Richard struggles to get to grips with a retro VW camper van as he drives the coast road from St Ives to Lands End. He learns of St Ives's 1950s abstract art heyday and meets a 95-year-old painter still at work in Porthmeor Studios. He discovers why DH Lawrence was expelled from the county, hears legends of Cornish mermaids and gets to know his van on a blustery clifftop campsite.

• Richard Wilson