fresco lunch, we did repair to the St. Agnes Hotel with its sunny outside tables and chairs to wash our food down with some more Rattler cider. It’s a grand place to watch the St. Agnes world go by. With me being largely reticent to attempt to drive a modest motorhome through St. Agnes, I watched in awe as a double decker bus made its way through. Some of the obstacles to be negotiated include cars parked on double yellows at the bend opposite the St. Agnes Hotel. I think double yellows mean “no parking unless you’re visiting the St. Agnes Bakery”, which is also nearby.
Back chez Frodo, our evening meal featured the interesting joint of meat we had purchased from the excellent Gloucester Services on our way down: the venison backstrap. This had us most intrigued because the only places we’ve come across the backstrap term regarding meat is in Australia and New Zealand. It is not a butchery term that, I think, many Brits are familiar with. We began to wonder if the farm shop had an antipodean butcher. Knowing no better, I treated this like a thick cut steak and did it for five minutes on each side in our universal skillet. It turned out a little rarer than I thought it might but it was succulent and excellent. A chicory salad went very well with it.
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