Joy Storm

[gloria townsin]

Hello Joy - I hope you find your way here very soon, we will be waiting to hear your news and views. This is a most wonderful forum and such truly nice people 'meet' here, so please join us. :D

[Kath Mulligan]

Hello Joy, look forward to being able to chat to you on this lovely friendly forum. Lucky you, coming to Cornwall next month, will this be your first visit, or have you been before?

Please do join us here and tell us your views about the Chronicles, Derek, Jeannie or anything else to do with Cornwall. As you will gather if you read some of the topics on here, we are always ready to welcome a fresh viewpoint and hear what others find inspirational in the books.

I see you are from Kwa-Zulu Natal. Whereabouts do you live? My daughter has a friend who lives in Freiheit and she spent a month out there visiting Adele 4 years ago. She had a wonderful time, going on safari in the Kruger National Park and various other trips.

Kath

[gloria townsin]

Hi Joy - glad you have found your way here and look forward to hearing lots from you. You will love this Minack forum as we all do. :D

[Janet Swan]

Hi Joy - welcome from me, too. And I just love your name. Looking forward to reading your postings soon.

Janet

[Brenda]

Hello, Joy,

Welcome and hello from me, too, in northern Ontario.

Brenda

[Mili]

I join the others in welcoming you Joy! Looking forward to hear from you!

[Joy Storm]

I live in sunny South Africa and I have travelled to and in and around Cornwall. Last year I had a trip to the Scilly Isles, following another of my favourite authors, Michael Morpurgo - I am a school librarian - and have always been fascinated with his book "Why the Whales Came." I spent some time in Penzance itself and visited Newlyn, Mousehole and Lamorma Cove.
In two weeks time I leave for St Agnes to do a weeks walking tour and hope to get to Oliver Land on the one free day that we have. Am counting the sleeps.
Readers are leaders.

[gloria townsin]

I am probably not there at that time - back here by the beginning of Sept. - have a great time and enjoy the peace and solitude that Derek and Jeannie intended in Oliver Land. :)

[Brenda]

Oh, lucky, lucky you, Joy! I'm sure we are all envious of your coming trip. I can just hear Derek's greeting, 'Hello. Where have you come from?' and imagine how much he'd relish your response.

Brenda

[Jeniwren]

Welcome aboard Joy :D and ditto to what Brenda said!

[nashie]

Hi Joy
My wife Mim and I welcome you to this very friendly Forum, with members now from all over the world. We're closer than most to the subject as we're lucky enough to live in Lamorna, right at the end of the Winding Lane, so if you're going to Oliver Land soon, feel free to mail us if you'd like to call by - we've got a few bits of interesting memorabilia from Minack. We're here most of the time (except maybe Weds), as we run our studio from home.
PS Don't know what the weather's been like where you live recently, but an umbrella might be handy here!

[Joy Storm]

Yes! I did it! I got to Oliver Land. I have just returned from my walking trip in Cornwall to South Africa. My tour operator Martin Hunt of"Adventure Line" was fantastic. He collected us from our hotel for our day's walk and was about to take us to Land's End. I asked him how close this would be to Lamorna Cove and explained why I needed to get to Oliver land. Well, he changed the daily plan without another word and steered the camper van to Lamorna. Martin was delighted to hear that I was a Derek Tangye fan and added his bit. He, Martin, met Derek many years ago when he had an avid fan in his walking tour. She was an intellect from a university in Connecticut and desperately wanted to meet Derek. So Martin took her to Dorminack, knocked on the door and introduced both himself and his client to Derek. Derek invited them in and Martin left the two whilst he continued with his walk. On his return a few hours later, a bottle of wine had been downed and everyone was happy. Martin visited Derek several times thereafter as Derek was very interested in Martin's type of walking tours - getting back to nature, cliff walks, beach walks and avoiding the town/city life.
We parked outside The Old Mill Shop at Lamorna Cove, met and chatted to Estelle Fox, who knew Derek and perused John Nash's new book!! Then off we went along the coastal path to Carn Barges where we lunched and then into Oliver Land. Glorious, wonderful, better than I expected and the highlight of my trip!!
Saw Dorminack in the distance, disturbed a viper who silently slid into the undergrowth and watched a rabbit bouncing about. Found the memorial plague under a cherry tree?? to Derek and Jeannie from David. Presume David is J Le Carre??
Continued along the coastal path to merry Maidens and then back to the car. Lovely weather, beautiful scenery and thank you Derek and Jeannie.

[Kath Mulligan]

How wonderful, Joy, that your tour guide was someone who had known Derek - such an added bonus, and how good that he was willing to change his planned itinerary to enable you to get to Oliver Land.

Once you have experienced Oliver Land for yourself, the books take on a whole new meaning, I find. Derek painted very vivid word pictures of Minack and its surroundings, but reading the books again after visiting for myself I could visualise it all the more clearly.

Hope you took lots of photos, and look forward to seeing some of them on the forum soon. Hope you also made your wishes at Ambrose Rock.

Another of our forum members, Yvonne has also just returned from a visit to Oliver Land and we wondered if it was you whom she had met there, but if you went via the coastal path too, it seems unlikely since this lady she met on the inland path.

Glad the weather was kind to you as well for your visit.

Kath

[Janet Swan]

Thanks for telling us all about your wonderful trip, Joy. So glad everyone was so friendly and helpful and that you had good weather. The David mentioned under the little cherry tree is, if I remember correctly, a nephew of Jeannie's (not David Cornwall). This cherry tree was planted late 1990s and was a triumph for David as he is disabled. I've just finished reading John's book and enjoyed it enormously - learnt a lot from it too.

Keep posting - lovely to hear from you.

Janet

[gloria townsin]

Glad you had such a memorable time in Oliver Land - it's hard to beat for quiet contemplation and just being there. I wonder if Martin knows about FOMS and the forum, would be good to have him here with his Minack memories. John's book is really worth having there is so much I discovered about Lamorna and it's people, I just love it, can 'hear' John's voice all the way through. Did you realise you were very close to Old Well Cottage? Another one who saw a snake on their visit - not sure if I would be pleased or not but if I saw it in time to watch at a safe distance I'm sure I would be pleased. As Kath says look forward to any pics you might post and so glad you had such a good time. :)