There is nothing DM and I enjoy more than sharing our world with our friends. The two of us have combed the corners of Caradon seeking evidence of the mines and validation of the things we have read in the yards of reading material that we have bought and hungrily digested about this amazing, bleak and beautiful place.

Over the five months since we first came here we’ve learned so much about the heritage of the mines and so much about ourselves. We love being in this wild, often bleak spot so much.

Whenever we get the chance we’re dragging some poor unsuspecting soul around the mines, filling their heads with facts and figures about what was mined, when and where, how it happened, who worked there and how the story ended. Today it was Alan’s turn – he’d come to pick up his, Lucy and Dee’s pressie from my sister for Christmas that we couldn’t quite get into the car on the holiday. With Maddie (their Border Collie bitch who is like a cross between Rosie and Archie in many ways) at his side, we took him across the hill almost right to Tokenbury Corner. This is the entrance to the tunnel next to what was once the tramway that went between Tokenbury Corner and the dressing floor in the Seaton Valley. It took the rock and ore to the railway for its onward journey to Looe where it was put on board ships and carried to its final destination.

This and a larger tunnel (the tramway itself), under the spoil heap are both now impassable but to be honest I can’t imagine why anyone would want to go through there anyway. It’s a bit scary looking as it’s right on the edge of Holman’s Shaft. That’s why the barbed wire is there.

Alan is amazed at our findings. He has now been out with us three times, looking at different parts of the mine workings. Until we moved here he’d never been onto the moor at all. I think he’s completely in its thrall now.

How I hate tearing myself away from this place – it’s getting harder to leave each time we’re here.

BTW – I don’t know if it was across the whole of pbase but I’ve had terrible trouble posting my text the last few days so just to let anyone who is interested know, I’ve now loaded it all.

Last year I was lamenting the dishonesty and lack of integrity of our politicians