Putting long-haul travel into perspective

Barbara and I are relaxing in the BA lounge at Heathrow Airport after an unusual journey from Falmouth. Due to Storm Ciarán, which has caused devastation over south England, there have been no trains leaving Cornwall today so Amanda's husband Richard drove us the 70 miles to Plymouth, from where we took a taxi for the remaining 180 miles to the airport. A total journey time of seven hours!

How lucky we are, however, to be travelling in the 21st century. Not only is Cornwall remote, in the far South-West of England, but to travel to and from it two very inhospitable moors have to be crossed. The bleak Bodmin Moor in Cornwall passes the Jamaica Inn, immortalised in Daphne du Maurier's famous novel and then across the border is Dartmoor in Devon, the setting for Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles and home to the famous prison. Passing over these moors by modern transport, it is easy to underestimate how formidable the journey to and from London must have been little over 150 years ago, when travellers would often make their wills before departing, so dangerous was the journey with the ever-present fear of highway robbers, as well as the elements.

Source: Historic UK

In the mid 19th century, the heyday of Cornish tin and copper mining, the most prestigious service was the London to Falmouth Royal Mail Coach, which left Falmouth at 1.45am and after travelling through Cornwall via Truro, St Austell, and Liskeard, crossed the river Tamar and headed for an overnight stop at Devonport. Departing the following morning at 9.30am it then crossed Devon, Somerset and Wiltshire, departing from Andover in Hampshire at 12.19am the following morning and after another overnight stop, arriving in London at 7.05am, a total journey time of nearly 3 days!! Today the normal journey time is just under 5 hours by car or train and it is easy to overlook how formidable the moors must have been in the past.

So now as we enjoy a few glasses of wine we contemplate the next stage of our journey, a 12-hour flight to Cape Town. The alternative is a 2-week crossing of 9700 km of ocean, as Barbara and I did in 1969 on our first trip to Cape Town on the RMS Windsor Castle (posting of 4 June 2020). But spare a thought for those who travelled to Cape Town in the early 19th century when the voyage under sail was around 6 weeks! 

As British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan said in 1957 "you've never had it so good"! I'm not so sure that I was agreeing with that today.