Keeping the Flame

[shewhomust]

We are in Gorran Haven, on the south coast of Cornwall, for GirlBear's birthday treat (durham_rambler is watching BBC Alba on the television; I don't know how he managed that).

It's been a long drive here, but with its high points - of which the highest was an overnight stay last night at Ramscombe Cottage with my cousins Richard and Vivienne. A warm welcome, convivial company and a fabulous vegetarian dinner - the sort of cooking that makes you resolve to try harder in future.

One of the topics of conversation was the Olympic flame, which had just arrived by plane in the UK: our various travels over the next couple of months bring us and the flame into the same area, but we thought we would narrowly miss it each time - setting off for Lindisfarne as the flame arrives in Durham, for example. Driving west we started seeing warning signs of road closures, but always a day or so off. Then, as we neared our destination, driving through Bugle, we realised that the village streets were hung with bunting, and full of people, many of them in groups wearing matching t-shirts (with messages like'Beating [insert disease here]' or 'Go, Grandad, Go!'). There were no roadblocks, and only one or two solitary police officers, but we began to wonder. Then at Stenalees we were held at the traffic lights when a batch of police motorcyclists whizzed through, followed by a coach, a van and another coach, all bearing the slogan 'Our moment to shine'.

So it seems that quite inadvertently we have, after all, seen the Olympic torch pass on its way.

Comments

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

That wasn't the torch, it was the advance party. We did see the torch convoy. We were held at the traffic lights in St Austell by police motorcyclists escorting what looked like a converted prison van, which I think had The Flame, plus more buses.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Ah, I'd completely forgotten the advance party. And I'm willing to debate whether the traffic lights were on the edge of St Austell or in the previous village. But our descriptions of th actual convoy are identical.