Bodmin Parkway to Lanhydrock

I love the train journey into Cornwall.  There is such lovely scenery as you cross the River Tamar and for the first part of the trip where you can look up and down the Tamar estuary.  The tide was fairly well in today so it was a good view across to Saltash to the viaduct.

We had often walked from Bodmin Parkway along the river to Respryn Bridge and then following the river to Lanhydrock woods.  In early spring there are wild daffodils along this path, but today we were looking for bluebells so we needed to leave the river and climb through Great Wood.  There were patches of bluebells all along the way and often formed a blue carpet.  It was a steep climb up to Lanhydrock House, but the path was frequently framed with bluebells.

As we approached Lanhydrock House there were camelias and rhododendrons.  After a replenishing lunch of garden vegetable soup we walked around the Higher Garden, where there were lots more rhododendrons as well as bluebells and other flowers.

When we left the Gardens we started to walk back down through the woods, but this time taking the lower path.  To begin with there were lots of bluebells growing underneath rhododendrons.  As we walked on there were just bluebells.  The walk back to the river was much easier than the walk up.

I was glad that once we had reached the river it was a flat walk back to Bodmin Parkway, with only a short hill near the station.