Camborne station’s disabled access to be improved - The Pasty sells saffron cakes from Cornwall and Cornish pasties

Disabled access is to be improved at Camborne train station, allowing people with sight and mobility problems easier access to trains.

The work will be carried out as part of a £700,000 scheme by First Great Western to improve access across its network.

New, high-visibility signs will be installed, lighting will be improved and tactile paving added. There will also be dedicated disabled parking, a new ticket counter and wheelchair-access toilets.

The work at Camborne station is being led by Cornwall County Council, and supported by the Railway Heritage Trust as well as the town and district councils.

Britain might have been baking like a desert recently, but you still wouldn’t have expected to see camels roaming the Cornish countryside - until now.

That’s because a farmer from the Lizard has started the UK’s first camel trecking business. Frank and Jemima, a pair of two-humped bactrian camels are taking visitors for hour-long treks on the Lizard Peninsula, Britain’s most southerly point.

21-year-old Stuart Oates, who operates the tours from his family’s organic farm, said: “People are usually shocked that we have them here.

“They just gasp because the rides are so exciting. Everyone who rides the camels thinks it is fantastic. Even people who usually ride horses want to experience going on a camel.”

Mr. Oates took a camel course in California, before bringing eight bactrian camels from Bulgaria to his family’s farm on the Lizard. Three more camels will join the team next year when they are old enough.

The Rip Curl Boardmasters, Britian’s top surfing contest, returns to the Newquay’s world-famous Fistral Beach for its 25th Anniversary on Monday.

Boardmasters will take place at Fistral beach from 31st July to 6th August with the surfing taking centre stage, supported by live music, skating, BMX, barbeques, DJs and more. Last year’s event hosted over 140,000 people.

Dozens of top music acts will play at this year’s festival, including Feeder, Graham Coxon, Starsailor and Nerina Pallot.

A second pair of wild choughs have sucessfully bred in Cornwall, following the birds’ reintroduction to the county in 2001.

Choughs, the national bird of Cornwall, had been extinct in the county for around 50 years when they were re-introduced at the turn of the Century. Since then, a pair on the Lizard has sucessfully bred each year.

The new pair is made up of a Cornish-born male from the 2004 Lizard brood, and a female that arrived naturally in the county two years ago. They had three chicks, two male and one female, while the original pair raised five youngsters this year. This brings the total number of chicks born over the last five seasons to 20.

Alastair Cameron, of the National Trust, said: “This fantastic news shows what we’re doing is paying dividends for the choughs.”

The sucess of the second pair means the re-introduction program is on schedule, as experts had expected this to occur in 2006 or 2007.

Claire Mucklow, from the RSPB, said: “The season started with great excitement as there were actually three pairs nest building, but one of the females died after an attack by a fox or dog. Even so, the natural recolonisation process is doing well according to the predicted trends, with just this one out of seven serious breeding attempts failing.”

A collie dog who was trapped down a Cornish gully with no food or water for nearly a month has been rescued.

Holly got stuck in a 18-inch wide gully in Stoke Climsland after running away from her owner when she became scared during a thunder storm.

She was found three and a half weeks later by a passer-by and amazingly only suffered two infected eyes and 24lb weight loss.

“If he had not happened to have walked by, I doubt we would have found her in time,” Her owner, Dennis Stephenson, said. “It was such a relief. It’s really good to have her back.”

He and his wife “never gave her up”, Mr. Stephenson said. “We had been out most days looking.”

Holly is now recovering after being given a vitamin injection and a course of antibiotics.

A campaign has now started to build a fence around the gully to prevent dogs suffering the same fate as Holly.

A new BBC documentary will examine claims that great white sharks have been seen off the coast of Cornwall.

There have been growing claims of sightings of great whites by Cornish tourists and fishermen. However, experts are divided about whether such claims can be trusted.

Marine biologist Douglas Herdson, a marine biologist from the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, said: “Temperature and conditions here are all fine, and I’m sure they have been here in the last 3-4,000 years, but they are now so rare it is very unlikely.

“Shark populations such as blue sharks in the North Atlantic have crashed over the past few years.”

However, Richard Peirce of Bude, who led an unsucessful expedition to find great whites in 2003, was more optimistic about the possibility of seeing the sharks in Cornish waters. He said: “There is no scientific evidence, but there is very strong anecdotal evidence and the case is much stronger than that portrayed in the programme.

“I am almost certain that Great White Sharks appear off the coast.”

Sharks: Great Whites in Great Britain is on BBC 1 this Sunday (30th July 2006) at 7pm.

Adolf Hitler isn’t a name you immediately associate with Cornwall. But that could change later this year when a Cornish auction house sells a series of paintings believed to have been painted by the German dictator.

21 watercolours were discovered in a battered suitcase along with several sketches, in a Belgian attic near where Hitler served during World War 1.

Hitler, one-time dictator of Germany, started life as an aspiring artist but turned his hand to politics when his work received a poor reception from critics.

The paintings are similar to other works by Hitler, but Jefferys Auctioneers in Lostwithiel said they been unable to prove the authenticity of the paintings despite trying, although several of the paintings did contain Hitler’s signature.

Despite this, the paintings are expected to fetch up to £3,000 on 26 September.

Campaigners from across Cornwall travelled to Cheltenham on Saturday to protest about NHS cuts in the region.

Administration staff at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust in Truro were told their jobs may be at risk on Friday. However, they were assured by managers a 30 day consultation period would take place first.

Receptionists and secretaries will be the most affected by what is being called an “organisation restructure” and is part of the trust’s plan to cut a £13m deficit.

Stuart Roden, a reresentative of trade union Unison, said: “We want to stop the privatisation of the redundancies and stop the cuts.”

Cornish rock star Al Hodge was given a memorable send-off at his recent funeral.

Cornwall’s King of Rock was given a royal send off at St Petroc’s church in Bodmin, attended by over 200 family and friends.

Al’s father, Arthur, described himself as the “proudest man in the world” after witnessing the many tributes to his 55 year old son. Al was praised for his musical talent and his devotion to his family and his county. As the coffin moved out of the church, the many people who had braved the summer heat to listen to the service on loudspeakers clapped and cheered its progress.

The wake was held at Bodmin football club, over which the Cornish flag of St Piran had respectfully been lowered to half-mast.

Big Al lost his fight against a brain tumor on Thursday 13 July at Bodmin Hospital. During a 40 year musical career, Al played with big names such as Leo Sayer, Elkie Brooks and Suzi Quatro. He will perhaps be best remembered for his work with The Mechanics.

Roads in Cornwall and Devon have been melting, after a wave of Mediterranean weather swept the United Kingdom.

Workmen from Cornwall County Council had to cover several roads with protective grit and dust, to stop car tyres pulling up pieces of melted tar.

Andy James, from Cornwall County Council, said: “It helps to absorb the excess bitumen and prevent it from sticking to tyres as they pass over.

“We have also sign-posted the site to warn people about loose chippings.”