"The more mechanical you are, the freer you are." --- Robert Wilson

For this occasion to visit the UK, I decided to finish up the remaining WHSs in the UK except some islands. As such, it was my first time to travelled to the south-western England: Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. If I am going to this part of England, I thought, I'd better go all the way to Land's End and thus chose St. Just as the place to visit among the 8 locations of this WHS.

There was an incredibly knowledgeable woman at the Penzance tourist office. She had good answers to just about everything I asked her and was passionate about the area she served.  While asking her these questions, I revealed to her my plan in minute detail in the St. Just area, including the departure and arrival times of several buses I was going to take, and she was sort of excited, saying, "I have never met any tourists as organized as you are." Well, a plan doesn't always go as planned. 

I stayed for one night at a YHA Land's End in St. Just, with my main reason being the price: 23 GBP for a single room. My plan was to walk from the hostel through Cape Cornwall to the Botallack / Levant Mines in the morning, catch a bus to Land's End in the afternoon, return to Penzance by bus and then to Exeter by train in the evening. But the hostel stuff advised that it was not possible to do this walk to Cape Cornwall with my convertible wheeled backpack, as only narrow dirt trails lead to it. Because I forgot to attach the detachable shoulder straps and left them in my storage in Wroclaw, Poland, I could not carry the backpack on my back. I had to give up Cape Cornwall. My detailed plan was already in disarray. 

So I just resorted to walking from the hostel for some 3 km on wider dirt and paved roads to the Count House of the Botallack Mine first and explored the area. The Count House is supposed to be a museum, but it was not open, perhaps because it was too early in the morning. But then there were Crown Engine Houses of the Botallack Mine hanging onto the cliff (photo).  I can safely say that this view was the highlight of this whole trip.  Although this Mining Landscape is a cultural site, I have to say I enjoyed the coastal scenery of Cornwall even more than that of Dorset. 

From there I walked to the Levant Mine. This mine was offering a tour for pre-booked tourists only.

Because I skipped Cape Cornwall, I had some extra time to proceed further north to Geevor Tin Mine and even had time to take a 11 am tour of the facility that included another venture into one of the underground mines. Geevor Tin Mine also has a small museum.  Before taking a bus to Land's End I had lunch at a cafe at Geevor: the largest Cornish pie I have ever seen. I wondered if Cornish pie was invented for the lunch for miners during the 18th century industrial revolution. It looks pretty handy. At Iwami Ginzan in Japan they had onigiri. 

For the same bag-related reason stated above, I had to also skip the hike from the Sennen Cove bus stop to the Land's End bus stop, which was in my original plan. After Land's End my plan for the day went as planned. 

After this trip I have concluded that since Cotswolds is too pretty for its own sake, my favorite region of England is now Cornwall. 

So with this trip I have visited all WHSs in the mainland UK (which leaves out two Scottish islands and many more oversee islands / territories). But I have also "visited" 14 out of 15 National Parks in the UK!  This happened only because in the UK there is this odd practice of laying down commercial railroads through National Parks or of designating National Parks over those railroads, depending on which existed first. For 6 out of 14 I have just happened to take trains that ran through the National Parks. I don't know how common this practice is in other countries, but off the top of my head I can't think of any National Parks in the US where train runs through, except some tourist trains / steam locomotives. For sure it does not happen in any of the 9 National Parks in California. My guess is that in the UK railroad network developed early, so when they created tracks, they didn't really give much consideration to environment, which is, in a sense, understandable. In the US railroad network has never really developed.